Waving the flag for a more tolerant country

CORRECT me if I’m wrong, but the Union Jack is as valid a symbol of allegiance for unionists in the North as the Tricolor in the South, for the obvious reason that they are legally acknowledged as the sovereign flags in each jurisdiction, even in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.

This is not to say that there are not great psychological difficulties for both traditions in shaking off the shackles of jingoism, embedded patriotism and false notions of winner-takes-all sovereignty.

The Republic's flag should be a symbol of peace between the Green and the Orange, but it obviously is not.