Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954
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The Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 was an act of the Northern Ireland Parliament passed in 1954, that effectively banned the display of the Irish tricolour in Northern Ireland. It was repealed in the 1980s under the direct rule of the British government, by the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987.
It was bitterly resented by nationalists who saw the Act as being deliberately designed to suppress their identity, as they regarded the flag as their own. Although it did not refer explicitly to the Irish tricolour, the Act gave the Royal Ulster Constabulary the power to remove any flag or emblem which was deemed to be likely to cause a breach of the peace, and this wording was designed to refer to the aforementioned flag. It declared that the display of the Union Jack could never be regarded as likely to cause such a breach.
In fact the Act was more specifically aimed at giving the Union flag legal protection. It was introduced at a time of some turmoil within Unionism in Northern Ireland; dissent that was viewed with alarm by the Unionist Government and the legislation was initiated amid the pressure emanating from that dissent. Hard-line Unionists accused the Government of appeasing Nationalists; a more lenient approach by Government to some Nationalist parades had led to an increase in the flying of the Irish Tricolour. Likewise the Coronation celebrations had led to the erection of Union flags, not only in Unionist enclaves, but in Nationalist areas where disputes erupted and where some Union flags were taken down and replaced with Tricolours.
Violations of the Act were punishable by up to a fine up to £500, or up to five years in prison.
The enforcement of the Act would often lead to rioting, most notoriously in October 1964 on the lower Falls in Belfast.
The Belfast Street Names Act, which banned given streets names in the Irish Language, was regarded by many as a similarly sectarian law.
Reading
Henry Patterson, Party versus order: Ulster Unionism and the Flags and Emblems Act, Contemporary British History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 105-129.
External links
Categories
History of Northern Ireland