Northern Ireland Flags Issue

The Northern Ireland flags issue is one that divides the population along sectarian lines. Depending on political allegiance, people identify with differing flags and symbols, some of which have, or have had, official status in Northern Ireland.

The Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 prohibited the display of any flag which was "likely to cause a breach of public order", and gave the police powers to deal with it. However, it specifically excluded the Union flag from its provisions. In 1964, police moved in to remove an Irish tricolour from the window of an office in the Falls Road, after Ian Paisley had publicly said that if they did not, he would do so personally. This resulted in serious rioting. The Act was repealed in 1987.

In 2002 Belfast City Council displayed the tricolour along with the Union flag in the Lord Mayor's parlour during the term of Sinn Féin Lord Mayor Alex Maskey.Conversely in 1997, when the Social Democratic and Labour Party's (SDLP) Alban Maginness was Lord Mayor neither flag was displayed. In September 2003 Belfast City Council discussed flying the flag alongside the Union Flag on designated occasions.

A decision in December 2012 to fly the Union flag over Belfast City Hall only on certain designated days, instead of all the year round as previously, led to protests which included riots in which police officers were injured.

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Famous quotes containing the words northern ireland, northern, ireland, flags and/or issue:

    ... in Northern Ireland, if you don’t have basic Christianity, rather than merely religion, all you get out of the experience of living is bitterness.
    Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)

    In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.
    Jack Holland (b. 1947)

    Still, it is dear defiance now to carry
    Fair flags of you above my indignation,
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot. In either case, the crucial issue is our control of the other: the more we lose control over him, and the more he assumes control over himself, the more, in case of conflict, we are likely to consider him mad rather than just bad.
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