Sir, - Fr Joe McVeigh (June 1st) correctly notes that the concept of the Irish Tricolour is to symbolise the unity of the green and orange. The flag is internationally respected as representing the Republic of Ireland, flying proudly at our embassies abroad and afforded equal billing with the flags of other nations at the HQs of the UN and the EU.
However, in Northern Ireland the flag of the Republic of Ireland has often been degraded to a tribal/sectarian emblem, used to delineate territory, to drape the coffins of republican terrorists and to taunt the Orange side.
TV newsclips show tattered tricolours, as territorial markers, atop every lamp-post along the Garvaghy Road - and, incidentally, also show the local dogs urinating around the bases of the same lampposts, to mark their territories! - Yours, etc.,
Con O'Rourke, Park Lane, Sandymount, Dublin 4.