By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST — A row has erupted over when the British flag flies over government buildings in Northern Ireland. The two Sinn Féin ministers refuse to fly it at all unless they can also fly the Irish tri-color, while the three SDLP ministers refused to fly it on July 12, to unionist chagrin.
David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, welcomed Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson’s recommendation that the flag be flown from seven government buildings in the North 17 days each year, mostly on British royal birthdays.
Mandelson’s proposal was submitted to the Stormont assembly, which has now set up a 17-person committee to discuss it. Trimble argued that the agreement makes "it absolutely clear that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom."
"Nationalists, when they accepted the agreement, accepted the legitimacy of that. The union flag is the badge of that legitimacy," Trimble said. Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin, however, say the agreement also gave equal legitimacy to the British and Irish identity.
Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said he would be "very strongly" challenging Mandelson’s proposals on flags. At a party ard chomhairle meeting in Dublin on Saturday, McLaughlin said the proposals were "insulting to nationalists."
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Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey criticized the order as "a headstrong rush on a unionist agenda in line with his dilution of the Patten proposals on policing. It is a total contradiction."
"This is another issue on which the goal-posts are being moved at the behest of the UUP as they seek to unravel or dilute different aspects of the Good Friday Agreement. Mandelson is continuing to follow this agenda. Government buildings need to be user friendly," Maskey said.
Mandelson’s draft legislation, if enacted, would result in the Union Jack flying over buildings where Sinn Féin’s education and health departments are housed, something that Sinn Féin’s ministers, Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brún have so far refused.
It’s thought, however, that even if Mandelson and the assembly committee did order the flag to be flown, McGuinness and de Brún would still use their ministerial powers and refuse to allow it to be hoisted over their departments.
At present, there are 21 designated days for flying the Union Jack. The proposal is to reduce this to 17, removing New Year’s Day, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and July 12. It would fly, however, on St. Patrick’s Day.
Mandelson has given the parties until Oct. 20 to respond to the proposals, which he said were for consultation. "There is no perfect solution to this issue, otherwise the parties and the Executive would have found it," he said.
The DUP’s deputy leader, Peter Robinson, complained the legislation was "full of loopholes" because it would allow Sinn Féin ministers to set up their departments elsewhere and avoid flying the flag.