Opinion

New approach needed over flags

Although the difficulties faced by the PSNI in dealing with the provocative use of flags have been well documented, it is increasingly clear that a new approach is required.

One issue has followed another in recent days, as is often the case during the loyalist marching season, and there have been specific occasions when the police response was seriously open to question.

It is not acceptable for either loyalist or republican emblems to be used to mark out any stretch of contentious territory, particularly when their appearance is against the wishes of a majority of residents.

However, when similarly blatant tactics are employed to intimidate members of an ethnic minority, the failure of the authorities to intervene can only be regarded as deeply disturbing.

We reported last week how a US Confederate flag, which has obviously racist implications, was erected directly outside the home of a black family in the Newtownards Road district of east Belfast.

Police said they were `working with community representatives` - a phrase which has become increasingly familiar - to facilitate its removal, but progress was painfully slow..

A 13-year-old boy who lives in the house with his mother is a youth team player with the East Belfast Football Club, and his coaches eventually decided that they needed to act.

Officials from the club went to the scene, assured the family of their support, said that the flag was the work of one isolated individual and removed it without further delay.

Everyone connected with East Belfast FC deserves enormous praise, but many observers will wonder why a sports club had to take on a role which should automatically have been performed by the police.

We have also recorded how a Union flag has been placed within the actual grounds of a Catholic Church in the overwhelmingly unionist village of Dervock in Co Antrim for a second consecutive year.

DUP First Minister Peter Robinson said 12 months ago that it should be taken down, but police still seem uncertain about their attitude as an identical sequence of events has unfolded.

There has been further concern, as we have reflected, over the apparent change of stance by police over flags in the mixed upper Ormeau Road neighbourhood of Belfast which they said represented a breach of the peace in 2014 but instead became a matter `for all of society to address' over recent days.

Mr Robinson's comments on Dervock from last year should provide all the main parties at Stormont with an opportunity to reach a consensus on appropriate new legislation which would prevent a repetition of such outrageous conduct from any quarter.