Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 78.86.188.219 (talk) at 08:03, 16 July 2008. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Northern Ireland flags issue and Talk:Flag of Northern Ireland#Merger proposal. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2007.

Your dad

In Northern Ireland, some members from each 'community' use their own flags to declare their allegiance (to political ideology) and 'mark territory', often in a manner that is deliberately provocative. Thus it is the "Ulster Banner" and the Union Flag that are flown by unionists, while the Irish tricolour of the Republic of Ireland is often used to represent nationalist allegiance to The Republic of Ireland. They argue that the Irish tricolour is a symbol of peace and unity, not just of Ireland, but of the two distinct peoples within the island, those being the Roman Catholic Irish (Green) and the Protestant Unionist traditions (Orange) being united by peace (White).

Under the 1998 Belfast Agreement, flags continue to be a source of disagreement in Northern Ireland. The Agreement states that:

All participants acknowledge the sensitivity of the use of symbols and emblems for public purposes, and the need in particular in creating the new institutions to ensure that such symbols and emblems are used in a manner which promotes mutual respect rather than division.

— Belfast Agreement

Nationalists pointed to this to argue that the use of the Union Flag for official purposes should be restricted, or that the Irish tricolour should be flown alongside the British flag on government buildings, and banned the Union Flag from the public buildings they were in charge of during the last previous devolved administration. However all signatories to the Agreement also declare their acceptance of the "principle of consent" (i.e. that there will be no change to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland unless a majority votes for it), and Unionists argued that this provision amounts to recognising that the Union Flag is the only legitimate official flag in Northern Ireland. The problem was discussed in detail and various proposals made including suggestions for a new flag.

The dispute was resolved by legislation requiring the Union Flag to be flown over specified government buildings including Parliament Buildings and state offices on specified 'named days' (honouring, for example Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday), and prohibiting other flags. On the occasion of a visit to a government building by the United Kingdom head of state the Royal Standard shall be flown and the Union Flag can be flown, and on state visits from other heads of state the Union Flag and the national flag of the country of the visitor can be flown. The legislation does not apply to District Council buildings, and District Councils follow a range of practices varying from flying the Union Flag on a number of council buildings every day of the year as at Lisburn, to flying no flags on any building, flying only the council flag or flying flags on the designated days in the same way as government buildings.

A new flag?

The idea of a new flag for Northern Ireland has been discussed from time to time, but is controversial. The issue is discussed more fully in the article linked above.

References

1. Tension over flag flying at BBC News
2. Flagging concern: the controversy over flags and emblems
3. The Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000
4. Transforming Conflict: Flags and Emblems by Dominic Bryan and Gordon Gillespie, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, March 2005

External links

Template:CommonsCat

• FOTW: Northern Ireland
• CAIN: Flags in Northern Ireland
• The Union Flags and flags of the United Kingdom

v t e Flags of Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies and other entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Other entities	European Union Sovereign Military Order of Malta

• Articles to be merged from September 2007
• Flags of Northern Ireland
• National symbols of Northern Ireland