The case for a new flag in Northern Ireland…

David Michell is Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast. You can follow him on Twitter.

It’s good to see the Executive working on normal politics again. But the flag problem – one of the great unsolvables of the peace process – hasn’t gone away. And the fact that there hasn’t been much talk about flags recently means it’s a good time to talk about flags.

The flag problem is several interlinked problems. The problem of what official flag to fly. The problems caused by flags flown on streets. And the problem of what all this does to people’s sense of place and belonging. The flag impasse feeds into an impression that this society is in permanent limbo.

The idea that the flag problem might be eased by a new flag is not new,^[1] nor has it ever gained much traction. But now that politics has stabilised, it’s worth considering again.

What a new flag could represent

Nationalists and unionists may be perfectly happy with their national flags. But the Irish tricolour and Union flag are inadequate, and increasingly so. They don’t represent three things about this place which could and should be represented by a new flag, without threatening anyone or any flag.

First is Northern Ireland’s diversity. According to the 2021 census, the Irish and British are both minority groups, while the number of people of ‘other nationalities’ from outside the UK and Ireland almost doubled between 2011 and 2021, rising to 113,300. The ‘neither unionist nor nationalist’ cohort has long been the largest in the annual Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) surveys.

The second thing is a northern regional identity. This is not an affinity with the Northern Ireland state. It’s an affection for the northern Ireland place. We can assume this identity is held by at least the 598,800 people (31.5%) who identified as ‘Northern Irish’ (solely or in combination with other national identities) in the census, and perhaps many more. There may be different interpretations of this identity, but few would deny that something like this exists.^[2]

The third thing is the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The Agreement is a unique part of Northern Ireland, and it expresses the north’s uniqueness. The three sets of relationships, the ambiguity and inclusivity. Elections and the NILT surveys still show high levels of support for the Agreement. People fight about what it means for existing flags. But the Agreement itself doesn’t have a flag.

What a new flag could look like

So there’s a flag-shaped hole in this place, but could we agree on one? Post-apartheid South Africa combined the two main parties’ colours in its new flag. Northern Ireland could try that, but it leaves the problem of two-side exclusivity. It might produce something that no-one warms to.

A better approach would be to avoid ideological colours or pre-existing symbols, and take inspiration from nature – the scenery, coastline, and climate that are shared by everyone. That, after all, is what should be symbolised: the shared ‘home place’ of the north.

Flags around the world do this, from the yellow on the Barbados flag (the beaches) to the white on the Finland flag (the snow). And there’s a local lesson in how the power-sharing Executive agreed on the hexagon pattern of the Giant’s Causeway stones for its logo. If you want consensus, look to nature. The actual design could come from a public competition and vote. The new Office for Identity and Cultural Expression, which we’re told is on the way, could play a role.

What a new flag could achieve

Unionists will always want the Union flag flown. Nationalists will cherish the tricolour. But putting this new flag into circulation would mean people aren’t be pushed to steer their children towards one or other camp. Northern Ireland would be a more intelligible and welcoming place to people from other countries who come to live here.

A new flag could also foster pride and optimism. Peace here is often said to be cold. That might be in part because we haven’t properly symbolised it. We’ve left that role to shiny new buildings. With a shared symbol, a shared future and present would be easier to imagine.

Finally, this flag might be helpful in the face of uncertainty about Northern Ireland’s future status. A new symbol that expressed northern-ness and the spirit of the Agreement would signal the permanency of both, regardless of constitutional change.

It’s time for, not a ‘Northern Ireland’ flag, but a northern, civic flag. Not a flag of a history, ideology, or political goal, but of a place – without neat borders – and the diverse people who call it home.

1. The Alliance Party, at least, suggested it back in 2003, along with more use of the EU flag.

   The 2021 report of the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition, briefly floated the idea of creating ‘a Civic flag that would be designed to be representative of the diversity of our society, including our new communities’ (p. 113). Professor Dominic Bryan, one of the chairs of the Commission, tells me that he, for one, has long advocated this. ↑

2. Claire Hanna, a nationalist, spoke warmly of this identity recently in a BBC Red Lines interview. For a study that distinguishes between a state-based Northern Irish identity and a place-based northern regional identity, see McNicholl, K., Stevenson, C., & Garry, J. (2019). How the “Northern Irish” National Identity Is Understood and Used by Young People and Politicians. Political Psychology, 40(3), 487–505. ↑

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