Opinion

Chris Donnelly: PSNI must protect mixed communities and the integrity of shared spaces

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

Flag outside new housing during construction on the Cavehill Road in north Belfast
Flag outside new housing during construction on the Cavehill Road in north Belfast Flag outside new housing during construction on the Cavehill Road in north Belfast

A few weeks ago, I went for a Sunday morning walk at the idyllic Waterworks park in north Belfast.

It was a clear blue sky morning and many others had similarly decided it was too good of a day to stay indoors.

I watched coaches interacting with young girls at football training in the 3G pitch perched beside the lower reservoir at the park. Two other kids were taking turns hitting a sliothar to one another on the green adjacent to the pitch while their parents contentedly looked on.

Whilst making my way further up the Cavehill Road, I could see a number of people outside one of the coffee shops that have opened up over recent years eagerly awaiting that special weekend morning caffeine boost.

I could have been anywhere in these islands at that moment.

But then, as I reached the top end of the park, I spotted the flags.

There used to be many more loyalist flags erected at the lamp posts that marked the interface between the mostly Catholic Cavehill and Protestant Westland estate area, but they have now been reduced to just four, affixed to posts chosen for very deliberate reasons.

The flags were being flown in pairs at the carefully selected locations. Two were on a lamp post outside a business which draws customers from all religions, political persuasions and none. The other flags had been attached to a lamp post sited directly in front of eight new homes that were being built at the front of the road.

Everyone knows why loyalists chose these locations.

There is no subtlety in such sectarian acts.

As we move towards 2022 in a few weeks’ time and into the third decade of the PSNI’s existence as a policing service, it is not too much to expect that such gratuitously sectarian antics are no longer ignored by those in authority but are called out for what they are and dealt with appropriately.

Unionist politicians will scurry for cover when asked to condemn such wilful acts of intimidation and pointedly refuse to support statutory bodies removing flags and emblems when erected with the obvious purpose of intimidating or antagonising ‘the other’.

There are exceptions, of course.

A few weeks ago, a number of posters were erected by dissident republicans in Enniskillen town centre ahead of the annual British remembrance ceremonies. These were correctly deemed to be provocative, not least given the siting of the posters near to the British cenotaph, and the PSNI made the right decision to remove the posters.

That decision by the PSNI was not objected to by any political or community voices because it was self-evidently clear that it was the appropriate step to take. Even if opposing voices had been raised, the PSNI would still have persevered with removing the posters and would have been correct to do so.

Ten years ago, PSNI officers in the south Antrim town of Ballyclare took the decision to remove loyalist flags deliberately erected outside the town’s Catholic Church and school. The motivation of those erecting the flags was clear: it was about intimidating and antagonising the town’s small Catholic minority population, and the PSNI decision to remove the flags was in keeping with the expectation people would have of a policing service.

Alas, the loyalist violence which followed precipitated a shameful capitulation by the PSNI, who subsequently appear to have given loyalists free rein to make claim to local communities and intimidate through the erection of flags.

The 168 page document finally published last week by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT) managed the feat of saying very little yet simultaneously confirming the nature of our problem.

A commission stacked with unionists from the civic and political realms stubbornly refused to provide the much needed leadership required to both rescue unionism from the perpetual cycle of anger, intolerance, fear and paranoia whilst also condemning the rest of us to continue living with the consequences of that.

In the absence of leadership from unionism over these contentious themes, it must fall on the PSNI and other statutory authorities to lead.

That is already happening in many cases, as the success of the Parades Commission illustrates. Council-led moves to regulate and license bonfire sites should help as well in the years to come.

But it is firmly in the hands of the PSNI to step up to the plate and protect mixed communities and the integrity of shared spaces, as they did in Enniskillen but have so far failed to in north Belfast. They have the power and authority. What is missing is the will to do so, confirming for many nationalists that the PSNI still is not where it needs to be.