Sir, - I refer to the controversy surrounding the St Patrick's Day Parade in Belfast. The Alliance group on Belfast City Council is on record as stating that we are willing to support a St Patrick's Day event on a cross-community basis.
The organisers were invited to agree to the rules applying in the Down District Council area, which ensure the parade is non-sectarian and inclusive, and have been instrumental in the success of the Co Down parade. The refusal of the organisers in Belfast to be bound by them has clear implications in terms of council funding.
One of the most vocal supporters of the Belfast parade is the Andersonstown News, which claimed in its editorial this week that "Irish people are not going to stop flying the Tricolour on their special day [my emphasis] any more than others will fly theirs on the Twelfth". The "them and us" attitude of some people is precisely the problem that we have had with spending council resources on the parade in Belfast.
Both the Tricolour and the Saoirse campaign postdate the arrival of St Patrick in Ireland by many centuries and the need to display these banners in an "inclusive" parade is less than clear. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Tom Campbell, City Hall, Belfast 1.