The Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 (1954 c. 10) was an Act of the

Parliament of Northern Ireland The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...

, passed in 1954. It was repealed under the

direct rule Direct rule is when an imperial or central power takes direct control over the legislature, executive and civil administration of an otherwise largely self-governing territory. Examples Chechnya In 1991, Chechen separatists declared independence ...

of the British government, by the

Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. It was bitterly resented by

nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

who saw the Act as being deliberately designed to suppress their identity. Although it did not refer explicitly to the

Irish tricolour The national flag of Ireland ( ga, bratach na hÉireann), frequently referred to in Ireland as 'the tricolour' () and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange. The proportions of the ...

, it did the

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

. The Act gave the Royal Ulster Constabulary a positive duty to remove any flag or emblem from public or private property which was considered to be likely to cause a

breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...

, but legally exempted the Union Flag from ever being considered a breach of the peace. As a result, of all the flags likely to be displayed in Northern Ireland, almost exclusively the Irish tricolour would be deemed a breach of the peace. However the Act was not a wholesale ban on the Irish flag, and it was often allowed to remain flying, especially at GAA grounds. The Act was introduced at a time of some turmoil within unionism in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, dissent that was viewed with alarm by the

Ulster Unionist The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

government, and the legislation was initiated amid the pressure emanating from that dissent. Hard line unionists accused the government of appeasing nationalists; a more lenient approach by government to some nationalist parades had led to an increase in the flying of the Irish Tricolour. Likewise, the

Coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

celebrations had led to the erection of Union Flags, not only in unionist enclaves, but in nationalist areas where disputes erupted and where some Union Flags were taken down and replaced with Tricolours. Nationalists had also organised boycotts of shops which openly celebrated the coronation with the display of the Union Flag, increasing tension and unionist fears. The Act took over some of the powers of the

Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 The Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922, often referred to simply as the Special Powers Act, was an Act passed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland shortly after the establishment of Northern Ireland, and in the cont ...

. Violations of the Act were punishable by up to a fine up to £500, or up to five years in prison. The enforcement of the Act could on occasion lead to rioting, most notoriously during the UK General Election of 1964 on the lower Falls Road in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Reading

*Henry Patterson, ''Party versus order: Ulster Unionism and the Flags and Emblems Act'', Contemporary British History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 105–129. *Henry Patterson ''Ireland Since 1939'', Penguin Ireland, 2007 *Andrew Gailey ''Crying in the Wilderness: Jack Sayers, a Liberal Editor in Ulster, 1939-69'', Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast, 1995

External links

Full text of the Act
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flags And Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland 1954 Flag controversies