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The Flags and Emblems Act 1954

  • 11-09-2019 12:30pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 77 ✭✭


    Under the flags and Emblems Act 1954, flying of the Irish Tricolour in Northern Ireland was considered a breach of the peace and was therefore considered illegal. This act was revoked in 1987.

    I was shocked when I first discovered this. I was even more shocked when I discovered it was enforced at funerals in the north!

    Have young people forgotten how bad the Orange State was especially now when the likes of Drew Harris are serving in the Garda?


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    "Have young people forgotten how bad the Orange State was especially now when the likes of Drew Harris are serving in the Garda?"

    Well seeing as how they are probably too young to have known what it was a law I doubt they could have remebered to have forgotten.

    But I agree with you in general it was a pretty mad & stupid law alrite and led directly to the Divis Street Riots of 1964 & plenty of clashes with the sectarian RUC over flag drapped coffins, it's something you would have expected to see in the penal laws, but th whole Emergency Powers Act was a disgusting abuse of power and in the words of Sir Oliver Wright...

    "Democracy, in the circumstances of Northern Ireland, Stormont then equated (pre 1972 Stormont) to a form of tyranny".


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭rockatansky


    OP, during the 50s and 60s Northern Ireland was considered one of the most tolerant, equal and welcoming societies in the world to all races, creeds and nationalies.

    Then out of thin air the Provisional IRA arrived and changed all that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,410 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    Are you equating stupid laws from the past with a professional garda commissioner.? I'm failing to make the connection...

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    Thread in wrong forum?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 77 ✭✭Elite Woad Raider


    Markcheese wrote: »
    Are you equating stupid laws from the past with a professional garda commissioner.? I'm failing to make the connection...

    He is ex-RUC!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,410 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    He is ex-RUC!

    Yes, and PSNI after that..

    He joined the ruc in 1983,

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,580 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    He is ex-RUC!

    So what?
    He can't be much worse than the last encumbant.

    He's supposed to uphold current laws of this state, not obsolete ones of the other jurisdiction.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    So what?
    He can't be much worse than the last encumbant.

    He's supposed to uphold current laws of this state, not obsolete ones of the other jurisdiction.

    I think the OP might be concerned that he still might hold some personnel loyalty to the RUC. A bit like how in 1971 UDR soldiers still felt pissed off about the B-Specials being dismantled & helped to form the Glennane Gang in Tyrone & Armagh.

    Maybe he'll form a murder gang in Limerick & Cork, and call it the Bantry Bangers.
    Very unlikely but this is the state that perfected cronyism & has a history of corruption & collusion, Alan Harris was himself the third high ranking officer killed that year with ease by the IRA, after two Chief Superintendent's were killed & the Smithwick inquiry found nothing wrong in terms of collusion when it was pretty obvious the Provos got a tip. So extremely unlike but can't ruled it out because I would still be pissed at the state that did nothing about my father being killed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,740 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    OP, during the 50s and 60s Northern Ireland was considered one of the most tolerant, equal and welcoming societies in the world to all races, creeds and nationalies.

    Then out of thin air the Provisional IRA arrived and changed all that.

    Stop trolling.

    It might have been, as long as you weren't a Catholic born in the North.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,856 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    NIMAN wrote: »
    Stop trolling.

    It might have been, as long as you weren't a Catholic born in the North.
    I don't think he was intending trolling, but rather sarcasm.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    He is ex-RUC!
    So?
    Mc Guinness sanctioned the kidnapping of Patsy Gillespie , tying a bomb to him and forcing him to drive it to a British Army checkpoint. Did that stop him from moving on after the ceasefire into the political arena? It works both ways.
    p.s. McGuinness supported the P.S.NI.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 77 ✭✭Elite Woad Raider


    Edgware wrote: »
    So?
    Mc Guinness sanctioned the kidnapping of Patsy Gillespie , tying a bomb to him and forcing him to drive it to a British Army checkpoint. Did that stop him from moving on after the ceasefire into the political arena? It works both ways.
    p.s. McGuinness supported the P.S.NI.

    So me being from the Republic, how does that equate to me supporting McGuinness?


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    So me being from the Republic, how does that equate to me supporting McGuinness?

    you can work that one out for yourself


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,580 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    I think the OP might be concerned that he still might hold some personnel loyalty to the RUC. A bit like how in 1971 UDR soldiers still felt pissed off about the B-Specials being dismantled & helped to form the Glennane Gang in Tyrone & Armagh.

    Maybe he'll form a murder gang in Limerick & Cork, and call it the Bantry Bangers.
    Very unlikely but this is the state that perfected cronyism & has a history of corruption & collusion, Alan Harris was himself the third high ranking officer killed that year with ease by the IRA, after two Chief Superintendent's were killed & the Smithwick inquiry found nothing wrong in terms of collusion when it was pretty obvious the Provos got a tip. So extremely unlike but can't ruled it out because I would still be pissed at the state that did nothing about my father being killed.

    The amount of non issues and crowbarring in this thread is beyond belief. Better suited to AH.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,577 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    The amount of non issues and crowbarring in this thread is beyond belief. Better suited to AH.

    I'm tending to agree with this.. but I'm going to leave it for now as the information on the Act itself is interesting. However if people want to discuss Drew Harris I'm going to move it to Current Affairs


  • Registered Users Posts: 321 ✭✭horsebox1977


    NIMAN wrote: »
    Stop trolling.

    It might have been, as long as you weren't a Catholic born in the North.

    I'm fairly sure he was being extremely sarcastic.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    OP, during the 50s and 60s Northern Ireland was considered one of the most tolerant, equal and welcoming societies in the world to all races, creeds and nationalies.

    Then out of thin air the Provisional IRA arrived and changed all that.

    That's news to me.

    The several UVF killings of 1966, the Battle of the Bogside, The burning of Bombay Street, The UVF & UPV 1969 bombings in Donegal & Dublin all occured before the Provisional IRA even existed. And the first killing of a British security force member happened on the Shankill when Loyalists shot dead a RUC officer during a riot.

    It was out of the ashes of Bombay Street & Orange pograms arose the Provisionals. Not thin air.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    The amount of non issues and crowbarring in this thread is beyond belief. Better suited to AH.

    I did say that it was extremly unlikely.

    The disbanding of the B-Specials however was not a non-issue, it led to riots in the Shankill Road were the first RUC officer of the conflict was killed by the UVF. And that's a historical fact that a huge amount of former B-Specials joined the UDR. And a lot of those UDR men were involved with Loyalist paramilitaries, like Harris Boyle & Wesley Somerville who were blown up by their own bomb during the Miami attack.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    I did say that it was extremly unlikely.

    The disbanding of the B-Specials however was not a non-issue, it led to riots in the Shankill Road were the first RUC officer of the conflict was killed by the UVF. And that's a historical fact that a huge amount of former B-Specials joined the UDR. And a lot of those UDR men were involved with Loyalist paramilitaries, like Harris Boyle & Wesley Somerville who were blown up by their own bomb during the Miami attack.


    The current BBC Spotlight History of the Troubles is giving immense coverage to the antics of the security forces and their use of informers high up in Sinn Fein/IRA and all the Loyalist paramillitary groups. People like Donaldson, Scapaticci etc who were very close to Adams were touting for years and there are still many in the higher echelons of Sinn Fein who have a lot to hide. The Loyalists were as bad


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Edgware wrote: »
    The current BBC Spotlight History of the Troubles is giving immense coverage to the antics of the security forces and their use of informers high up in Sinn Fein/IRA and all the Loyalist paramillitary groups. People like Donaldson, Scapaticci etc who were very close to Adams were touting for years and there are still many in the higher echelons of Sinn Fein who have a lot to hide. The Loyalists were as bad

    That was a great series. I talked to Anto McIntyre about this and he said he wouldn't be suprised if Adams had some sort hand in helping events like Loughgall or Drumnakilly take place. If he wasn't directly involved he was certainly happy to see the more militant Provos like Jim Lynagh, Padraig McKearney, Patrick Kelly, Seamus McElwaine, Gerard Harte, Dessie Grew, Kieran & William Fleming etc... being wiped out by the SAS, which helped pave the way for Adams to swan the world stage as a peace maker.

    By the 1990's the IRA was pretty much beaten in Belfast, Tyrone & Derry, like Brendan Hughes said Belfast was rotten with informers, same was true with Derry, Ed Moloney wrote that McGuinness had negotiated a secret truce in Derry as early as 1991. The only place they could move with any relative safety was South Armagh & the units in London.

    The Loyalists & British were pretty much just the same belligerent.


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