Fly the flag: a historic perspective

Here in Northern Ireland we hear the argument that the flag has always flown 24/7/365. It is like something set in time immemorial. So imagine what happens when someone actually scours through some historical documents. Here is the page about flying the flag in the 1950s. Note the lack of the Princes Andrew and Edward and the fact that Charles most senior title is that of Duke of Cornwall. Note also the time for flying them is 8 a.m.till sunset.

The days are:

• 1st January - New Years Day
• 6th February - Her Majesty's Ascension
• 17th March - St. Patrick's Day
• 31st March - Birthday of the Duke of Gloucester (note this is Prince Henry the son of the current Duke and son of George V)
• Easter Day
• 21st April - Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen
• 25th April - Birthday of the Princess Royal (again note this is Princess Mary, daughter of George V at the time)
• 24th May - Empire Day
• 10th June - Birthday of the Duke of Edinburgh
• 12th July - Bank Holiday
• 4th August - Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
• 18th August - Birthday of the Princess Anne
• 31st August - Birthday of the Princess Margaret
• November - Remembrance Day
• 14th November - Birthday of the Duke of Cornwall
• 20th November - Her Majesty's Wedding Day
• 25th December - Christmas Day

Also to be flown for the official celebration of Her Majesty's Birthday and the Opening and Closing of the sessions of the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland.

A grand total of twenty days.

So when people tell you it has always been that way, ask them to check the facts.

Just like the name of Northern Ireland's second city, where if like me you look at family census returns from 1901 and 1911 where protestant children are born in the City of Derry and family live in Derry, this issue didn't become political until one side made it so. Now is the time for grown up politics.

In the UK we don't fly the flag every day. But we do fly it from civic and government buildings on a set number. That should apply to all council offices including those that do not fly it. Flying it any more than this is the equivalent of a dog marking their territory, and we know how they go about that.

I like Steve Chalke cos he is a nice guy

Just over 20 years ago at Operation Mobilisation's Love Europe training week in Nuremburg, Germany I got my guitar out and with my fellow member of the LUKE line up team Rob Davis greeted our UK teams' guest speaker for an evening orientation season with a rock song. It only had one line, the title of this blog post repeated over and over. We then handed him a Love Preston t-shirt as a thank you for the session he had just given.

Today I want to get my guitar out again because of something that he has written here in Christianity magazine. He calls for the church to revisit its thinking on homosexuality and the need to look at it seriously. He points out correctly:

"Promiscuity is always damaging and dehumanising. Casual and self-centred expressions of sexuality – homosexual or heterosexual – never reflect God’s faithfulness, grace and self-giving love. Only a permanent and stable relationship, in which respect and faithfulness are given and received, can offer the security in which well-being and love can thrive."

Not I had been going to write a response to Rupert Everett's comments in Pink News last week about his fury against the Catholic Church. Pointing out that from my personal experience whenever the church was really hitting down on me because of my sexuality I tend to be more promiscuous as a result. This article from someone respected within the church goes some way to offering understanding and hope of the situation that gay Christians like myself find ourselves in. Steve carries on:

"One tragic outworking of the Church’s historical rejection of faithful gay relationships is our failure to provide homosexual people with any model of how to cope with their sexuality, except for those who have the gift of, or capacity for, celibacy. In this way we have left people vulnerable and isolated. When we refuse to make room for gay people to live in loving, stable relationships, we consign them to lives of loneliness, secrecy and fear. It’s one thing to be critical of a promiscuous lifestyle – but shouldn’t the Church consider nurturing positive models for permanent and monogamous homosexual relationships?"

This is one thing that I have always clung to myself in my struggles with my faith and sexuality. It is actually biblical and comes from 1 Corinthians 7: 1-7 where Paul says:

 Now for the matters you wrote about: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

Of course the church expects all those with same sex attraction to remain celibate to be welcome. But as Paul says he doesn't even expect that of every heterosexual person of faith. Celibacy is a gift which not everyone is given. Yet with the Anglican church saying it will accept gay Bishops only if they are celibate, with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland saying it accepts gay people into full membership but only if they refrain from practice and so many other examples the pressure is only all LGBT people of faith to acquire a gift or fall short or fall out of favour with their churches.

In his conclusion Steve says:

"Rather than condemn and exclude, can we dare to create an environment for homosexual people where issues of self-esteem and well-being can be talked about, where the virtues of loyalty, respect, interdependence and faithfulness can be nurtured, and where exclusive and permanent same-sex relationships can be supported?

"Tolerance is not the same as Christ-like love. Christ-like love calls us to go beyond tolerance to want for the other the same respect, freedom and equality one wants for oneself. We should find ways to formally support and encourage those who are in, or wish to enter into, faithful same-sex partnerships, as well as in their wider role as members of Christ’s body."

This is the sort of love I wish I'd seen around the church when I was 14 and started to struggle with my church telling me something and every essence in my body telling me something else. This is the sort of love I have received from many of my Christian friends who for years I wasn't totally honest with, because I took a long time for me to accept me for who I was sexually. But so many of them, though there are a handful of exceptions, have accepted that I am still the same person as always, still with the same faith.

I would urge all of you to read the full extended version of what Steve has written and watch this video about the issue that he has produced.

 Update Unfortunately the head of the Evangelical Alliance has not heeded Steve's plea to contemplate and has hit straight out with this comment.

The DUP and the missed opportinity

I'm back. Did you miss me? I was over in Scotland for an interview on Friday, though sadly I am still on the hunt for that damned illusive thing called a job. However, despite being unemployed you will not find me taking part in recreational rioting.

However, while I was away from Thursday to Saturday I had quite a bit of time for thinking and here is something that I thought about.

Sinn Féin over the last 6 weeks have been saying that they do not want to totally disrespect the symbols that matter to the Loyalists. Indeed they were happy to accept the flying of the Union Flag on designated days from Belfast City Hall. It is something the the SDLP also are happy to accept.

Now here is the crunch thing. The DUP's immediate knee jerk reaction was to try and get the flag flying in as many councils as they can flying 365 days a year. Even in ones like Craigavon and Lisburn where they were part of the decision to fly it only on designated days. But what about the councils to the West of the Bann, the ones with a nationalist/republic majority?

Surely if Sinn Féin and the SDLP are prepared to accept that until the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise that we are part of the United Kingdom and as such the Union Flag can be flown on designated days, what about those locations where the unionist community is in a minority? Should not instead of going on the attack about the flying of a flag, which by the way I did not see flying outside civic buildings in Scotland, into an appeal to get it flying everywhere in Northern Ireland on the designated days.

But no that would be far too sensible a thing to take out of this for the DUP. It is all or nothing with them at the moment and while some have nothing, some have some and some have all days of the Union Flag flying they think that is good enough. If Sinn Féin are prepared to let the flag fly on the days that honour the Monarch and Royal Family most in Belfast why not in Londonderry, Omagh, Dungannon and the rest?

But of course rather than seek a compromise for all of Northern Ireland, rather than even considering publishing the Cohesion Sharing and Integration strategy at a time the glue holding Northern Ireland together is falling away, they decide to retreat into their corner. They march out about 40,000 leaflets which told untruths to the people of East Belfast. They fail to mention that a committee had actually already voted to totally remove the Union Flag. They instead issue a legal challenge to try and overturn something was was voted on not once but twice and came to two different conclusions, just not the one they wanted.

You see while the unionists shrink back into their sections of society, they do leave men and Britishness behind. They are no long the party supporting Britishness in all of Ulster, indeed they are no longer such in all of Northern Ireland. They are only the party of large parts of Down and Antrim and smaller parts elsewhere, but largely unseen West of the Bann.

Meanwhile talking of Scotland the protestors fighting for their right to be British took their protest to the office of Nicola Sturgeon (it appears on their way to Ibrox). Yes they took their appeal to defend the Union Flag to the deputy leader of a party that wants to get rid of  the blue parts to keep all to themselves.

Parish notice

I know I haven't posted much in the last week or so, but bear with me until this weekend.

But there may also be an exciting announcement about something newish to me starting next week too.

Belfast Marathon Training Blog T -120

I've decided to start a little bit of blogging about my progress in getting ready for the Belfast Marathon on May 6th which I am running for Marie Curie in memory of my father, you can sponsor me via my JustGiving page. This is the first such entry.

I've just come in from a wet run on a cold January morning. At 43 my legs are quite as quick on the recovery as they once were half a life time ago. The aches I feel stay with me long after I get out of the shower or bath these days. My legs also feel like they want to go at the same pace they once did along familiar roads. Only problem is that back then I was training for maybe 5-6 miles of racing maximum, the occasional half marathon but not much else. I'm trying to educate them that they have to go five times further so go at a reasonable pace.

The other problem is that at the moment I am carrying around over 25% more body mass than I did at my facing peak. Now to be fair I was what a Doctor would call on the underweight side back in the day, who isn't as a distance runner but there is still a lot more of me around to move around the place and that takes more energy in the engine and the uphills are a hell of a lot tougher than I remember them. I used to be one of those guys who made up places going uphill, but also opened up on the downhill as well with a long stride.

All that being said I am on track, but it is a painful track. Getting back into a shape that I would be happy with to run 26 miles is the aim, not to find myself with 21 year old fitness levels. After all I'm not doing this for the honour of finishing well in a bid to advance my athletics career but simply to raise money for a cause close to my heart.

Another young family attacked in the name of a flag

Is it any wonder there are fewer women in politics in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK?

Cllr Claire Hanna with the damage
Picture via BBC

Today there is the news that SDLP Councillor Claire Hanna, who happens to be chair of the East Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership, has had air pellets shot at the windows of her home. Fortunately she, her daughter and husband Donal were all out at the time of the attack. But yet again a woman working to serve the community as an elected representative with a young daughter has has the windows to her home smashed in an intimidatory but also potentially injury causing way.

Like Cllrs Michael and Christine Bower, I happen to regard Claire and Donal as friends, because in post Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland my generation, and those younger than me, do find it easier to make friends of people irregardless of religious background. That is the way that a shared future can best be defined. With all of these political people mentioned in this paragraph I still have political disagreements at times but these are not based on the nature of my religion, they are based on political ideology more than anything. It does not matter where they choose to worship and that is what the majority of the people in Northern Ireland want to get to, that is normal, that is the goal.

It is discussion not violence,debate not shouting, listening to all and gathering a balanced view. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on a issue, but if your government perfectly fits all your opinion then you must be the dictator in charge rather than someone serving for the benefit of all opinion.

Therein lie the problem that our sectarian politics is still failing to reach. I think it is especially true of the Unionist community who at the moment seem to be retracting and retrenching into their old ways and not attempting to reach out. Too many feel there is only their way to do something, because they cannot face what the opposite side want. However, often we need to find a compromise here, it is what the Good Friday Agreement was and the consequential meetings at Belfast, Hillsborough and St Andrews.

To make Northern Ireland work no one sides opinion can be the only way things are done, if we carry on like that we'll never achieve anything. This protests and the violence that is riding on the back of it is an attempt to maintain a dictatorship. As a son of Derry (which all Protestants called Londonderry in casual conversation before it became a "political" matter), and Cityside at that, I know the consequences such dicatorship from the Unionists had on the families who shared my family's side of the city. The current protest and violence is another attempt to impose rule by force, intimidation and fear rather than through diplomacy and debate.

I've said it before this is madness and anarchy. We the people who want a peaceful, normal existence do not want mob rule, do not want those who serve us to live in fear, nor to be be fearful for contacting them. We live in a democracy goddammit last time I checked.

Rory and the Olympics Dilemma

Regular readers will know that when it comes to the Olympics I support two nations. As some of you know I also know from first hand experience that the decision of which of those two an Northern Irish sports person faces when deciding who to represent isn't always straight forward or black and white.

Yesterday in a documentary shown on BBC Northern Ireland there was another twist to this tail.

First though a little bit of trivia question. When was the last time that Northern Ireland won a gold medal in an individual event? The answer was 1972 with Mary Peters. We have won team gold since then, and other medals both individual and team for both GB and Ireland. Our last Northern Irish Paralympians to win golds were three who took home 5 between them in London.

Northern Ireland does have a current world number one in a sport that will be making his Olympic debut in Rio 2016, so we should be looking forward to supporting someone with a real chance of ending that famine. But that world number one golfer Rory McIlroy is wary of the dispute of which flag he should represent. Last night he said if he played for either nation he would upset people so maybe he should take the other option and not take part at all.

Yeah the latest fall out of the entire flags issue is that Northern Ireland's top sportsman is seriously considering not taking up a place at the 2016 Olympics because whoever he chooses to represent he is fearful of upsetting someone. I know some Loyalists who cannot consider supporting an all Ireland team such as the successful Rugby or Cricket teams. Yet the same people will support Ulster in Rugby, they fail to notice ⅓ of the Province is actually not in the UK or that some of the players aren't British! Yes there seriously are people in Northern Ireland who cheered on England against Ireland in the One Day International World Cup despite there being Northern Irish players on the Ireland team and England containing a player from Dublin. 

Yes there really is such a divide in sporting circles here and the ungoing inability of some to respect other communities, democratic decisions on flags or personal preferences seems to be having a knock on effect that top Northern Irish sportspeople may seriously consider not going to the Olympics to achieve a once in four years dream as it will offend others.

I think it is time for those who feel offended by someone choosing who to represent (BTW a right protected in the Good Friday Agreement) to stop being so selfish as to threaten, appear to threaten or cause our best to not seek to gain an Olympic accolade.

Well done to all the flag protestors. You're making it impossible for Northern Irish sport to flourish now.