Top Orange figure to sit on flag and march panel

Plans to set up the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition were first unveiled in the Stormont House Agreement of late 2014.

The body was originally meant to be up-and-running by June last year.

On Monday, the First Minister Arlene Foster – jointly with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness – announced who would sit on it.

The 15 members include Dr David Hume, the Orange Order’s former Director of Services.

UUP MLA and ex-soldier Doug Beattie is also on the panel, as is north Belfast DUP MLA Nelson McCausland.

The other members are Ian Crozier, Richard Good, Tom Hartley, Prof Thomas William Hennessey, Donncha Mac Niallais, Ian McCrea, Dr Katy Radford, David Anthony Robinson, Mukesh Sharma, and Carl Whyte.

The Stormont House Agreement had stated that its focus would be “flags and emblems and, as required, broader issues of identity, culture and tradition”.

It aimed to “seek to identify maximum consensus” on finding an agreed policy on the subject.

Its aim, as set out in the 2014 agreement, was to issue a report on the matter within 18 months.

Two academics at Queen’s University Belfast had come up with proposals for the flying of flags across Northern Ireland in February, and expressed the hope that it would influence the panel.