More flags appear in area where Belfast Council contractors removed them previously.
Flags had been removed in line with new Council policy.
Flags erected around Ballymacarrett playground in east Belfast, including one with a ‘stop the boats’ message.
By John Breslin
March 29, 2026 at 4:27pm BST
More flags have appeared in the area around an east Belfast playground where City Council contractors had removed previous banners.
Belfast City Council used the contractors to remove the Union and other flags from the park in the Ballymacarrett area of the city recently. However they were quickly replaced and threatening graffiti appeared.
It now appears a yet more flags have appeared, with two or three on some lampposts.
The graffiti on a wall close to the Severn Street park had warned ‘Anyone who touches these flags does so at their own risk’.
The flags now on the poles include ones that are religious-themed but also with a ‘stop the boats’ message.
Following the previous removal of the flags, the council confirmed outside contractors were used.
Their removal followed a meeting in December when it was decided to carry out an “audit” of flags and banners in line with a “commitment to creating a good and harmonious environment”.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in east Belfast, a UVF mural at the corner of Dee Street and Newtownards Road has been removed with the reported approval of loyalists in the area.
The mural, on the gable wall since 2011, featured two hooded gunmen. It was be replaced by one of Edward Carson, the early 20th century unionist leader.
Where did the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” for Ireland come from?
You might be surprised to hear that it was singer Johnny Cash that made the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” popular with a song that he was inspired to write after a trip to Ireland.
An aerial view of fields in Co Tipperary – how many shades of green can you count?! Getty
Describing the beautiful Irish landscape as “Forty Shades of Green” is used the world over, but how did the phrase become so popular?
You might be surprised to hear that it was country singer Johnny Cash who popularized the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” with a song of the same name, which appeared on his 1961 album “Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash”.
Cash was inspired to write the song during a trip to Ireland in 1959, and while he lists a number of popular destinations in Ireland – Dublin, Shannon, Dingle, Skibbereen – local legend has it that he got the initial inspiration in the Kockmealdown Mountains in Co. Tipperary.
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Listen to “Forty Shades of Green” by Johnny Cash:
Lyrics of “Forty Shades of Green” – Johnny Cash, 1959
I close my eyes and picture the emerald of the sea
from the fishin boats at Dingle to the shores at Donaghdee
I miss the River Shannon and the folks at Skibbereen the moorlands and meadows and their Forty Shades of Green But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown I long again to see and do the things we’ve done and seen where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there’s Forty Shades of Green I wish that I could spend an hour at Dublin´s churning suft I long to watch the farmers drain the bogs and spade the turf to see again the thatching of the straw the women clean I´d walk from Cork to Larne to see those Forty Shades of Green But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown I long again to see and do the things we´ve done and seen where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there´s Forty Shades of Green
I am told that there has been a significant increase in the number of Newsletter subscribers. For new readers, you are very welcome, and to long-term supporters, thank you.
Let me start from the beginning, “a Chairde” is the Irish Gaelic way to address a letter, and it simply means “friends”.
So, friends welcome, and let me introduce myself. I am Sinn Féin’s representative to North America. Sinn Féin is the largest party across all of Ireland. We are an Irish Republican Party dedicated to building a united Ireland and a republic declared during the Easter Rising of 1916.
The party was established in 1905, and the name Sinn Féin translates roughly as “Ourselves Alone”. The name reflects the aspiration for an independent Ireland rather than an isolationist approach, as we work with others nationally and internationally to build Irish Unity.
Sinn Féin is the largest party and is in government in the North of Ireland, where our Vice President, Michelle O’Neill, is the First Minister. In Dublin, we are the largest party of opposition, and our party President, Mary Lou McDonald, is the leader of the official opposition in the Dáil.
My position is unique in Irish politics; there is no other party that works closely with supporters in the US and Canada on a day-to-day basis. I report to our party president.
Before taking on this role, I worked with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in various roles, including Sinn Féin Director of Communications. I grew up in Belfast in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s and now work out of an office in Dublin when I am not in the air or on the ground in the US or Canada.
I took over this role in 2020 from the late, great and sorely missed Rita O’Hare. This unique role reflects both the strategic importance of the US and Canada to the cause of Irish Freedom and our view that the Irish abroad are very much a part of our nation.
North America has shaped Ireland as much as the Irish have built America and Canada. Every revolutionary period in Irish history relied on the support of our “exiled Children”. There would be no Easter Rising or Good Friday Agreement without you.
We are now at a point in our History where Irish Unity is within this generation’s grasp.
The Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic pathway to Unity through referendums in the North and the South.
For supporters of Irish Unity, our shared objective is to secure and win the referendums as promised in the Agreement, despite British and Irish Government indifference.
Together, we can fully implement the Agreement and allow the people of Ireland to define their future.
Your first step in playing a part in delivering a United Ireland is in signing up to this newsletter and becoming informed and active.
Let me know if there are any issues you would like me to write about and keep informed by following Friends of Sinn Féin on their socials.
Have a great weekend.
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
Pic of Day: Bronx Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (third from left holding banner) with Bronx AOH Members Denis Boyle, Martin Galvin, Timmy O’Donoghue and Thomas O’Donohue who carried the “England get out of Ireland” banner in the Yonker’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade last weekend. Also pictured are two unidentified members of the Assemblyman’s staff.
O’Neill and Little-Pengelly ‘shoulder to shoulder’ on violence against women.
First and deputy First Minister spoke to media separately on tackling violence against women and girls.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill speaks on work to end violence against women
By Rebecca Black and Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association
March 24, 2026 at 5:49pm GMT
Northern Ireland’s First and deputy First Ministers have insisted they are working shoulder to shoulder to tackle violence against women and girls despite separate media appearances.
Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly were speaking following the murder of two women this month as well as the conviction of Stephen McCullagh for the murder of his pregnant partner Natalie McNally at Belfast Crown Court.
A murder investigation is ongoing following the death of Amy Doherty in Derry at the weekend, while a man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Ellie Flanagan in Fermanagh earlier this month.
Ms. O’Neill told reporters at Stormont: “enough is enough”.
Ending violence against women and girls is a focus of a major government strategy.
Ms O’Neill said she believes in the ongoing work, but described an “ingrained problem in our society”.
“We knew that two years of a strategy isn’t going to turn around the problems, you only have to look at the shameful history of this place as to how women have been treated down through the decades, as recently as the Magdalen laundries,” she said, adding that some of the ongoing work includes with young people and across the justice system.
“But we’re trying to turn around a generational problem, and unfortunately I don’t think we’re going to do that in two years, in the next number of weeks we’re bringing the next stage of our plan to the Executive.
“We have a job, all of us collectively as a society, in terms of ending violence against women and girls.
“Enough is enough.
“It needs to be an ongoing conversation, we need to challenge the misogyny we see every day, we need all of us to work together to collectively turn the misogynistic element we have out there in our society.
“We have a huge problem.
“It is a fixable problem but it is going to require all of us working together.”
Ms O’Neill also commended Ms McNally’s family for “using the most harrowing experience of their life” to raise awareness around violence against women and girls.
Asked by media why she was not standing beside Ms Little-Pengelly for the comment, Ms O’Neill said the two would later speak together at an event with 600 young people, and insisted “all of our shoulders are to the wheel”.
Pressed again on why they were speaking to media separately about the issue, she responded: “There is no issue to see here.
“This is about me coming out to firstly offer my condolences to the McNally family, and offer my love and my support to them on the back of the outcome of the case yesterday, but also because of the day that is in it, and that we’re about to head off and do different events.
“There is nothing to see here, we’re all committed to tackling this work and I think that is what we should all keep focusing on.”
Speaking separately at Parliament Buildings, Ms Little-Pengelly welcomed the conviction of McCullagh.
“It has been a very long journey, very upsetting journey, Natalie was a young women with her entire life in front of her and the terrible murder of her and her unborn child was absolutely appalling,” she said.
“I want to pay tribute to the McNally family.
“I know that they would take some comfort from the verdict, but of course nothing can undo the terrible violence that happened to Natalie.
“I also know the McNally family have been incredible in the work that they have done since the murder of Natalie, they’ve been incredibly brave and stepped forward to try and ensure that this should not happen to another woman or girl.”
Asked about not speaking in a joint appearance with Ms O’Neill, Ms Little-Pengelly said were united against violence against women and girls.
“We have stood shoulder to shoulder at absolutely every opportunity in terms of this strategy,” she said.
“It makes me really angry every time I hear about the murder of a woman in Northern Ireland, I think that it should make all of us really angry when we hear that.
“We want to end violence against women and girls, the level of violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland is just completely unacceptable.”
Earlier Justice Minister Naomi Long said violence against women and girls is a “particularly difficult” problem in Northern Ireland.
Ms Long said the region remains a “patriarchal society” where there is still a “lot of sexism, chauvinism and misogyny”.
Ms Long paid tribute to Ms McNally’s parents Bernie and Noel, who attended every day of the trial.
She told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme they had been “so dignified throughout this whole ordeal”.
Ms Long added: “The pain they have gone through is unimaginable and it has been further compounded as they have been going through all of this that they have had to sit through such an ordeal in court.
“I am glad they have got the justice that they and Natalie deserve.”
Ms Long said she believed society and politicians needed to “do better” with regards to violence against women and girls.
She said: “Sitting here with 30 women killed in six years, we have to say that pain that the McNallys have gone through is a pain that many families are going through, too many families.
“We want to do more to try and address these issues.
“In the last mandate we brought forward new legislation to deal with many of the issues, we are bringing forward further legislation in this mandate in the Department of Justice.
“We are also bringing forward policy that we hope will offer additional protections to women who may be at risk of domestic violence and abuse.
“But it is not just about what justice can do, because by then there are already victims and pain has been caused, it is about how we change the conversation in society, how we change the dial in terms of the vulnerability of women and girls to this kind of predatory behaviour and how we actually create a society that women and girls, and men and boys, are safe on our streets, in their homes and able to go about their lives without the constant fear of being victim to someone who has set out for violence or aggression.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we are there yet.”
Asked if violence against women was a Northern Ireland problem, the minister said: “I don’t think it is a Northern Ireland-only problem, but I think it is a particularly difficult issue in Northern Ireland in what we do have is a wider prevalence of violence against women and girls.
“I think there are lots of reasons for that.
“Northern Ireland remains a very patriarchal society, abuse of women generally is still accepted.
“There is still a lot of sexism, chauvinism, misogyny in our society.
“If it is called out by women the abuse that they take, whether it is online or in person, is extreme.
“We also have, coming out of a post-conflict society, a higher tolerance for violence, higher levels of PTSD and other risk factors which could allow people to become perpetrators.
“When we look at some of the research that has been done, the connection between domestic abuse and concentrated paramilitarism in communities also exacerbates some of these harms in that people are either, at the very basic level, afraid to report what is happening to them, afraid of being seen to be engaging with the PSNI where that is frowned upon.”
