St. Patrick’s parade hit by yet another flag row

St. Patrick’s parade hit by yet another flag row

22 February 2012

ANOTHER flags row is threatening to overshadow preparations for this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade.

One year after the 2011 parade was disrupted in a dispute about a Tricolour, a similar row has broken out just three weeks before this year’s parade.

The reason for the new dispute is the design of a new Down Council St. Patrick’s Day flag which has produced a nationalist/unionist split among councillors and led to unionists withdrawing from the council’s Good Relations Forum.

Significantly, plans are also being drawn up by some unionists and the Orange Order for an alternative parade.

The row revolves around the design of the new flag which was ironically intended to defuse tensions surrounding the 2011 Tricolour row when a Sinn Fein councillor insisted on carrying an Irish flag in the parade.

The new flag contains the symbol of a Bishop’s mitre and crozier and includes the words ‘Downpatrick’ on one side and its Irish version ‘Dun Pádraig’ on the other side.

The DUP and Ulster Unionists are now calling for the council to either revert to the St. Patrick’s Cross flag which was the successful image of the Downpatrick parade for 26 years, or do without a council flag altogether.

The future of the council’s Good Relations Forum, which produced the design for the new flag, is now in doubt after the DUP and Ulster Unionist members withdrew from the body in protest.

DUP councillor Billy Walker, who sits on the Forum, has revealed he has already had discussions with representatives of the Orange Order about the possibility of staging an alternative parade, possibly in Ballynahinch or Saintfield.

“There is great support for such a parade and while it may not be possible to organise it in time for St. Patrick’s Day this year, we are certainly intending to push ahead with it in 2013,” said councillor Walker.

“We cannot understand why nationalist councillors have decided to press ahead with this when they know the Irish language has political connotations for many unionists,” said Mr. Walker.

“I appealed for the SDLP and Sinn Fein to do without any flags this year in a bid to keep the parade cross community but they ignored that appeal,” he added.

Ulster Unionist Forum member, Dessie Patterson, felt the St. Patrick’s Cross should remain as the flag of the parade because it is recognised world-wide as the symbol of Patrick.

“We are trying to sell Downpatrick as a tourist destination and St. Patrick is clearly a major part of our campaign. Why are we therefore doing away with the very symbol which is recognised across the world as the symbol of St. Patrick,” he said.