'Put up to intimidate and harass people' Intent behind Irish flags under scrutiny

Cllr Darragh Moriarty was recently speaking on The Hard Shoulder about the hateful intent behind displaying Irish flags.

“In recent months, particularly over the summer period, there has been a proliferation of the tricolour across some of our communities in Dublin,” he told The Hard Shoulder.

“I think what’s notable about the flags is not the fact that people are putting up tricolours, they’re not looking, in my view, to celebrate our country and they’re very much looking to put up these flags to mark territory, in my view,” he said.

He told The Hard Shoulder that he believes these flags are being put up to “intimidate and harass people who aren’t Irish but who do live in this country”.

He said that if this is the case, action must be taken to prevent the Irish flag being used as a part of an anti-immigrant campaign.

“This is not a straightforward issue by any stretch,” Cllr Moriarty said. “I’m not pretending that it is; it’s complex and it needs....to be dealt with very very sensitively.

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“How do you police intent? How do you police motivation? I think you’d start by watching the videos of the people putting them up and listening to what they’re saying.

“They’re talking about reclaiming Ireland, they’re talking about stopping the invasion; these are the messages that they’re sending when they are taking videos of these flags [being put] up.”