Belfast City Council

I never liked going into Belfast city centre when I was a youngster. Being stopped at the cage gate at Castle Street and searched was as degrading as it was meant to be. Your arrival at this particular gate indicated that you were coming from nationalist west Belfast and so were to be afforded particular attention and hassle from the foreign and domestic searchers. Passing through the cage into the town wasn’t the end of it. Being stopped and searched at every single shop doorway was a nuisance to everyone but, when you dressed and had the distinctive dander and attitude of a Westy, then you could expect to be followed everywhere you went around town. The assumption was that you would at the very least try to plant a firebomb or maybe even nuke the whole town. Going to shop for a pair of Wranglers wasn’t easy with a line of security voyeurs behind you. If the jeans didn’t fit then it was bad luck because there was no way you would risk trying anything on. They would have to be returned later by a sister or by your Mum.

The town wasn’t ours and we were made to feel that every single time we went into it. We couldn’t even go to the cinema because you risked having to fight your way back to Castle Street or be beaten up, if you left at the end of the movie instead of standing to attention as the British national anthem was played. Thank God for the peace process because the town belongs to all of us equally now – or does it?

I have cause to be in Belfast city centre most days of the week and I feel my stomach turn and churn a little each time. I have welcomed and shown friends from other countries around Belfast and I always get that sick feeling when they want to take photos of Belfast City Hall. This is the point where all my nationalist spin about Belfast goes down the drain.

“It’s the British Union Jack so this is a part of the UK”, they always say. I used to try to give a potted history of how we now have equality and parity of esteem and all that but, I don’t believe that myself any longer and so don’t waste my breath any more.

Every single day of the year this flag flies over the most photographed building in Belfast. Every visiting tourist will take away this image and its’ intended inference - this is Britain!

It’s illegal. This flag should only legally be flown on up to nineteen days of the year on government buildings. There are twenty-two elected representatives proclaiming themselves to be Irish nationalists in Belfast City Council. They are all happy to walk into work each day underneath this illegal flag and remain silent.

The biggest single party – New Sinn Fein, has fourteen elected representatives and all of them either ignore it or pretend they don’t see this provocative emblem flying in all our faces every single day. How many single seconds would the tri-colour be allowed to fly from this building without an uproar and swift removal?

It is illegal and shameful. These elected representatives should hang their heads in abject shame for their complicity in subjecting us to this. The Union Jack should be removed and only tolerated if necessary, on the legal nineteen days.

It would be too much to hope that the Flags and Emblems Act would be utilised to afford the flying of the Irish tri-colour as well, in the interests of decency and fair play. There is as much hope of that Act being delivered as any other that so-called nationalist politicians have negotiated. Emptying the bins and cleaning the streets of anything nationalist keeps them busy. Under the flag and under the thumb seem to be the wages of political sin.