The ever-vexed issue of flags is back in the political spotlight after the Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw launched a public consultation linked to the introduction of a private member’s bill last year at Stormont seeking to regulate the flying of flags and emblems in public spaces.
As a south Belfast elected representative, Ms Bradshaw will be very familiar with how this issue resonates with many of the constituents in an area which has seen dramatic demographic changes over the past generation. A year does not pass without loyalists provoking consternation amongst residents of the Lisburn Road, Ormeau Road and elsewhere in our most ethnically diverse constituency after asserting their inalienable right to proclaim the Britishness of every blade of grass and shard of glass by importing and erecting on lampposts a variety of typically Chinese-made loyalist flags to add spice and flavour to what the late British monarch accurately depicted as that ‘silly marching business’ every summer.
Asserting the right to claim territory through flying flags from lampposts and organising parades through areas where they are not particularly welcome has long been a theme within unionism. The one-time DUP and TUV elected representative, Mel Lucas, succinctly summed up the mentality when publicly responding to those critical of loyalist flags erected outside a Catholic church with the memorable quip that “it’s all British, even the bits outside the chapel”.
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The old unionist regime made illegal the flying of the Irish national flag in the north and subsequent British direct rule administrations also acted to suppress the appearance of the Irish Tricolour. The Flags and Emblems Act (1954) allowed the RUC to break the windows of the Republican election headquarters in Divis Street in October 1964 to physically remove an Irish Tricolour on display behind the glass to satisfy the demands of their unionist political masters, thereby reminding Catholics of their subordinate status.
Read more: Can we dare to hope for progress - at last - on regulating flags and emblems? - The Irish News view
I can vividly recall television footage from a news report in the early 1990s catching RUC officers storming into a Catholic family’s home to charge up the stairs to remove a Tricolour hanging from the window so that it would not offend the marching loyalists (complete with their own flags) who were being forced through the overwhelmingly nationalist area.
A desire to frustrate and resist the process of change lies behind the crude loyalist tactic of festooning mixed residential communities and commercial areas with a wide variety of loyalist flags, often leaving them fluttering in tatters on lampposts for months on end.
The private member’s bill will be welcomed by many who simply want to feel safe and devoid of the sense of unease triggered by the appearance of such flags in mixed communities, but the fine details of the bill will inevitably be contested and getting it passed into legislation nearly impossible. Property developers have taken to inserting legal texts in homeowner contracts prohibiting the display of flags from new build properties.
Just a few months ago, in September 2024, Sammy Wilson warned the PSNI to beware of the perception of “two-tier policing” after anti-immigration placards were taken down by officers in Rathcoole. The menacing posters literally threatened people “facilitating the settlement of Muslims or illegals” in the area.
Political unionism is uncomfortable with a regulatory culture because, by its nature, regulation provides boundaries and outlines enforcement criteria which, in today’s post Good Friday Agreement society, must be objectively drawn up and implemented across all communities. Hence the reason why the Parades Commission continues to be demonised by all strands of political unionism a quarter of a century after its formation, and why moves to regulate bonfires and flag flying are resisted.
Consequently, expecting a political solution, akin to Paula Bradshaw’s proposal, is likely to remain a forlorn hope. The litmus test for progress on this issue will be whether or not the PSNI use the existing legislation regarding public order and potential for a breach of the peace to act to protect people and communities deliberately being targeted by those intent on preventing people moving into new homes, intimidating existing residents and business owners through the use of this blunt tactic.
Alas, the PSNI’s track record has not been good. In July 2011, the PSNI publicly apologised following loyalist riots precipitated by the police’s removal of flags erected outside a Catholic church in Ballyclare. Prior to that episode and in its aftermath, the police strategy has been to simply not get involved except in a small number of high profile cases where they have liaised with ‘community leaders’ to try and negotiate for flags to be removed from specific locations.
The PSNI demonstrated a willingness to act when removing provocative dissident republican posters erected near the British Cenotaph in Enniskillen in November 2021. A consistent approach is possible, but it will await the PSNI being willing to take the inevitable flak from unionist politicians.
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