A CONFEDERATE flag which caused outrage after it was put up in a Co Antrim seaside town has been removed.
The controversial flag is believed to have been taken down hours after several Nazi flags were also put up in the Glenfield area of Carrickfergus.
There was uproar among residents after Nazi flags were hoisted close to a loyalist bonfire in town earlier this week.
The Nazi flags were removed hours later but the Confederate flag remained in place until it was removed yesterday.
The Confederate flag is associated with the slave trade in America and is often used by racists.
Offensive graffiti referring to local Alliance Party assembly member Stewart Dickson was scrawled in the area close to where the flags were put up.
Mr Dickson, who in the past has had his home and office attacked by loyalists, last night welcomed the removal of all the flags.
“Certainly those flags were beyond anything that needed conversation and should never have been up in the first place,” he said.
“I believe that sentiment would be expressed by the vast majority of people in Carrickfergus and east Antrim and those flags have no place in the community.”
It is understood the flags were erected in a area controlled by the UDA’s breakaway South East Antrim faction but were removed by rival loyalists.
First Minister Peter Robinson tweeted that the flags were “shameful”.
His party colleague East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson said in a statement: “Nazis and these flags should have no part in our society”.
“I do not believe that the vast majority of people who will participate in celebrations over the coming weekend want to see such flags flying and I welcome that they now appear to have been removed."
East Antrim Sinn Féin assembly member Oliver McMullan said all offensive flags should be removed.
"During the public discussion on these flags everyone was queuing up to condemn the Nazi flag while ignoring the fact there are also loyalist paramilitary flags in the same area,” he said. "It seems that unionist public representatives are unwilling to challenge the erection of flags celebrating and promoting loyalist murder gangs.”
