Brian Smyth

Shared Space not Neutral Space: Looking Again at the Flag Issue

Brian Smyth on September 27, 2019, 8:54 pm

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Just when you think the flag issue has been done and dusted for another year, here it is back again – thanks to a Belfast City Council motion from the Alliance Party. The motion emerged at committee level at Belfast City Council and called for a public consultation on the flags. The flags issue has been predictably toxic this year, and has been marked by fairly dogmatic positions from a number of local parties. I took note of the Alliance …

When Did We Forget How To Build Peace?

Brian Smyth on September 21, 2018, 1:01 pm

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Today marks the UN international day of peace, the General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and across all nations and peoples. So, let’s look at Northern Ireland and ask a difficult but critical question – have we lost the peace-building tools that we once used to good effect? There is no doubting we have come a long way since the signing of the GFA. Yet, we now find ourselves …

I don’t want a shared future, I want a shared now

Brian Smyth on May 29, 2018, 1:32 pm

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You know summer is on the way in Northern Ireland, when we get 3 straight days of sunshine, prompting an outbreak of ‘taps aff’. Anyone unfortunate to witness the sight of some local men wandering the streets half naked, knows that a row about flags is just around the corner. A few weeks ago, just off the Ravenhill Road, a part of the world I call my home, four loyalist paramilitary flags went up on lampposts overnight, near a shared …