WE’RE off again – and it’s still only March. The crazy flags, marches and bonfire season is well and truly under way and in the time since the last one nothing has been done to suggest that things are about to change any time soon.
The Council’s removal of flags in East Belfast last week was a welcome sign that perhaps the tyranny of the nameless flaggers and bonfire builders might at last be about to be challenged, if not ended for good. But even more flags went up after the intervention of a raucous and ranting paralegal from North Down. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, a warning went up on a wall next to where the flags came down and then then went back up threatening anyone who dares to step forward and remove flags again.
In the south of the city, the site where the notorious asbestos bonfire was lit last year has again been taken over by those who care more about asserting their dominance than they do about the health and wellbeing of their own children. The site at Monarch Parade has been cleared of the large amount of asbestos that was piled there last year, but it remains toxic for at least another three years. And the electricity substation that serves our city’s two main hospitals has gone nowhere and remains just yards from where the pallets are again being stacked.
This is the time for the authorities to act – the police, the local authority, the courts, the Fire Service, political and community reps. The schools are back and the Donegall Road bonfire site remains empty during the day – unlike in the summer when the site is guarded by local people young and old 24/7. The material must be removed, and if replaced it must be removed again. It is essential that this battle of wills – which is in fact a battle for the city – is won by those who envision a future that all of us can share.
Those that the authorities are opposed by are not master criminals – they are children being manipulated and used by men who themselves are not strategic geniuses. If the will is there to end this madness once and for all they can be defeated. But the question remains: Is the will there?
Last year it most certainly was not, but that will was tested at a time when the bonfire builders had the whip hand. Moving against them at the height of summer, when the schools are closed and passions and tensions are running high, is the height of folly. The still and quiet days of the spring and early summer are the time to get the job done.
The South Belfast bonfire has become a weathervane of who and what we are as a city. Is this to remain a city where the rule of law is suspended to placate the lawless and the violent? Or will it be claimed back as a city where laws and rules apply equally and equitably to all of its residents?
The PSNI refused to do the necessary last year when it was far too late. It has made noises about bringing the claiming of territory to an end in recent weeks, but when this summer ends it will be judged by what it did when the time was right to act.
