ffs,this takes the biscuit

[Ulick]

Did they not take some down on the ormeau road a while back(union jacks I think they were)?

There was a politician on about these tricolours and how they should be removed last week. It was either SDLP or Sinn Fein but I think it was the latter??

No they PSNI said no new flags would be allowed to be erected on the Ormeau, but the existing ones were not taken down.

The PSNI position has always been they will only act to prevent a breach of the peace i.e. they'll only stop them being erected and will only take them down if it's likely there will be trouble otherwise. 

[imtommygunn]

Aha. The UVF flags seem to from time to time disappear and then reappear again.

[charlieTully]

Can the police take flags down?  Noticed in one of the main streets in Lurgan yesterday a few LVF flags are hanging about, if a tricolour can be removed then surely the LVF ones should be too.

The banbridge road into lurgan is littered with uvf, uda and uff flags right up to the top of the town. One of my colleagues phoned the psni about it a few weeks back, told to phone the council, she done that only to be told phone the psni. Same shit different year.

[screenexile]

Did they not take some down on the ormeau road a while back(union jacks I think they were)?

There was a politician on about these tricolours and how they should be removed last week. It was either SDLP or Sinn Fein but I think it was the latter??

They did indeed... what cause is a couple of tricolours hanging out of a tree going to serve anyway? Some people really need to catch themselves on.

Some complete idiots painted kerbstones in our Town the other week and Sinn Fein lambasted them for it. It's ridiculous behaviour really and equates to vandalism! A group  got together and cleaned it up which was about the only good thing to come out of it.

[AQMP]

This event is a complete tragedy for the man's family and friends. 

It encapsulates in microcosm a lot of what is wrong in the North.  First of all people who think that hanging the flag they give allegiance to off the end of a tree branch in some way gives it respect.  Then a 68 year old man driven by what...pride, Britishness, hatred, bigotry, fear, God alone knows...loses his life in an attempt to treat his flag with the same lack of respect as themmuns treat theirs??

Finally UUP MLA for the area Danny Kennedy, because it's in his DNA to have a go at themmuns whatever the circumstances, when it was pointed out to him that SF had called for the Tricolours to be removed replied "It's a pity their words weren't matched by actions" one of the most crassly stupid, bewildering, and contradictory comments I've ever heard from a Northern politician (and I've heard my fair share).

[armaghniac]

This event is a complete tragedy for the man's family and friends. 

It encapsulates in microcosm a lot of what is wrong in the North.  First of all people who think that hanging the flag they give allegiance to off the end of a tree branch in some way gives it respect.  Then a 68 year old man driven by what...pride, Britishness, hatred, bigotry, fear, God alone knows...loses his life in an attempt to treat his flag with the same lack of respect as themmuns treat theirs??

Exactly. SF have treated the flag with contempt for years, they may now have reached a modest maturity but some elements don't seem to appreciate that they should not do what their Da was encouraged to do.

One hopes the fact that the aged deceased felt the need to do this reflects less bigotry among the younger generation, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[T Fearon]

 Ridiculous for unionists and unionist media to blame this on a flag when this was a death by misadventure inspired by irrational hatred.At the same time the same unionists hypocritically demand that the union flag be flown everywhere 365 days a year

[Puckoon]

The thing I'm wondering is at what point will it be made official that we are not only dealing with bigotry, but we are dealing with a race of people for whom basic intelligence is severely lacking. There is more than bigotry in these pockets of the north, there is down right stupidity. I mean that with no joke or tongue in cheek - a man has died here. A man has died trying to swim across a lake to pull down some flags. A 68 year old man.

Just difficult to comprehend. And as for suggestions that it lies at the door of those who put the flags up. I have no time for people abusing the Irish flag, but that is bullshit. It should be hung appropriately, with respect.  If some teenager from Ardoyne fell off a ladder and broke his neck trying to take down a union flag would they take responsibility?

[HiMucker]

Aha. The UVF flags seem to from time to time disappear and then reappear again.

The para trooper flag is still flying in drumahoe as you come into Derry.

[Wildweasel74]

+ Garvagh too, its easy to see how they associate with the Israelis, anything that remotely doesn't go there way, they are bitching about it, with threats of violence etc.

[imtommygunn]

http://fb.me/6VwpXGTVP

Wullie on facebook.

This really is shocking that someone died in this way and it is now being used as a political point scoring exercise.

[5 Sams]

http://fb.me/6VwpXGTVP

Wullie on facebook.

This really is shocking that someone died in this way and it is now being used as a political point scoring exercise.

If some political satirist made up a character like this and wrote about him it would never be published. What an arsehole. Someone said earlier about the level of  "intelligence"these people have/had. The more worrying thing for me is that these people are allowed to breed!

[imtommygunn]

It's not just that... Some people deem him a leader!!

[hairyUlsterman]

Couldn't give two hoots about your man, even if he was a republican I wouldn't have any sympathy for someone who uses flegs to offend people.
It's like something you would read in the Ulster saga.

In Ulster flegs aren't cultural symbols, they are symbols of hatred toward themuns.

Our gutless politicians will never have the balls to ban flegs altogether.

[hairyUlsterman]

The unionists who had family killed in the troubles seem to be more bitter than the nationalists, Patrick Kieltys father was killed and you never hear him acting like big Willie Frazer or your man here.

Speaking of Frazer, I read that some of the old Frazer clan of lowland Scotland fought against the English during the Scottish wars of independence, I'd love to tell big Willie that.