Flag issue enjoys potential to spark violence in N. Ireland

The dispute over the Union Jack has once again revived deep-seated divisions that exist in Northern Ireland despite its broadly successful peace process.

Although two decades of efforts have largely halted politically-motivated killings and forged a stable coalition government of British Protestants and Irish Catholics in the British territory – but they have done little to unite society at grass-roots level.

Belfast City Council voted 29-21 to remove the British flag from atop the City Hall building for all but 17 designated days each year, despite being continuously flown from the building’s dome for more than a century.

The vote triggered violent protests around the building, where hundreds of protesters, many carrying British flags, clashed with police, tossing fireworks and smoke bombs at police lines.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said 15 of their officers and two security guards were injured during the hour-long melee outside city hall.

The violence spilled into predominantly Protestant east Belfast, where passing Protestant crowds threw bricks and bottles at a Catholic church and hijacked a bus.

“The police appeared to be panicked and thought they were going to be overrun by the crowd. They were shouting and screaming at the crowd to get back in the street,” said Morrison, a Belfast native who has covered many Northern Ireland riots for the past two decades.

High walls called “peace lines” demarcate British and Irish districts in Belfast, where rivals display their respective flags in various parts of the city.

The British side’s curb stones often are painted the red, white and blue of the Union Jack, while Catholics adorn theirs with the green, white and orange of the Irish Republic.

Today’s council is comprised of 24 Irish nationalists and just 21 British unionists in a Belfast, which once had a Protestant majority. But, now the Catholic community is growing fast. Six councilors from Northern Ireland’s only cross-community party, Alliance, maintain the balance of power within the council.

There has been a mounting inter-communal tension in the council since Catholic members last month offered to remove the British flag completely from the dome of the 106-year-old building. It sits at the front of Royal Avenue, the major shopping boulevard in central Belfast, and is decorated elaborately with Christmas lights.

But the Alliance party proposed Monday that the flag still should fly on official holidays and other specified days. That measure has already been adopted on other government buildings, notably the headquarters of Northern Ireland’s regional government in east Belfast.

Catholics voted for that compromise, but the Protestants opposed it as an assault on their community’s identity and Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Tempers flared during the debate preceding the vote, with both sides accusing the other of provocation likely to spark violence outside.

Gerry Kelly from the main Catholic-backed party, Sinn Fein, dismissed that as fantasy. He accused the Protestant side of seeking confrontation and the police of mounting an incompetent security operation.

Kelly said the Protestant crowd “indiscriminately attacked cars. We are very, very lucky that they didn’t get into the building or we could have been dealing with a lot more injuries.”

Sinn Fein’s Jim McVeigh told the Irish Independent, “The people that broke through the gates are a bunch of thugs. They physically assaulted the staff, tried to attack members of the police and they attacked property.

“We are not responsible for the thugs. We won’t be intimidated by those people.”

Ulster Unionist Jim Rodgers said he expected violence.

“There is a real anger,” he said. “I cannot condone violence but people do not realise just how strongly the people in Northern Ireland think about flying the flag over City Hall.”

Maire Hendron from the Alliance Party said the violence was planned.

Sam McCrory, 24, from Belfast, said, “For me, flying the Union flag is not something that is up for negotiation.

“We should be able to come into our city hall to see the flag flying. I see the removal of the flag as a first step towards the breakdown of the union.”

Sam Jackson, 69, a retired builder, stated: “While Belfast is still part of the UK, the flag of the country should be flown. A compromise is not acceptable.”

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson attacked the rioters. “There is no excuse or justification for attacks on police officers, council staff, and property. Such behaviour is not representative of those who campaigned to maintain the Union flag flying over Belfast City Hall.”

“The decision to pursue the removal of the flag from City Hall and other council buildings, despite warnings of the likely consequential impact on community relations, was foolish and provocative.

Those who talk most about building community relations have by their actions in the council substantially damaged relations across the city”, added Robinson..

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, meanwhile, censured the “scenes of disorder” outside Belfast City Hall which flared up after a controversial vote on the flying of the Union flag.

Villiers told MPs during Commons Northern Ireland questions that “there is nothing that could possibly justify” the violence, as she called for decisions on flag flying to be taken “on the basis of sound, reasoned discussions and democratic vote, not as a result of mobs seeking to beat down the door of City Hall”.

Her comments came as Conservative Gareth Johnson (Dartford) said: “Northern Ireland is as much part of the United Kingdom as Dartford is, so does the Secretary of State share my deep disappointment that the Union flag will not fly continuously over Belfast City Hall and does she agree with the principle that no law should prevent the Union flag flying anywhere in the UK?”

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker condemned the violence on Monday evening, branding it “wrong, unacceptable and without justification”.

Minister of State for Northern Ireland Mike Penning said: “What happened the other night was absolutely, fundamentally wrong. Police and security officers were assaulted and battered just doing their job”.

The issue of flags in the Northern Ireland is an issue that has the potential to divide the population along sectarian lines. Various flags and symbols identify people on the basis of their political allegiance.

Some of those flags and symbols have, or have had, official status in Northern Ireland.

There have been various proposals as to what flag could represent Northern Ireland’s various communities as a whole.

These include Union Flag, Ulster Banner, Ulster National Flag, and St Andrew’s Saltire.

Union Flag is the flag of the United Kingdom, which is also known as the Union Jack. It is the only official flag and is routinely used on central government buildings in Northern Ireland. The Union Flag is often flown by Unionists and Loyalists, but it is sometimes disliked by Nationalists and Republicans.