PLANS to fly the Irish Tricolour over a Scots council to mark the centenary of the 1916 East Rising are all but dead after Labour politicians agreed to vote against the move next month.
North Lanarkshire Council’s ruling Labour group agreed to mobilise against the proposal at a meeting on Monday.
It comes days after a council committee voted for the plan. Two Labour councillors split with party colleagues and were joined by several SNP members on Thursday to approve a request by Scots-based Irish Republican group Cairde na hEireann that the flag be flown in April to mark 100 years since the Rising in the Irish capital.
But The Herald understands SNP opposition councillors now plan to stick with supporting the bid, with councillors keen to deft a Loyalist group which publicised of the names, addresses and contact details of the councillors involved in the original decision.
Claiming “every meeting you sit in, every vote you cast and every move you make within the council will be known to us”, protest group Regimental Blues also said in a statement: “We will be watching. We have the winning hand here and we strongly suggest you do not call our bluff.”
David Stocks, leader of the SNP group, said: "We have reached a decision and will make that public on the day of the meeting."
One source added however: "Had it not been for these Regimental people Stocks probably would have moved his group against their original support. But this put people's backs up."
At last week’s meeting, Labour’s Sammy Love had moved to refuse the request claiming it was a departure from council policy, which is based on UK and Scottish Government guidance issued annually on the flying of flags.
North Lanarkshire’s Labour administration has instructed its members to vote against the idea at a full council meeting at the end of March. It has 41 of the council’s 70 councils so can defeat any support for the move by weight of numbers.
Although sources have claimed the move is about not wanting to “open the floodgates” to flag requests and not the Irish Tricolour or 1916, it is understood their were concerns about protests.
A senior Labour source said: “The flags policy has served the council well. If you open the floodgates for one, you open them for all.
“This isn’t about the Irish tricolour. It’s about then having to deal with all applications and that’s not a position the council should find itself in.”
North Lanarkshire Council leader Jim McCabe opposes Tricolour plan
Council leader Jim McCabe said: “The decision to fly the Irish National flag was supported by the Corporate Services Committee, however such a change in policy would require the support of the Full Council.
“Labour councillors recognise the tremendous contribution that Irish people and Irish culture have made to North Lanarkshire and Scotland, however do not support a change in existing policy, which would go against guidance issued by the Scottish and UK Governments.
“The Labour Group will therefore not support such a move when the matter is discussed at the next council meeting in March.”
The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection centred around Dublin in April 1916 by various groups of Irish Republicans seeking to militarily bring an end to British rule in Ireland.
Quickly suppressed by the British Army and leading to the execution of the rebellion’s leaders, it did however fuel support for independence and Republicanism, with independence for 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties granted six years later
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