Flagging maturity

Both the Union Jack and the Tricolour flew over Dromoland Castle in Co Clare when the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body …

Both the Union Jack and the Tricolour flew over Dromoland Castle in Co Clare when the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body met there at the beginning of the week. There was no trouble, indeed not even an objection, which led some members to remark that we had come a long way in recent years. Sinn Fein's representative Caoimhghin O Caolain TD said he was happy to see the Tricolour. The flying of the Union Jack was indicative of the maturity of Irish opinion and in particular of republican opinion. Beside him, FG's Brendan McGahon said he saw the Union Jack as an expression of acceptance and as a measure of the maturity of the Republic in the late 1990s. He would expect O Caolain to feel similarly because he was an educated republican which the majority of them weren't.