Flags & Culture.....

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Couple of points - Do the fuckwits who put up UVF flags outside their houses claim they relate to the original UVF from 1912?  Secondly, could they not be prosecuted for flying paramilitary flags?

Michael, were the UVF of 1912 correct in their threatened (potential) regicide?

[ONeill]

Flags. Smlags. Only here.

[ziggysego]

There's a Norn Iron soccer flag up in Omagh. They've hung it up, up-side-down.

[Myles Na G.]

There's a bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast which celebrated 4th July by lining the windows with US flags, all of them back to front.

On a totally different point, this same bar put the flags of all the competing nations in the Euros up in the windows when the competition kicked off. Pride of place, in the window right above the front door, was given to a great big Irish tricolour. It stayed there for two or three days. It then mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a Heineken flag. Would love to know the story behind that.

[nifan]

Couple of points - Do the fuckwits who put up UVF flags outside their houses claim they relate to the original UVF from 1912?  Secondly, could they not be prosecuted for flying paramilitary flags?

I dont think they think theres a difference between original and current.

[Declan]

I dont think they think

Never a truer word spoken

[screenexile]

There's a bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast which celebrated 4th July by lining the windows with US flags, all of them back to front.

On a totally different point, this same bar put the flags of all the competing nations in the Euros up in the windows when the competition kicked off. Pride of place, in the window right above the front door, was given to a great big Irish tricolour. It stayed there for two or three days. It then mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a Heineken flag. Would love to know the story behind that.

I would imagine it was something along the lines of

"Get that fleg down now tae f**k or we'll torch the place"

[front of the mountain]

There's a bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast which celebrated 4th July by lining the windows with US flags, all of them back to front.

On a totally different point, this same bar put the flags of all the competing nations in the Euros up in the windows when the competition kicked off. Pride of place, in the window right above the front door, was given to a great big Irish tricolour. It stayed there for two or three days. It then mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a Heineken flag. Would love to know the story behind that.

Is that the Hatfield??

Flags it seems is the equivalent to the dog lifting his leg and pi**ing at a lampost..... Just seem to be marking their territory!!

[Orior]

There's a bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast which celebrated 4th July by lining the windows with US flags, all of them back to front.

On a totally different point, this same bar put the flags of all the competing nations in the Euros up in the windows when the competition kicked off. Pride of place, in the window right above the front door, was given to a great big Irish tricolour. It stayed there for two or three days. It then mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a Heineken flag. Would love to know the story behind that.

Used to be that poor people hung their curtains with the pattern showing outside, whilst the gentry hung their curtains with the pattern showing to the inside of the house.

[Evil Genius]

Couple of points - Do the fuckwits who put up UVF flags outside their houses claim they relate to the original UVF from 1912?

They probably would claim it, even though there is NO connection. Afaik, Gusty Spence formed his band of terrorist pyschos in the mid-60's, taking the name from the British Army Division which had fought with such distinction in WW1, half a century before. (In fact, I remember talking to an RC friend who had taken a look around St. Anne's CoI Cathedral in Belfast one day. He was shocked to see "UVF" flags in a place of worship, until I explained that these were Army Colours and Battle Honours from the Somme in 1916.) 

Secondly, could they not be prosecuted for flying paramilitary flags?

It is very possible that the householders had nothing to do with it. Most likely is that a group of hallions came along with a van, a ladder and a whole bunch of assorted flags and "decorated" the street as they saw fit, irrespective of the wishes of individual householders. And if you weren't happy, these aren't the sort of people you would want to antagonise.
I know of one smallish Housing Estate, mostly Prod but mixed nonetheless, where Community Relations were always reasonably amicable. Then a couple of families moved in (more likely "were moved in" by the Housing Exec), who proceeded to torture their new neighbours. It got particularly bad as the Twelfth approached, with all sorts of flags and emblems hoisted everywhere. There was no way the locals dared being seen to interfere with flags outside their house, but eventually the PSNI were called in. I think some of the paramilitary shit might have been removed, only to be replaced as soon as the police left etc.
Anyhow, after people tried to negotiate a reasonable resolution collectively, the hoods only went round each house with a "Petition", which claimed that the flag displays had "widespread community support etc".
Of course, no-one dared to refuse to sign it, esp pensioners or people with kids etc, since they knew that if they did, that evening there would be a brick through their window, their car would be trashed, or worse.
I'm not up-to-date with that Estate now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is now exclusively Prod, or on its way to it, since RC's must surely have been greatly intimidated. Yet it hadn't been a problem previously. 

P.S. Quite aside from the sectarianism, those families were well known to the police for all sorts of "ordinary" criminality, as they tortured their Prod neighbours without discrimination [sic].

[Onion Bag]

These 2 houses in Markethill always have the UVF flag up. so there is no way they were bullied into putting them up. they wrap them up and put them into their attic until the following year,  the bitter bastards

there would be some cry if someone were to put an IRA flag up outside their house

[nifan]

These 2 houses in Markethill always have the UVF flag up. so there is no way they were bullied into putting them up. they wrap them up and put them into their attic until the following year,  the bitter b**tards

there would be some cry if someone were to put an IRA flag up outside their house

Id agree - generally the flags outside the house are the homeowners (i mean they have a flagpole installed for a start) - more commonly  it is the murals on the gables that where foisted on people as far as I ever knew.

is there an ira flag? In derry Ive seen tricolours with IRA or INLA written on them in some areas, or starry plough - cant really think of an ira flag

[Myles Na G.]

There's a bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast which celebrated 4th July by lining the windows with US flags, all of them back to front.

On a totally different point, this same bar put the flags of all the competing nations in the Euros up in the windows when the competition kicked off. Pride of place, in the window right above the front door, was given to a great big Irish tricolour. It stayed there for two or three days. It then mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a Heineken flag. Would love to know the story behind that.

Is that the Hatfield??

Flags it seems is the equivalent to the dog lifting his leg and pi**ing at a lampost..... Just seem to be marking their territory!!

No, further up the Ormeau Road, opposite the police station. McCluskeys I think it's called now. Changes hands about every 18 months.

[OverTheBlackSpot]

Massive bonfire built on the Shore Road, Belfast. Few nice messages on it too. Are you allowed to burn tyres ??

[ziggysego]

Massive bonfire built on the Shore Road, Belfast. Few nice messages on it too. Are you allowed to burn tyres ??

It's illegal to burn tyres. Still, if they're doing it in their own community, I'm not going to bother about them too much.