Sir, – With so many people feeling offended by the flying, or not, of flags in the North, it appears to have escaped the notice of the decision-makers that it is perfectly legal to carry UVF banners anywhere in the North even though this blood-lusting organisation has murdered hundreds of people over the last 40 years.
In my naivety about flags I asked the PSNI to check out the carrying of a UVF banner at the front of an Apprentice Boys parade through Coleraine on December 18th, only to be told it was legal.
With so much time and effort going into flags during the Haass talks, I wonder if the DUP and the Ulster Unionists had anything to say about the effrontery of organisations such as the Apprentice Boys parading through mixed neighbourhoods with UVF banners.
Surely we don’t want to add further confusion to an already confused state by constantly referring to the UDA and UVF as if there was something normal about such organisations. To do so could mean that in the future these terms could be described as “legal” just as the flag carried by the Apprentice Boys in Coleraine apparently appears to be!
JOHN DALLAT MLA
(SDLP), Bridge Street,
Kilrea,
Derry.