New Independent Orange chief reflects on Northern Ireland's flag situation as he recalls sparking furore over St George's emblem 20 years ago
The Independent Orange Order's new leader has recalled the flag furore which he was at the centre of 20 years ago, as he criticised a recent decision of Belfast City Council to fly the Palestinian flag.
Phil Moffatt said that no flag but the national flag should be flown by any authority, and called restrictions on the display of the Union flag "very, very sad".
Mr Moffatt was speaking to the News Letter this week after he was unanimously elected the new imperial grand master of the order last Saturday at its headquarters in Ballymoney.
The Free Presbyterian elder and former LibDem councillor, who moved from his native Liverpool to Northern Ireland in 2010, recalled the fuss generated by his decision to fly the English national flag in 2005.
Liverpool is a "very multicultural" city, he said, with a Chinatown that is "completely given over to Chinese emblems", and "on St Patrick's Day, obviously our Catholic friends and neighbours would fly their flag".
But when he put up a string of about 20 St George's flags outside his shop on St George's Day he was ordered to take them down by the council, with the threat of a £50 fine for every flag left flying.
"I thought it was diabolical that an Englishman cannot fly an English flag from an English lamppost on Englishman's Day," he said.
"The volume of support I had was tremendous right throughout the city.
"Consequently the news spread abroad.
"That all happened on a Monday morning.
"By Friday morning I was walking up to the front door of No 10 Downing Street with Sir Ian Botham to hand in a petition to Tony Blair to make St George's Day a public bank holiday.
"The whole thing just got national coverage."
A search of the web reveals coverage of the affair in the BBC, Liverpool Echo, and Manchester Evening News, among others.
Asked what he makes of the flag situation in Northern Ireland today, where the flying of the Union flag is restricted to designated days at some government facilities, he said it was a "very, very sad reflection," adding that the flag is one "we should all rally behind".
"I fully understand it's a contentious issue over here, and that there's a section of the community that would not lend support to a flag of a certain colour," he said.
"I'm very, very conscious of that and I see the reasoning behind it. But I'm not in favour of it.
"When I went to Canada, the thing that struck me was every other house seemed to be flying the maple leaf.
"You go to America, they're so proud to have that national standard.
"I just think we should be doing the same."
What of the decision to fly the flag of Palestine from Belfast City Hall last month?
"I felt that was a wrong decision by Belfast City Council," he replied.
"I don't believe we should be flying any other national flag – not least of which the Palestinian flag when we see the uproar at the moment in the Middle East as a result of October 7 a number of years back.
"That would go for any other national flag.
"I'd be very sympathetic to Israel's position, but I don't believe that any other than our national flag should be flown from public buildings, neither Palestinian nor any other flag."