LAST UPDATE | 1 Sep

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is to hold meetings with senior gardaí over the erection of the Irish national flag in public spaces, following a dispute over their use in parts of the capital.

Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare said he was aware of concerns expressed about the “proliferation” of the tricolour by a range of groups, including politicians and residents’ groups.

It’s part of an emerging standoff over the tricolour’s wider use by anti-migrant groups in their self-proclaimed bid to ‘reclaim’ the flag, which has featured heavily at demonstrations and pickets against accommodation for people in international protection over recent years.

This has been opposed by some politicians on Dublin City Council who call it “weaponisation” of the national flag and a means to “mark territory” in the streets of Dublin.

Similar objections have been expressed by residents in Dublin’s North Strand area and at Malahide Road.

In response to councillors, Dublin City Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare said that the local authority was aware of the “concerns expressed by both elected members as well as members of local communities and residents’ groups regarding the proliferation of the national flag being hung across particular areas of the city”.

“Dublin City Council is taking the matter seriously; it is a sensitive issue which requires a considered response from all stakeholders, and which should be informed by a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation,” Shakespeare said.

The council chief executive said that his officials would meet with senior Garda representatives in the coming week and are contacting other local groups to discuss the issue before any decisions are taken on the best way to proceed.

Flag used to ‘intimidate’ local areas

One councillor who had raised the use of flags for tonight’s meeting of the council is Dublin Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty, who said that “far-right and malicious agitators” were seeking to wield the emblem as a “means to intimidate” local areas.

He will have asked the council what action Dublin City Council might take to “tackle the weaponisation of the tri-colour” by such groups.

“This attempted capture of our flag for hateful intent must be faced head on by the country’s largest local authority,” Moriarty’s question reads.

Similarly, Fine Gael councillor Declan Flanagan has also submitted a question seeking to get the council chief executive Richard Shakespeare to “instruct staff to remove the nation flag from the Malahide Road area”, adding that it’s “being used outside of the official means to mark territory and homogenise spaces”.

Reacting to the developments, Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn accused Dublin City Council of “overreaching” and disrespecting the flag in turn.

The Cork deputy said the flag “never has been the property of one group” and that it was a “disgraceful attempt to brand the tricolour as anti-immigrant”.

“To suggest that our flag is somehow a symbol of intimidation or anti-immigrant sentiment is absolutely disgraceful,” O’Flynn said.

“In making such claims, Labour councillors and Dublin City Council are guilty of creating the very division they so often pretend to oppose.”

Wider use of the tricolour

The increasing adoption of the tricolour by anti-migrant groups has come about in recent months, and follows the longer term use of the flag by anti-migrant movement in Ireland at protests against accommodation for people in international protection over the past number of years.

Other activists have taken to ordering large quantities of the flag and handing them out at protests.

Council sources have also said that one stumbling block to taking down the flags is the alleged intimidation of workers tasked with removing the bunting. Videos posted on social by far-right activists portray attempts to discourage some workers from taking down the tricolour.

In an unrelated separate development, others have joined in the trend by raising the flag in public and posting their actions on social media.’

Dublin councillor Malachy Steenson has been among those making such posts, with one recent video showing the himself raising the flag in the north inner city.

“We have taken our flag back from those who are intent on destroying our country and we are proud to fly it,” the Independent councillor said on Instagram last week.

This video by Steenson prompted one group of residents in Newcomen Avenue in Dublin 3 to contact local councillors about the trend in recent days.

In an email, seen by The Journal, they said that the unauthorised erection of the tricolour “dishonour the flag” and amount to an “attempted usurpation” of the emblem.

While the residents said they would be happy to see the flag “occupy positions of greater prominence in public spaces”, they said this should be done with full discussion of Dublin City Council as a representative of local communities.

They requested that councillors seek the “immediate removal of all flags hung from public street light posts” in the North Strand area.