Debate contribution: Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew McMurray on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew McMurray
- Party at the time
- Alliance 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 5670909
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I agree totally with my colleague, unsurprisingly, and that brings me, again, to a point about the PSNI. There are messages that are not subtle at all. I have mentioned the subtle messages, such as flags on lamp posts at the entrance to a housing development that has barely taken shape, but there are messages that are not subtle. In the spring, we witnessed "billboard-gate", if you will, and all that went with it. We have seen the Moygashel bonfire and the abhorrent flags in Dungannon. I will not give that too much airtime. Mr Burrows made a point about the PSNI not having powers and not being able to act. I have noticed a trend in some of the solutions that Mr Burrows puts forward. It usually seems to be a case of saying, "Give the PSNI more powers", yet, ironically, we are now in a situation in which the PSNI has powers but not the ability to enforce them. That is the issue that the legislation goes to.
No, you are all right: I am going to crack on. The broad question is: who controls what appears in our public spaces? Flags that are put up by men in masks and flags that commemorate terrorists reinforce that question. As democrats, we need to find the answer, and that is what the Bill aims to do. We have talked a bit — we touched on it slightly — about how hurt in this society goes both ways. I know that from the area that I live in and the area that I come from. It is communication 101: the intention behind what I say may be completely different from how it is received and interpreted. The historian Diarmaid Ferriter said:
"less is more when it comes to commemoration and ... an excess of reverential piety or defiant righteousness does little to help healing."
As someone who is passionate about reconciliation in our society, I think that that is an important quote when it comes to how we approach this topic. As I have said, I want to live in a shared society. I want a reconciled society. I want to see confident communities that can also offer respect in what they do. To conclude, I will go back to where I started. This takes a bit of imagination sometimes, and that is what the Bill does: it turns a bit of positive imagination into a tangible reality for a shared society.
412 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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