Flag Violence Assembly Session Planned For Monday

A special session is to be held at the Assembly on Monday to express MLAs’ opposition to the violence caused by the removal of the union flag at Belfast City Hall.

Alliance politicians' homes and offices across Northern Ireland have been targeted in attacks and arson since the decision.

Belfast councillors voted on Monday night to decide whether or not the union flag should continue to be flown from the top of City Hall 365 days a year.

Nationalists had expected to win the vote, which could have seen the flag removed altogether. But in the end, Sinn Féin and the SDLP sided with a compromise proposed by the Alliance Party, which will now see the flag flown on 17 designated days throughout the year.

Peaceful protests outside City Hall erupted into violence once the decision had been announced. Car windows were smashed and police officers, security guards and a press photographer were injured.

Alliance leader David Ford has proposed a debate on Monday where he hopes there will be unanimous cross-party support condemning the attacks.

First Minister Peter Robinson has called for ongoing loyalist protests to be suspended and has condemned the violence. But he still maintains the decision to remove the flag is "divisive and provocative".

Alliance claim unionist parties must bear some responsibility for the violence. In mid-November, the DUP and UUP worked together to deliver some 40,000 leaflets across the city, accusing Alliance of "underhand tactics". The leaflets urged unionists to contact the Alliance Party. Staff at the party offices say they were subjected to intimidatory and threatening phone calls as a result.

Unionists claim their cultural identity has been attacked.

But Alliance’s Naomi Long said her party's councillors had behaved responsibly in Belfast in taking advice on equality and voting that the Union flag should be flown on designated days.

(IT)