Debate contribution: Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 7 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

7 September 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5670793

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to speak to the Second Stage of the Bill. Some of what has been said tonight has been useful and constructive. For the most part, the debate has not been heated or intemperate, which is helpful because this is clearly a sensitive subject. The subject of flags and emblems goes to the heart of this society, its divisions and its distinctiveness. The SDLP is famous for a number of things, one of which is the maxim associated with our leader and founder, John Hume, who said that you cannot eat a flag. What that value and insight was really about was saying to people in this part of the world that not everything has to be about national identity or the assertion of identity and that there are other things that should animate our politics and our political life, including the material well-being of our people, our public services and people's ability to live a good life. We stand by that view: that is what animates us. We have also always been a party that believes in the diversity of our people in this part of the world. We believe in celebrating that diversity and not just acknowledging but celebrating and finding space for the diversity of all the traditions on this island now and in the new Ireland that we want to build. I have set out the context. That is the approach that we have taken on the issues throughout our history, including in deliberations on the FICT report or, now, on Paula Bradshaw's Bill. We do not inherently want to shut down cultural expressions or expressions of national identity, even where they are different from ours as individuals. In an instinctive and emotional sense, I genuinely do not feel offended or angry when I see a Union flag. Lots of my constituents, even those who have no allegiance to the Union flag, do not either. However, those constituents often communicate to me a sense of frustration that they have absolutely no means of understanding why those flags are on their street. They will often vocalise to me clearly and very insistently by email, in phone calls, in the supermarket, down the pub or at the school gates that they have no issue with people flying a national flag — perhaps it is not that they have no issue with it but that they are willing to accommodate and accept it — in the streets where they live but that they would like a little clarity over who has put the flag up. The flags usually go on street furniture, which is, as John Stewart said, on the face of it, a possible offence. They would also like to know when the flags will come down. Where people have been accommodating around specific flag protocols, for example for the Twelfth, there has often been a reciprocal generosity from people who do not adhere to or have allegiance to the Union flag, the Ulster banner or other symbols of orangeness and what is often called "Ulster Britishness" and are willing to accept that. However, it is also true to say that those protocols are not in the majority and are not in any way regularised or consistent across Northern Ireland. What is consistent across Northern Ireland is the inability or unwillingness of statutory authorities to provide any consistent, clear approach to taking down flags. I will come on, by the way, to drawing a distinction between national flags, whatever their origin, and proscribed paramilitary flags because there is, of course, a legal and ethical distinction between those. There is no consistency of approach from statutory authorities when it comes to dealing with flags of any kind, including national flags that have become unsightly and ragged. No one should want that in their street, whether it is a tricolour or a Union flag, a Palestinian flag or an Israeli flag, a flag of a football team or a rainbow flag. It really does not matter whether you support the cause or the national identity that is being expressed: it is unsightly.

I will give way in one second. The lack of consistency and the inability to deal with the matter, particularly in constituencies such as mine and that of the Bill sponsor — South Belfast — which is proud of its diversity, is deeply frustrating. I cannot get that across to people enough. People have said that this is not a huge priority. It is quite a significant priority for people who are proud to live in a diverse constituency. People in South Belfast, in places such as Finaghy, Rosetta, Carryduff and now, Saintfield — the wonderful town of Saintfield is coming into our constituency — are proud to live in a shared space. They are proud to live in a space where there is room not just for different identities but for shared, communal space that people live in together. They are deeply frustrated when flags are put up.

A week or two ago, I was leafleting in Saintfield about a public meeting that we will have there soon. Someone came out, and the very first thing that she was keen to tell me was, "Just for the record, I am a unionist. There are loads of flags along here. I do not know who put them up, but it is now September. I have no issue with them putting them up around the Twelfth. I have relatives in the Orange Order, but I do not know who put them up. In fact," she said, "I am fairly confident that the people who put up the flags do not live here, and I do not know when they will be taken down. They are beginning to become unsightly". If Members do not think that that is a real issue and that people are not frustrated about that, they are kidding themselves. That is not to diminish national flags. I will come on, now, to the more serious, proscribed flags, but Mr Buckley asked for an intervention.

1,010 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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