Life

Mary Kelly: Do unionist politicians understand reality of their flag culture?

It’s a pity that more than two decades after the Good Friday Agreement there are still so few mixed areas in Belfast. It’s also a pity that so few unionist politicians understand the reality of their flag culture. Or do they?

UVF flags seen last year in what was supposed to be a mixed housing development in the Ravenhill Road area of south Belfast
UVF flags seen last year in what was supposed to be a mixed housing development in the Ravenhill Road area of south Belfast UVF flags seen last year in what was supposed to be a mixed housing development in the Ravenhill Road area of south Belfast

DIPPING a tentative toe into the reopened property market for one of the adult offspring recently brought a depressing reminder of what kind of society we are still living in.

For most first-time buyers, the choice of location is dependent on factors like proximity to work, schools etc. When you are looking in Belfast, however, different rules apply. Our own nicely mixed area of south Belfast has become prohibitively expensive for someone on a limited income. But looking at other parts of the city, it soon became clear why flags are so important to some people and it has little to do with patriotism or “culture” and everything to do with territory marking.

Go down a street festooned with flags and, in some cases, double lines of bunting and you get a clear message that your sort aren’t welcome. We saw one promising house in north Belfast only to discover it was the “wrong part”. And to remove any doubt, there followed the recent display of anti-GAA signs on the nearby Grove playing fields and the intimidation by groups of “men” to teenagers in Celtic shirts. At this time of year, much of east Belfast will also feel out of bounds to Catholics.

Last year a shared housing scheme off the Ravenhill Road was festooned in UVF flags. The flags were later taken down but in case the message wasn’t received, they were replaced with banners depicting IRA atrocities.

In 2017 four Catholic families were forced to leave their homes in the area. It had been designed as a flagship cross-community development as part of Stormont’s Together Building United Communities programme.

I don’t dispute that tricolours and republican murals will also produce a chill factor for Protestant buyers, but Catholic areas already seem to be packed to the rafters with long waiting lists for the limited houses.

Opinion polls show that around 80 per cent of people would prefer to live in mixed-denomination areas, but they fear being threatened or dominated, either by physical attack or via symbols such as flags or emblems on walls.

It’s a pity that more than two decades after the Good Friday Agreement there are still so few mixed areas in Belfast. It’s also a pity that so few unionist politicians understand the reality of their flag culture. Or do they?

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THE debacle over the mass resignation of the entire board of the RQIA is another kick in the teeth for the care of elderly people here. With more than 400 Covid deaths coming from care homes, it is truly appalling to find out that there’s been a battle behind the scenes between what is supposed to be a watchdog protecting the rights of elderly people in care and the department of health over claims they weren’t consulted on key decisions taken during the pandemic.

It is also shocking that when it was reported on BBC’s Newsline, there was not a single representative of that board who would front up on their complaints. There were no pictures of them – we didn’t even know their names.

How many times have we heard the broadcast media report that “no-one was available” from various government bodies or chief executives when there’s an important issue of public importance at stake?

The response of the people charged with looking after the most vulnerable in this society seems to be 'keep your head down' until the storm blows over. And that attitude permeates too many other layers of government, including quangos.

Whatever you say, say nothing is not a mantra to govern by.

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REASONS to be cheerful, part one: Hairdressers opening soon, Yayy. Poisonous Katie Hopkins being barred from Twitter, Byeee. And Donald Trump getting annoyed over the lack of numbers at his “bring your own germs” event in Tulsa. Turnout not bigly.

It’s little wonder that the Beeb’s US correspondent, Jon Sopel often looks like he‘s stifling laughter when reporting the latest White House news. Now a memoir by the obnoxious John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, has revealed that the president thought Finland was part of Russia, and worse, he congratulated the dictator Xi Jinping for building concentration camps to detain hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the Uighur and other communities in China.

Of course warmonger Bolton chose not to disclose all his revelations to Trump’s impeachment trial. Instead he held off to score a $2 million advance for his book.

The Donald would understand that mentality, mind you, even if he did call Bolton a “washed up creepster lowlife ” who should be jailed. Takes one to know one, I guess.