Rejecting violence

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton spoke for the great majority of people on this island yesterday when she told an audience in Stormont that there is no place for violence in Northern Ireland.

Her remarks were prompted by violence that followed a Belfast vote to try to have the union flag removed from the city hall and other council buildings. Mrs Clinton said she was “very distressed” that Alliance politician Naomi Long had received death threats over the issue.

Some loyalist politicians have encouraged the violence but republicans who argue that the Irish Tricolour be given “parity of esteem” with the union flag in Northern Ireland seem not to understand how democracy works. The union flag is the flag of Northern Ireland until a majority of the population there decides otherwise. The Republic recognised this when it voted to drop articles 2 and 3 from its Constitution. Will the sanity needed to secure lasting peace ever prevail?