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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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60 comments

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seamus60 | Jan 07, 2013, 06:46 AM EST
Fallsnat. Your post on the use of plastic bullets ( lethal force) although wrote in a gentle manner , does not reflect the reality of the present or the past. The most these loyalists can expect on the street in real time as events unfold is a wash. Even though plastic baton rounds have been used we are missing the tally of injured or dead protesters that normally accompany the unleashing of this weapon. How many loyalists have been murdered by plastic bullets, we won`t even get down deep and ask how many loyalist children where amongst them. They should be banned the world over regardless of who they are being used against.

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seamus60 | Jan 07, 2013, 06:15 AM EST
We won`t here Dannys take either on why students are lobbying the SF education minister and his department at Stormont today in relation to the cutting of education maintenance allowance that was to help students from low income families.

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seamus60 | Jan 07, 2013, 05:16 AM EST
Redbranch. Yet another of Danny bangers articles shot to hell. But if Nial persists in endorsing the liars writings he will no doubt get some fleas. Great article Danny done on the 350 catholic families deprieved of badly needed homes via a pact between the DUP and SF. I think the place is called GIRWOOD.

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RedBranch | Jan 07, 2013, 04:26 AM EST
'Nice job Danny:' Quite so Niall, your choice of course to promote arguably the finest propagandist in the republican movement, although I wonder if you'd be so quick to use him when he lays into Kennedy over Chappaquiddick (Irish Tribsman March 24 2005) An article so derisive that it reputedly almost cost Adams his US visa. However in the spirit of the Peace Process next time you're over I'd like to invite you to a cup of tea at SD Bells cafe in the East of the city (the 'loyalist' side) My treat, directions on a separate post below....

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IrelandNorth | Jan 07, 2013, 04:00 AM EST
It's also worth bearing in mind that the unconstitutional deconstitutionalising of the lawfully constituted Grattan's Parlaiment (1800/'01) in Dublin's College Green, (a Protestant parliament for a landed gentrified people), was bribed an peeraged out of existence by Brittania in order to knobble a serious commercial competitor on the world stage. And the gundshot seperation or divorce to such a dubious constitutional nuptials (1920) was to preserve imperial hegemony in an increasingly democratising world.

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Gearoid4 | Jan 06, 2013, 08:49 PM EST
@Redbranch, You have captured beautifully the underlying Irish Gaelic place-names which characterize so much of the north around Belfast and beyond. But try telling that to the culturally illiterate hordes of unionism who want to obliterate the only truly indigenous culture in the north of Ireland.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 06, 2013, 08:48 PM EST
@curtiba - the loyalist would have been wiped out without the backing of the terror state. Historically, they have shown little to no willingness to fight on their own against Irish combatants (most of the attacks of loyalist paramilitaries were on unarmed non-combatants; they weren't even that active in support of bill the orange). @falltheratThe ancestors of the Ulster Scots were oppressed by the anglo establishment both economically and in terms of religion (they were originally excluded from the OO) before they emigrated to the US. They formed some of the earliest and fiercest opposition to the british terror state in the US. Therefore, their sympathy to this "britain" thing is not as 100% certain as your portray.

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Gearoid4 | Jan 06, 2013, 08:45 PM EST
Nicely put, Niall. The unionists seem trapped in a time-warp and appear to be una ble or unwilling to adapt themselves to the considerable changes that have happened in the north. They still react in the same recidivist way as of yore. No-one of any vision among their ranks seem to be present and they still rely on the same loyalist terrorist muscle to enforce their will. It seems that they are like petulant, spoiled children who expect everything to go their way and want to change the rules of the game when it is going against them. But it is about time that they reconsider their political strategy and relationship with the rest of the population in Ireland as it will be soon as case of diminishing returns for them.

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FallsRNat | Jan 06, 2013, 06:25 PM EST
Curitiba - i think you assume to much, the irish like the jewish community are very vocal on the rights of Ireland & Israel respectively, however, ulster scots make up the 2nd largest community in the US after the Germans, they consider themselves US citizens 1st, if the US voted to support a UI, which no president inc Kennedy has ever done, then you may not end up with the result you want, it would be to preserve the status quo, that there will be no change to the political situ of a country without the support of the majority of people, this position is also supported by the SI state under the terms of the Anglo-Irish agreement (nice one Garret) & the GFA

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Curitiba | Jan 06, 2013, 06:12 PM EST
Warrenpoin00: Put it this way, if you were a Loyalist and had the whip hand over the Nationalist, why would you give that power up voluntarily? Nationalists have been trying to wrest power from the Unionists since 1922 and have been completely unable to since they control none of the state apparatus up until now. Until you see Nationalists dominating politics, the police force and the other levers of power, they will not be in a position to dictate anything. The mistake was made when the Unionist were allowed to break away from the rest of and form a statelet out of the counties in which they were the majority, becuase the Irish feared a full-scale war between the Loyalists and those who favoured an independent Ireland. Had the Irish called the Unionists' bluff (having secured American backing)and insisted that because they formed a minority on the island of Ireland they had no mandate to dictate to the majority, there may or may not have been war, but it was their only chance of imposing their will on the Unionists. That was one of the great missed opportunities in history.

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 06, 2013, 05:38 PM EST
I should think that like all foreigner living in Ireland the british unionist community should have a little respect for their adopted country of Ireland and stop trying to impose the oppressive and tyrannical rules that they brought here.

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FallsRNat | Jan 06, 2013, 05:30 PM EST
seano - you are advocating the use of rubber bullets on the loyalist crowd, given the volatile situation, this wouldn't be the right thing to do, at the moment the small number of rioters are still contained by the police numbers. The use of rubber bullets would enflame a delicate situation & give rise to increased loyalist paramilitary, there are no upsides for the use of these types of weapons & there would be no political support either side of the divide for enflaming the situ. The PSNI are quite capable of containing the minority of rioters & through the oxygen of negative publicity these will slowly fizzle out. If you read books on the troubles, there are numerous incidents of plastic bullets used on both Catholic & Protestant mobs, 2 wrongs don't make a right & to use these weapons now could easily escalate a localised problem.

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Curitiba | Jan 06, 2013, 04:09 PM EST
Unionists and Loyalists win time and time again because they are superbly organised, have a common purpose, sponsor and belong to organisations such as the OO, control the apparatus of state, such as the police and have have hardman politicians who are not afraid to kick heads in London to maintain the tsunami of cash for their economically unviable Volkstaat. They don't really have a diaspora because they have made NI a very comfortable place for Loyalists to live in. Nationalists, and Irish people on the other hand are split in their loyalties between the mass-immigration luvvin' Shinners and the various other nation-wrecking parties of Ireland, an increasing hatred of their ancient religion, denying the existence of their diaspora, no common purpose, no real sense of nationalism and tribal loyalty and an urge to replace their entire nation with foreign citizens. The Loyalists whole reason for existence might be anti-Irishness and anti-Catholic and anti-everything I believe in, but you have to admire their sense of destiny and their determination to maintain their culture (even though it is wholly artificial). If the Irish people had a similar sense of purpose and empathy for each other, both at home and abroad, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Not a doormat for Unionists.

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Madeliene | Jan 06, 2013, 03:04 PM EST
No, because they would want to fly the Union Flag side by side, and not a little under the Irish Flag! Not a solution I believe they would go for.

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RedBranch | Jan 06, 2013, 02:12 PM EST
OK Niall Here are the directions. Start on the east side of the Lagan (Gaelic: Low Lying) and make your way onto the Newtownards Rd. (Gaelic:peninsula of the Ulstermen), on your right would be the Short Strand (Gaelic: Beach), why not pop in and pray at St.Matthews, just one of a number of Catholic churches in the East. Make your way past murals glorifying Cú Chulainn, cross over the Connswater River (named for Conn O'Neill), Carry on through Ballyhackamore (Gaelic:townland of the mud flat). Just on your right is Van Morrison's childhood home (he of the Celtic Heartbeat). Looking up you'll see the Castlereagh Hills (Gaelic: Greycastle) and the inspiration for CS Lewis' Narnia. A few blocks south and you'd be into the Cregagh birthplace of George Best (Gaelic: Rocky Place, and they say Protestants get all the best land). Another mile or so and you're in Knock (Gaelic: Hill), SD Bells on the left just before you get to Stormont. Its the route Martin McGuinness travels every day to administer British devolved rule and receive his Queen's shilling in payment. With all those Irish placenames in the heart of 'loyalist east Belfast (Gaelic: sandbank ford). Perhaps we should conduct our conversation in Irish...– Is mise etc., Red.

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