The highway I grew up on in Drumahoe, on the outskirts of Derry, has been on the information recently, and never in a method that makes me proud. Journalists stand at its junction with the principle highway from Belfast, pointing up on the purple flag of the Parachute Regiment fluttering excessive on a lamp-post. They clarify its significance at the moment of yr: it was paratroopers who killed 13 unarmed civil rights marchers within the metropolis on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. Members of the family of these killed have talked concerning the ache the flying of those flags causes them. Politicians, together with some unionists, and even the Parachute Regiment itself have referred to as it “unacceptable”.
The flag flies as a result of there are some within the unionist neighborhood who wish to present that not all people is mourning the lifeless of Bloody Sunday as its fiftieth anniversary is marked in Derry this weekend. It's a present of disrespect. Drumahoe has been flying this flag for years, as has the village of Newbuildings on the principle highway into Derry from Dublin. I noticed one which had an indication pinned beneath it that includes the crosshairs of a gun – a warning to anybody tempted to take away it. In Drumahoe there are all the time union flags and Ulster flags flying, and typically there are additionally Scottish, Israeli and paramilitary flags. They stand like a bizarre forest. After the Anglo-Irish settlement in 1985, “Drumahoe Says No” was daubed on a wall alongside the principle highway behind our home, the white ghosts of its letters lingering on the pink brick for years after it was painted over.
Homes in Drumahoe are in demand. Recently a number of developments have been constructed of the type described as “unique”, which in property agent language means costly. As soon as the earth is reduce for the foundations, nevertheless,flags seem and put a distinct slant on “unique”. Their message is: homes for Protestants. Once we bought our outdated household house final yr, somebody plastered an Ulster Defence Affiliation bulldog sticker on the on the market signal.
A girl who lives in a single flag-festooned property close to Derrytold me that her space is definitely fairly “blended”, which means folks from each Protestant and Catholic backgrounds reside there. She stated most didn't need the flags however they continue to be as a result of everybody knew the boys who put them up. They had been aggressive and had paramilitary connections.
Some folks merely stop to note these territorial markings. My mom as soon as took a photograph of my daughter in her backyard. She was up a tree with a big union flag on a lamp-post behind her, apparently sprouting from her head. After I stated it was a pity concerning the flag, my mom stated, “What flag?”
It was referred to as triumphalism, this flaunting of Northern Eire’s Britishness. Now it appears to be like extra like desperation. When the state was arrange in 1921, unionists felt safe. However the Good Friday settlement relies on power-sharing, and unionism has misplaced its majority at Stormont. A census to be printed this yr is anticipated to indicate that there are extra Catholics than Protestants – that is already so amongst younger folks. The Could election may see Sinn Féin take the primary minister position.
Beneath the outdated unionist regime, the nationalist majority in Derry was disenfranchised – now it's mirrored in native and UK political establishments. The outdated binary is breaking down anyway. Younger musicians who play in loyalist bands by day go to gigs in republican areas at evening – music is the shared ardour, not division. Whereas some unionists are nonetheless militant about calling town Londonderry, and a few nationalists insist on Derry, for essentially the most half persons are amiably keen to make use of both or each. Lengthy, exhausting cross-community work on parading has taken a lot of the strife out of the annual burning of the effigy of “Lundy the traitor”. (He was a governor of Derry who needed to give up town to Catholic King James in 1689 quite than endure a siege.)
The marketing campaign for fact and justice for individuals who died on Bloody Sunday led to the Saville inquiry. Its discovering that these killed on Bloody Sunday had been harmless, and the prime minister’s apology in 2010, led to makes an attempt to prosecute a number of the paratroopers for homicide. Soldier F, as he was identified, was to be tried in Derry. In 2019 senior DUP figures, together with Gregory Campbell, who lives in Drumahoe and is MP for East Londonderry, together with native Northern Eire meeting member Gary Middleton, posed underneath a banner that had the Parachute Regiment’s insignia on it together with the declare that loyalist Derry is “nonetheless underneath siege” and the slogan “No give up”. The Soldier F case collapsed in 2021. This yr, Middletonsaw sense and referred to as for the Parachute Regiment’s flags to be taken down.
The commemorations for Bloody Sunday this yr included performs, exhibitions, debates and concert events. The Irish taoiseach attended. It has been gracious and dignified. Folks from all communities had been invited to hitch a stroll alongside the unique route of the march on Sunday. Unionist leaders had been additionally invited, however none got here. It appears to be like unhealthy.
Final week Colum Eastwood, the SDLP chief and MP for the constituency, referred to as at Westminster for an apology from the British military for coming to Derry to “homicide” civilians. He was heckled by the DUP MP Sammy Wilson. That appeared unhealthy, too. As a Stormont election looms, the DUP, humiliated by the Brexit debacle and by the prime minister, is poking on the deep outdated roots of sectarianism.
Those that put up the Parachute Regiment’s flag are stuffed with incoherent rage. They imagine Protestant civilians killed by the IRA haven't been given the identical consideration as those that died on Bloody Sunday. They need recognition for “the exodus” that noticed many Protestants successfully pushed out of town aspect of Derry by the IRA throughout the battle. They really feel betrayed and uncared for by unionist leaders who've taken their help with no consideration and achieved little to enhance their lives. One man informed me that these accountable are “giving two fingers” to everybody else. “They’re saying – we will do that and you may’t cease us,” he stated.
Susan McKay is an Irish author and journalist whose books embrace Northern Protestants: On Shifting Floor
This text was amended on 4 February 2022 to say that pending census outcomes are anticipated to indicate extra Catholics than Protestants (quite than to indicate an total Catholic majority) in Northern Eire.
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