New flag design offensive to the Unionist community

SIR, — From 2001 until last May I had the privilege of serving on Down District Council. Throughout that decade I frequently urged the media and councillors from other parts of Northern Ireland to visit Downpatrick to witness how St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated in a non threatening, inclusive way.

Unfortunately the decision of Down District Council to adopt a St. Patrick’s flag which includes the Irish language has destroyed any chance of the Protestant community feeling comfortable on March 17 this year or any future parades.

It is quite clear that Councillor Cadogan Enright simply cannot understand why his proposal to use the Irish language is so offensive to the unionist community.

It was a leading Sinn Fein activist who clearly articulated how militant Republicans view the use of Gaelic when he declared that ‘every word of Irish spoken is like another bullet being fired in the struggle for Irish freedom’. The language has been cynically used in Sinn Fein/IRA in its campaign to remove the British presence from this part of the United Kingdom and its use clearly has no place in what is meant to be a crossed community event.

I am very disappointed that in a single moment of madness Down councillors have destroyed all the good work undertaken over the last 25 years. Their failure to recognise that there are two communities in Down District will result in the inevitable downward spiral of the Downpatrick parade to become the same Sinn Fein/Republican show of strength which is so evident at equivalent events in Londonderry and Belfast.

What makes this situation even more regrettable is that the culprit on this occasion was not a Republican councillor but the sole representative of a party which pretends to seek support from both communities.

Surely after a short period of reflection Down councillors will realise that they have made a grave mistake and will yet reverse a decision which will set back community relations in the district many years?

Yours etc.,

JIM WELLS MLA,

South Down.