DUP meltdown over Irish language and Palestine sparks council legal crisis

Indignation from the unionist minority in Belfast Council over recent votes in favour of increased use of Irish language signage, and display of the Palestinian flag at City Hall, has prompted a major challenge to political decision-making. Speaking earlier this week in a hearing related to the Irish language vote, High Court Justice McLaughlin said:

This does feel more like a systemic challenge, rather than a challenge to a specific decision.

He was responding to a request for a judicial review by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) member Ann McClure. She is disputing how the council dealt with a ‘call-in’ process initiated by her party and other unionists in the wake of an October vote to bring in bilingual signage at council facilities, among other expansions of dual language provisions. A call-in is triggered if 15% of councillors claim a council decision failed to follow proper procedure, or will have disproportionate community impact. Those criteria are then examined by a legal expert. If they find that either of the criteria are met, the council must retake the vote, with a majority of 80% needed for successful passage.

The measure is in place to offer minority protection, primarily related to sectarian concerns, supposedly ensuring a majority cannot inflict excessive negative consequences on a minority through a narrowly won vote. Similar measures exist in other polarised societies, where a fundamental lack of trust between opposing parties leads to political decisions being frequently seen as a direct attack on a way of life.

Palestine flag-raising exposes deeper dysfunction

The language vote has been compounded by a recent vote to display the Palestinian flag at City Hall for the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People on November 29. This also triggered a call-in from councillors representing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and TUV. The legal advice ruled there had been procedural failings in the vote, as Denise Kiley KC found that there should have been an equality screening exercise looking at the decision. She also said that:

…a further relevant consideration which was not considered was the potential impacts of the decision on City Hall as a workplace, having regard to the Council’s obligations as an employer under FETO [Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998].

Kiley ruled there was no disproportionate community impact, in this case examining the potential adverse effects on Belfast’s Jewish community. The City Solicitor (the council’s chief legal expert) ruled that only the community impact assessment was relevant for triggering the ‘qualified majority’ requirement of 80%. As reported by the Irish News:

The legal opinion given by the City Solicitor was that if the chamber were to determine, as advised by Denise Kiley KC, that there was no substantive community impact made by the flying of the flag, then a vote to fly the flag would only have to achieve a simple majority, that is over 50 percent.

They also quote DUP Alderman James Lawlor saying:

This proposal has shredded public confidence and indeed the confidence of our community in the processes we are governed by in this council. The decision to attempt to take forward the display of the Palestinian flag at City Hall has highlighted significant inconsistencies in respect of procedure, obligations and the advice provided to elected members.

DUP rioting and arrests over modest act of solidarity

He went on to say that DUP confidence in the legal advice being given had been “severely damaged”. He accused the council of now operating in a “fundamentally majoritarian” way, and decried a failure to consult the Jewish community. Perhaps consulting them would have been illuminating, rather than be left with merely the antisemitic suggestion that Jewish people everywhere will reflexively support a genocidal terror regime.

The call-in successfully prevented through delay the flying of the flag on November 29. A fresh vote was held on Monday December 1, resulting in another win for those backing the banner being raised. Ultimately the flag was hoisted over the city’s most prominent building, going up at 00:01 on Tuesday December 2 and being taken down at dusk on the evening of the same day. There were clashes that evening between pro-genocide loyalists, and what appeared to be a handful of teenagers chanting in support of Palestine. Three people were arrested earlier in the day, including far-right influencer Steven Baker, who was charged along with partner Robyn Barnes for possession of an offensive weapon. This related to an earlier protest by a far-right group called the Ulster Women First Pink Ladies, who dispensed kitsch knuckle-dusters to attendees.

Failed bid to take the Palestine flag down

The legal wrangling continued in the High Court on Friday. McClure was back again, after failing in a Tuesday bid to have the Palestinian flag taken down. Justice McLaughlin has now ruled that the challenge to the extended roll-out of the Irish language will be heard in January. Derry City and Strabane Council have been granted ‘notice party’ status, meaning they are likely to be directly affected by the outcome of the case. Nine other councils have also been granted the right for similar involvement, proving the extent to which the matter of call-ins has triggered a crisis in the operation of local governance.

Minority vetoes likely to never be foolproof in hugely polarised political context

Stormont has its own call-in procedure, which can be triggered by 30 of the 90 MLAs signing a petition. This was again used by unionists to try and block Caoimhe Archibald’s attempt to limit arms-related trade with so-called ‘Israel’. Her measures were inadequate, but still too much for the likes of the DUP. The matter must now be re-examined by the Executive. Historically petitions of concern (PoC) were used excessively, notably between 2011-2016, where they were used 115 times, with 86 of these were signed by the DUP. The abuse of the power left Stormont barely able to function, and the rules were changed in 2020 under the New Decade, New Approach agreement. PoCs must now be signed by two parties to be valid.

The current furore highlights the fundamental issue with vetoes intended to protect minority rights — they have to be set low enough for the minority to trigger them, though that leaves the majority bound by the whims of a few. In this case those few are intransigent mobs called the DUP and TUV, often driven by religious fervour, an extreme identitarian mentality, and a catastrophising sense that every touchstone decision that goes against them signals the end of Britishness in the North of Ireland.

Such is the lack of trust and good faith between parties, there’s no obvious political remedy to the matter, regardless of how call-ins might be reconstituted. Instead, a resolution can likely only come slowly from outside the sectarian bubbles of Stormont and city hall, if civil society at large can foster greater integration between communities and wear away at mistrust built up from centuries of colonialism that engendered today’s hostility and division.

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