The Flag that Does Not Exist—Yet? Imagining a New Symbol in Northern Ireland

David Mitchell explores the absence of a symbol that might be expected to exist—a unifying official flag in Northern Ireland.

In November 2024, the chief executive of Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland (CGNI), Conal Heatley, proposed that for the next games, Glasgow 2026, the Northern Ireland team should compete under a new flag. ‘We all want an inclusive and better future for our people’, he said. CGNI had to shut its office because of safety concerns resulting from subsequent online threats and abuse.

The matter of which flags to fly and where in Northern Ireland is part of wider conflict over cultural expression which has endured in the six counties despite dramatic progress in curbing violence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA). However, the continuing non-existence of a shared symbol is damaging to the official and widely supported project of a ‘shared future’. New symbols help people to imagine a newly constituted, inclusive community. It is widely recognised that symbols like flags are ubiquitous signifiers of the links between peoples and places, particularly in attempting to forge post-conflict social cohesion.

Symbols in Northern Ireland since 1998

The GFA was designed to address historic exclusion of Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland by giving nationalists a guaranteed place in government. It also declared unionist and nationalist identities equally legitimate, affirming both communities, rather than directly encouraging a new one. Subsequently, group contention prevailed over which flag should fly in official settings.

But unifying symbolism is not wholly alien to the Northern Ireland peace process, despite the inherent contestation. Symbolic transformations, like the new police badge, the emblem of the Assembly, and the Peace Bridge across the River Foylehave become iconic and widely accepted symbols in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It is therefore possible that a new symbol, not based on unionist or nationalist affiliations, could be derived.

The growing case for a new flag

Three trends strengthen the case for an official shared emblem. First, the political trajectory of Northern Ireland is much more favourable. Politicians are universally committed to power sharing in Northern Ireland. Yet this power-sharing arrangement, borne of the GFA, does not have its own emblem.

The second is demographic change. The 2021 census showed an increase in those identifying Northern Irish. While 31.9 per cent identified as British only and 29.1 per cent as Irish only, 31.5 per cent identified as Northern Irish solely or in combination with other identities. The ‘neither unionist nor nationalist’ cohort has long been the largest. This means that flying either the British or Irish flags is unreflective of many people’s national identities.

Third is the resilience of social division. According to the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, the proportion of respondents believing that relations between Catholics and Protestants are better than five years ago has dropped from 59 per cent in 2016 to 40 per cent in 2023. It can be argued that the lack of shared symbolism has allowed the north to appear as merely an arena for contestation, as somewhere waiting to be something else, rather than a place with its own substance and character.

What a new flag could represent

A new flag could represent the aspiration to a ‘shared future’. In post-apartheid South Africa, during the negotiations on a new constitution, the need for new and inclusive national symbols was recognised and a commission established. The flag became a prominent and popular, and arguably indispensable, emblem of the South African transition to democracy. A similar endeavour in Northern Ireland could go some way to realising the GFA goal of a ‘shared future’ which looks to the future.

A new flag could also carry regional identity. In the 2011 census, 21 per cent chose ‘Northern Irish only’ as a national identity option—the first time it was introduced. While Northern Irish identity can be an affinity with the political entity of Northern Ireland (and therefore leaning towards unionism), it may also denote a more place-based ‘northern Irish’ identity. Such regional identity is entirely compatible with both an Irish and British identity. It is the shared attachment to place which explains the uncontroversial use of the Giant’s Causeway hexagons in the power-sharing Executive’s logo.

The third meaning that a new flag could convey is civic pride. Division on the national question means that there are few moments of shared and unproblematic civic focus in Northern Ireland. Places like Norway and Denmark which have popular national flags show how an emblem can play a positive role in everyday personal and communal life. The benefits of a new flag are thus numerous.

Introducing a new flag

To find a new flag in Northern Ireland, a process involving public, civil society and artistic input and cross-community political support is eminently possible. A new flag is most likely to succeed if it takes inspiration from nature, eschewing current traditional symbols. It should not be presented as a replacement for any existing flag, but as an additional flag that becomes available for authorities, groups and individuals to fly as they choose. Being presented as having multi-levelled purpose and meaning, it can also be a flag of the Agreement, celebrating peace, diversity, equality, a shared future and north-south and east-west relationships.

The permanent absence of such a flag is unreasonable, damaging and a major anomaly in the peace process. The consolidation of the Agreement institutions, changes in demographics and persistent social division in public debate about Northern Ireland enhance the case for a new emblem. In recent history, new flags have been created in numerous post-conflict, post-colonial and post-communist polities. A symbol that captures the transformation of Northern Irish society and governance and indeed British-Irish relations over the last thirty years is conspicuous by its absence.

By David Mitchell.

Digested read of the journal article produced by Sean Hannigan.