Belfast Riots?

There are riots every July because of the Protestant parade and they havent done anything yet :/

I think the violence is unnecessary but Northern Ireland just has two sides of passionate religious group with different ideas and there's a lot of history between them, but with the flag situation i think it's ridiculous that they are restricting the flying of the union flag. After all it's part of Britain and will be for time to come. I don't know a lot about Northern Irish politics but there must be some way the central government in London can overrule this? (Correct my if i'm wrong)

I think the violence is unnecessary but Northern Ireland just has two sides of passionate religious group with different ideas and there's a lot of history between them, but with the flag situation i think it's ridiculous that they are restricting the flying of the union flag. After all it's part of Britain and will be for time to come. I don't know a lot about Northern Irish politics but there must be some way the central government in London can overrule this? (Correct my if i'm wrong)

When a symbol can inspire such adoration and unbridled Patriotism, can you imagine for a moment that it could also inspire the complete opposite. Whilst I can understand your profession that the Union Flag is a symbol of "inclusiveness" and a "United future", I can't help but feel that this is nothing short of a Romantic ideal that would serve better in Finchley than in the Politically charged streets of Belfast.

It must be understood that in Northern Ireland the Union Flag is not considered simply a National Flag; it transcends this definition to become an all-encompassing symbol of Religion, Ethnicity, Tribalism, and Political affiliation. It simply can't be what you want it to be, unless the entire population of Northern Ireland volunteers for a dose of self-induced Amnesia (Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea).

I won't lie; I wouldn't be particularly concerned if the flag was once again raised over Belfast City Hall on a permanent basis, but I would be truly devastated if it was these apparent "Protests" that provided the catalyst to reverse the decision. It simply has to be understood that throwing your toys out of the pram and flexing your muscles is not an acceptable way to behave when you disagree with a decision made by a Local Council. Saying otherwise just reinforces a very dangerous and undemocratic mentality.

the only way NI can have any hope of going forward is to create a new flag that is symbolic of both sides of the community, yes it would probably be met with a dose of skepticism but both flags have far too much history and association with violence. I believe the main politicians from both sides of the community need to come together and agree on a symbol to represent a united NI, inclusive of Unionists, Nationalists, everyone in NI. Neutral colours, similar to the EU flag is probably the only way forward because if Nationalists were to see red, white and blue, they would see it as oppressive to them, on the other hand, green, white and orange would obviously be oppressive to some Unionists.

Why do Catholics and Protestants argue so much as if they are the two religions most likely to be true. Maybe if they realized that there are other religions out their not just each other, they would realise how stupid and narrow minded they are being and fighting over a pointless cause.

You will always get unreconstructed dinosaurs on both sides. Realistically though, as long as Northern Ireland is part of the UK, that is the national flag, the Queen is our head of state and our collective nationality is British. It is incumbent upon us to make all these things as welcoming as possible to minority groups.

We cannot limit the use of the national flag, but there is nothing overtly problematic about a combination of three patron saints' crosses. The Queen has made great efforts to improve relations in Ireland and the British state have gone a long way to helping create a post-conflict environment.



I have no particular problem with a new flag of Northern Ireland, but the problem is that it is a subnational flag. The Union Jack is the national flag, and that's unlikely to change any time soon.

I always liked this design--



There was once the suggestion it would be unacceptable to the Nationalist community because the six-pointed star represented the six counties of Northern Ireland. Which is clearly an absurd complaint when designing a flag of Northern Ireland...

For our part, the people of Great Britain seem to have taken to the St Patrick's Cross as the flag of NI. I saw it used for the Jubilee and flies to represent NI at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo every year.

I'm half Irish (Republic of Ireland). It's just a feckin' flag for feck sake!

I dare you to say that on a visit to the Shankhill Road

The whole issue really winds me up. It was a deliberate attempt by SF to annoy unionists. No-one actually gave a damn day-to-day. SF said that the Union flag was intimidating and that they have recieved complaints. It turned out they had recieved 6 complaints and in a survey only something like 8% of people said they didn't like the flag being there.

Now we are in a situation where the flag could go back up - sending the message that violence and intimidation work - or the flag could stay down - leaving unionists continuing to protest and the unionist communities thinking that they don't have a voice in Stormont.

A stupid political game by SF has made a huge moutain out of nothing.

A political game by SF yes. But they won, and you're only stupid when you lose. The DUP and the UUP played party politics as well by dropping all those leaflets targeting the Alliance Party in the hope of winning back seats. That was equally cynical and political.

Why do Catholics and Protestants argue so much as if they are the two religions most likely to be true. Maybe if they realized that there are other religions out their not just each other, they would realise how stupid and narrow minded they are being and fighting over a pointless cause.

The problems in Northern Ireland have never been about religion. They've been about unionism and nationalism, the majority of nationalists are catholic and the majority of unionists are protestants.

For hundreds of years people have died for Ireland, it's not a pointless cause, we feel very strongly about it. You clearly have no understanding of the situation.