Mandelson
warns over flags storm
From NEWS LETTER June 3rd, 2000
MERVYN PAULEY
PETER Mandelson has served notice that he may intervene in the damaging
dispute over the flying of the Union flag from government buildings here.
He hinted yesterday he might use his power to resolve the row after Sinn
Fein ministers Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun told their civil servants
not to fly the flag over their departmental bases.
As angry unionists condemned the move, the Secretary of State called on
pro-Agreement parties to "co-operate" over the flags issue, saying there
were "enough differences between them without generating unnecessary ones".
He said: "I do regard this as an unnecessary dispute - I said when I took
the power a few weeks ago that I hoped the Executive would be able to reach
a consensus on this matter, and that remains the case."
"They haven't done so in the last 24 hours. I hope they are able to do so
in the future." Mr Mandelson admitted he had "no illusions" that the problem
could be solved overnight as it had dogged Northern Ireland politics for
many years.
But "serious politicians" in Ulster knew it had to be sorted out, he said,
adding: "Let's just see what happens but, if necessary, I will use my powers."
As the flagpoles at Sinn Féin-occupied buildings remained bare yesterday
- Coronation Day - its ministers were accused of breaching the Belfast Agreement
by refusing to fly the flag. Sinn Féin argues that both the Union flag and
Irish tricolour should fly together on official flag days like yesterday.
The Executive failed to resolve the issue at its meeting on Thursday night,
leaving the decision up to individual ministers. Hitting out at Sinn Féin's
no-flag decision, Ulster Unionist arts and culture minister Michael McGimpsey
said: "Flying the Union flag is a legitimate expression of the consent principle."
"The denial by the two Sinn Féin ministers to fly the flag is a denial of
the consent principle, the building block of the Agreement. Sinn Féin ministers
are in breach of the Agreement."
But Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy retorted that the Agreement stated that flags
and emblems should be used to create an atmosphere of mutual respect, not
division. "In order to reflect parity of esteem and the spirit of the Agreement, if people want to evoke British cultural symbols on a particular day then equal respect should be given to Irish cultural symbols," he argued. Mr
McGimpsey pointed out that the Union flag was a constitutional rather than
a cultural symbol, but Mr Murphy insisted either both flags, or none, should
be flown.
He added that he did not believe the flags issue could derail the Assembly
and Executive. Ulster Unionist Assemblyman Dermot Nesbitt said there was
no way that both the tricolour and the Union flag could fly over the same
government building.
"There won't be two flags - that just won't happen," he declared. He insisted
flying the official national flag, the Union flag, was not about "triumphalism"
but something that happened across the "democratic world". But the Executive
would survive the controversy, he said, adding: "We can and we have and
it will continue." DUP leader Ian Paisley, who will propose an Assembly
motion on the issue next week, believed Sinn Féin's action made it clear
Ulster Unionists had been conned again.
"While Ulster Unionists bend over backwards to pander to them, it is clear
that Sinn Féin/IRA show contempt for unionist culture and the Ulster Unionist
interpretation of the Belfast Agreement," he said. |
