7/30/2019 Extremists walking down a one way road... the wrong way

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@JonMcDowellNI Jon McDowell JonMcDowellNI jonmcdowell.wordpress.com

EXTREMISTS WALKING DOWN A ONE-WAYROAD... THE WRONG WAY

ANALYSIS

Jon McDowell, Somewhere, England. 8 December 2012.

If anyone from the outside looked in on Northern Ireland, they would probablythink one thing: we get very passionate about things.

Take Dulse. Who else would think that trawling the sea and plucking outseaweed, with all the fish waste attached, then drying it out on a beach andstuffing it into bags would be considered a delicacy? Yet lots of us love thestuff.

Tayto crisps too (other crisps are available, but you cant beat Cheese & Onion).You cant leave Northern Ireland without pining for the good stuff from TaytoCastle.

Its not just foodstuffs; we also like to add extra words to the end of sentences.So we do. We have a passion about words that no-one else understands, fromprocuring ice-cream from a poke van, to getting a good slap in the bake whenwe have been naughty, to watching fillums at the cinema. We are passionateabout all of this, and no-one dares take away our uniqueness, or NornIrishness.

Recently, one thing we have become very passionate about is the issue of Flags.Or to quote the twitterati, #flegs. So we have...

Now, we have flags to suit everyone in our community. We are a democracyafter all. Or at least I think we are. We have Union flags, Ulster flags, theTricolour, St Patricks saltire, every paramilitary flag available under the sun, fromUVF to UDA to IRA to Idontreallyknowwhatgroupthisis flags, and you can alsothrow in the odd Israel or Palestine flag (depending on postcode). Houses haveflags, so do lampposts. Dogs get flags draped over them on special occasions(like Tuesdays for example). In the Far East, where most of the flegs are made,there must be a factory manager confusingly scratching his head wondering why90% of his output consists of deliveries to Belfast.

So you would think we have enough flags, but apparently not. It seems that oneflag in particular has been causing concern. The Union flag that flies, or at leastused to, outside the City Hall.

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7/30/2019 Extremists walking down a one way road... the wrong way

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@JonMcDowellNI Jon McDowell JonMcDowellNI jonmcdowell.wordpress.com

Now, Im very proud of the Union flag. I have one adorning the hallway of myhouse. I also have a Royal Irish Regiment flag and, horror of horrors, a StPatricks saltire.

The reason I am very proud of the Union flag is that I and other service people in

the armed forces fought on behalf of the principles of the flag. I and others livethe values of the flag. The Union flag is a flag of democracy and peace, not aflag of violent fascism.

And thats what we have seen in the past week. Nothing but blatant,uneducated, sectarian thuggery.

We all have the right to protest. We do not have the right to use the protest asan excuse to threaten democratic peoples lives and destroy property. We do nothave the right to whip up tensions and hatred via the media and social websites,then walk away and wash our hands off it (certain Unionists take note).

To apportion all blame against the Alliance party, and indeed certain Alliancerepresentatives who had nothing to do with the vote in Belfast is not only wrong,it is morally repugnant.

Alliance didnt start this sorry tale of events. Nationalists threw the gauntlet byproposing a vote that the Union flag should NEVER be flown from the City Hall.Never means zero days, for the uneducated reading this.

The Unionists? Instead of negotiating a compromise from the outset, theydecided to sit on their hands, perhaps hoping it would all go away. Then, when

they realised that there was a strong possibility that the vote would go through,some decided it would be a great idea to distribute inflammatory and incorrectleaflets to households in Belfast criticising Alliance and stating that they were, inas many words, the people who would topple Ulster into an Irish Republic. Farbe it for me to criticise their motives, but did the pro-Union leaflet distributors notrealise that the householders wouldnt be the people passing the vote at BelfastCity Council and in actual fact it was the letter-box stuffers?

Should they not have been more pro-active in sorting the problem behind thescenes at Council level? Or is that just common sense?

And instead of getting Alliance on their side, all that the Unionists achieved wasto further alienate any support they could have received. But Alliance struggledon. They proposed a compromise to the initial proposal by the Nationalists, andthanks to Alliance, the flag will be flown outside the City Hall on set days.

Read the last sentence again.

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7/30/2019 Extremists walking down a one way road... the wrong way

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@JonMcDowellNI Jon McDowell JonMcDowellNI jonmcdowell.wordpress.com

THEY (Alliance), PROPOSED A COMPROMISE (some days are better thannone). And still, extremists decided that rioting would be the answer and thatafter some wanton vandalism, the good old Jack would be fluttering proudlyonce again. Wrong.

I still cant comprehend why Alliance is such a target. Take Stewart Dicksonsoffice for example. Honestly, Why? Stewart has devoted his political career tohelping anyone. He doesnt ask about religion, beliefs, culture, even if what flagyou like. Stewart has always served his duty to help PEOPLE.

Stewart did not vote at the City Hall. So why destroy his office and the hard,honest work he has done for all of the people of East Antrim?

The answer is simple. Extremist politicians have been shoring up disaffectedLoyalist Paramilitaries and youths which inevitably would end up with trouble.How often do these 'Loyalists' walk past city hall and say "ooh, look at the Union

Flag, its still there"?

I have also been asking myself why aren't these 'Loyalists' protesting outsideSF/SDLP offices? They voted against the flag flying too. They actually proposedit.

Will you see protests outside SF offices on Falls Road? No. Because thehardcore extremist fascists only look for soft targets.

My sympathies to Mr Dickson and also the businesses that lost valuable earningsduring the clean up. Its time for the extremists to stop the 'Grand Old Duke of

York' days, and time for the PSNI to stop handwringing with Paramilitaries. Itstime for law and order.

On Wednesday night, after a peaceful protest, the extremists broke rank andwalked up North Street to Mr Dicksons office. North Street is a one way street,and they walked up the wrong way. Can anyone else see the irony there? Turnaround, because you need to walk in the right direction.

And if we have to have a cross community fleg to keep everyone happy, heresan idea: a white flag (peace) with a picture of Mr Tayto on the front. Everyonelikes Mr Tayto. And he lives in a Castle, so thats Ulster defended.

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