The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

A far more serious breach of the peace occurred in 1964 during the Westminster election campaign. Paisley discovered that the Sinn Fein candidate, Liam McMillan, had displayed a tricolour, the Irish national flag, in the window of his election headquarters in Divis Street, off the Falls Road. One of the arrows in Unionism’s quiver of defence against Nationalism was the Flags and Emblems Act which prohibited the showing in public of the tricolour. No one troubled too much about its provisions when it came to displaying the flag in Nationalist areas only, particularly in a dingy, inconspicuous little back street like Divis. However, Paisley told a packed and perfervid meeting at the Ulster Hall on 27 September that if the flag were not removed within two days he would lead a march to do so himself. Next day scores of RUC men were sent to break down the door of the Sinn Fein office and remove the flag.