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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > No reason to allow Union Jacks to fly alone over Belfast any more - Unionists need to get used to equality agenda and equal symbols

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

No reason to allow Union Jacks to fly alone over Belfast any more - Unionists need to get used to equality agenda and equal symbols

Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2013 at 07:41 AM

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Belfast City Hall

I’d almost feel sorry for the Loyalist protesters complaining about their Union Jacks no longer flying proudly over Northern Ireland were it not for the fact that they had it so good for so long -- and still do in terms of lording it over nationalists when it comes to symbols.

Danny Morrison, writer and former Sinn Fein political figure put it beautifully recently when he compared the place names of Belfast and showed just how dominant the unionist tradition remains.

If you’re a nationalist in his imaginary board game he says “You can't use the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, the Queen's Bridge, the Albert Bridge, the King's Bridge, Victoria Street, Prince's Street, Queen Street, King Street, Albert Street, the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, a helicopter from the Kings Hall, Lower Windsor Avenue, the fields behind the Royal Academy. Nor can you be disguised as a prostitute from the Albert Clock, a student from Queen's, a worker with Royal Mail, a violinist with the Royal School of Music, a Queen's Counsel, a (former) member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a screw of Her Majesty's Prison Service, a soldier with Her Majesty's armed forces, a Crown Court judge. Nor by boat up Victoria Channel to Albert Quay, Victoria Wharf or Alexandra Jetty. You must use the Queen's English on the Queen's Highway or else you'll be in breach of the Queen's Peace.”

So there. Nice job Danny.

And how many nationalists names are there around Belfast? Not many that I can think off unless you count Ballymurphy. The Falls Road means in Gaelic, district of hedges-- hardly revolutionary stuff!

When you consider that Ian Paisley essentially sparked The Troubles when he charged up the nationalist Falls Road in the mid 1960s to remove a lonesome tricolor flying in an local building there my sympathy for the Loyalists lessens a little.

Remember we are not talking about flying the tricolor side by side, which would be warranted given the fact that the population numbers are now equal and Belfast City Hall has a Nationalist /Alliance majority .

We are talking about flying the Union Jack about 15 days a year instead of every day and no Tricolor. The Loyalists want to party like it is 1922 all over again and a Protestant state for a Protestant people.

Alas for them, that ship sailed a long time ago now and there can be no flag of convenience any longer that does not recognize both traditions.

So Loyalists should just get used to the new era, not try and fly yet another kite.

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seanomelb | Jan 09, 2013, 05:35 PM EST

Your killing me IN cannot take much more.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 09, 2013, 03:50 AM EST

Kilsally! The United Kingdom (UK) (as currently constituted!) consisted of four nations: England - Wales - Scotland and Ireland (subsequently Northern Ireland (NI)). Ergo NI is part of the Irish nation as even recognised by the current British proper, ie English & Welsh and Scottish, and properly only one quadrant of the red diagonal Saint Patrick's Cross saltire should be included in the union jack (UJ). Articles 2 and 3 of Búnreacht na h'Éireann/Constitution of Ireland, 1937 (as amended) were replaced by consistant reference to the Island of Ireland, apropos Good Friday Agreement (GFA). Thomas 84! Although strictly true, the UJ term also derives from King James/Jacobite/Jacobian. Freres Jacques? Jacques de Unione, et al. Or in Gaelic/Irish An Aontaithí Sheamus! Since the original UK congealed around two female monarchs - Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Queen of Angles, (with Grace O Malley/Pirate Queen of Connacht subdued by neither), surely the UK is a United Queendom (UQ)?

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FallsRNat | Jan 08, 2013, 07:15 PM EST

don't worry seano there are enough bigots on our side of the fence as well, there never be peace in ireland, until both the loyalists & republicans accept that there can never be a winner, only 2 sides living together in an uneasy peace

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seanomelb | Jan 08, 2013, 06:46 PM EST

The unionist thugs are now trying to involve the nationalists by singing bigoted sectarian songs as they pass nationalists areas. They are spoiling for a fight the morons,1969 all over again.

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AlunPalmer | Jan 08, 2013, 04:59 PM EST

Belfast is only doing what is normal practice in England, where the Union Jack has been flown only on certain days of the year for as long as anyone can remember. Get over it! FYI, I am from England, but my mother's family came from Cork.

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Thomas84 | Jan 08, 2013, 04:11 PM EST

Can someone tell the onionists that its only called a union jack if its on a boat. They know that reconciliation is coming and they also know that good relations with Ireland is far more important to to the British government now than the wises of a bigoted minority. In other words their ship is sailing along with their union jack

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FallsRNat | Jan 08, 2013, 03:09 PM EST

seamus - not saying that at all, the loyalists riots are here & now, the use of baton rounds etc are the perogative of the police, however, they have a duty not to escalate the violence, i'm sure some loyalist paramilitaries would like to provoke a crackdown as this would play into their hands.

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ancavker | Jan 08, 2013, 09:46 AM EST

Falls: The Scots do no want anything to do with their cousins in the north.

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Kilsally | Jan 08, 2013, 07:59 AM EST

Several inaccuracies in your article Niall - The Loyalist Shankill Road, like most place, town and townland names and Anglicisied spellings of Irish names. Secondly the Good Friday Agreement expressly recognises that Northern Ireland is part of the UK - it is not part of the Republic. The flag of the UK is the Union flag. The GFA provided the right to an Irish or British passport or both.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 08, 2013, 03:55 AM EST

We need to get away from the majority vs minority narrative. The world is a far more complicated than black and white perception. Not just 40 shades of green. But 40 shades of grey too. NI Household Survey, 2011 (NIS&RA) reported 40% British only - 25% Irish only - 21% Northern Irish only - 14% none/neither/not stated/other, (ie 25% ave). In an overall Ulster provincial context, percentages would alter less or respectively, as also in an All Ireland (AI) context. Though the 40% constituency above would become something like 16.5% in a UI, that would be approx 6.5 more than they are in the currently constituted UK. In an AI context, their numbers are also 6.5 more than a generally recognised critical mass. Hmmm! Far more influentual than they give themselves credit for. Think proportionately rather than otherwise.

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seamus60 | Jan 07, 2013, 10:52 PM EST

Fallsnat. So you`re saying people couldn`t have cared for the safety of Nationalists or how it would inflame those current events in years gone by. Otherwise so many would not have been killed by this weapon.Can you actually believe that the police now identify an individual and give them fair notice by way of loud speaker that clearance has been given to fire at them. No such proceedure has been witnessed till now because the targets have been Nationalists. Containment ??? they are moving all over the place at their leisure.

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FallsRNat | Jan 07, 2013, 07:27 PM EST

Seamus - the figures are there in Lost Voices & both sides lost people to use of plastic/rubber bullets, however, the arguments on this board for the use of them against the loyalists now, shows a complete misunderstanding of current events, the loyalists can muster between 50-200 rioters on the streets, if a stray bullet was to kill a passerby then the situation could be enflamed well beyond the current events, you don't fan the flames of sectarian conflict, you do as the PSNI are doing now, containing a very small minority of people who coalesce around any grievance to show their contempt for law & order. Part of being in the UK means the English will continue to fund NI, if of course, Scotland becomes independent, then they may wish to take their NI cousins with them, then the fun will really start

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Curitiba | Jan 07, 2013, 06:55 PM EST

As long as the no-strings attached billions keep flowing from London to Belfast, the Unionists don't have to get used to anything. Cut their funding and let's see if Unionism is a viable economic entity.

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 07, 2013, 10:57 AM EST

Remember DarraghS that the GFA and the new Ireland agenda provides for equality and not power distribution.Power distribution was part of the old Stormont regime the one that Niall alludes to.The protestant parliament for a protestant people is confined to history and all the protests in the world will not change that.Time now you and your british unionist friends adhered to democracy.

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darragh S | Jan 07, 2013, 09:00 AM EST

"Remember we are not talking about flying the tricolor side by side, which would be warranted given the fact that the population numbers are now equal and Belfast City Hall has a Nationalist /Alliance majority." This is Belfast City Council your talking about. And the power distribution is about 75% in favor of Unionists in Belfast. Its not that hard to check your facts either because its all online in the Ulster Elections webpage, with Visual Aids to.

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