Wrapped in the flag

OVER the past six weeks flag-draped protesters have become part of the Belfast landscape. Loyalists arrange demonstrations and roadblocks—up to 80 a night—on social media, which means local residents usually know roughly where they will take place. Belfast’s bus company, Translink, tweets rolling updates on which services have been disrupted; taxi drivers get the news from their dispatchers. On days when many protests are expected, rush hour starts early; by evening, normally busy roads are almost deserted.

The protests began on December 3rd, when Belfast city council voted to limit the number of days the union flag is flown over the city hall to about 20 a year, mostly national holidays and royal birthdays. In Northern Ireland the flag has a political meaning. It is not just a reminder that the province is part of the United Kingdom but a visual statement that it must remain so. To many Catholics—who may now outnumber Protestants in Belfast—it is also a reminder of a less equal past. Unionists on the city council voted against the restriction on flag-flying. But few were prepared for what has followed.