Unionists ‘not trying to offend’ over Union flag

Unionists are not trying to offend nationalists when they insist on the flying of the Union flag in Northern Ireland, a minister in the Stormont power sharing government insisted today.

Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Michael McGimpsey responded to an address by Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid on sectarianism by arguing that unionists were merely asking people to accept that the Good Friday Agreement enshrined the principle that Ulster was a part of the United Kingdom as long as the majority there wanted it.

The Ulster Unionist minister said: ‘‘Within the Agreement we have the consent principle, the right of the people of Northern Ireland to self-determine their own future and, whether people like it or they don’t, that future lies within the United Kingdom.

‘‘It is enshrined in the Agreement. We have a situation where, in effect, that consent principle has been eroded, the outside symbols of Britishness have been eroded by none other than the Secretary of State’s own organisation, the Northern Ireland Office.

‘‘I think within the unionist community and within Protestantism in general there is this feeling that if you make a deal, a deal is a deal.’’

Mr McGimpsey was referring to battles over the flying of Union flags outside police stations and designs this week for the badge of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland which will replace the traditional Crown, harp and shamrock emblem of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

In a speech to the Institute of Irish Studies in the University of Liverpool urging Northern Ireland’s political and religious leaders to tackle sectarianism head on, Dr Reid said Northern Ireland should not become a ‘‘cold place for Protestants’’.

But he also told unionists that an ‘‘undue emphasis on the symbols of Britishness’’ would not persuade nationalists of their future in the United Kingdom.

‘‘The key to winning the devolution debate in Scotland was not only to persuade others that remaining in the UK was in their best interests but, more importantly, to convince or remind them that whatever their identity they could feel at ease and at home in the wider British family,’’ the Northern Ireland Secretary argued.

‘‘What was absolutely clear was that undue emphasis on the symbols of Britishness was at best unnecessary and at worst damaging to the ability of many of my fellow Scots to feel at home in the United Kingdom.

‘‘If it was not entirely clear what would persuade people to remain in the UK, it was absolutely clear what would drive them to leave.

‘‘The key document setting out the case for a Scottish Parliament within the UK was adorned with the flag of St Andrew, not a Union Jack. The success of that argument might give food for thought to those unionists in Northern Ireland who really want to engage the other side.’’

However Mr McGimpsey claimed today Dr Reid appeared not to understand that Northern Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom because of the consent principle.

The minister said: ‘‘Everybody has to start dealing with that.

‘‘It does not mean we are putting flags down people’s throats.’’