A competition to design a Northern Ireland flag has been proposed as a possible means of settling the persistent and contentious problem of flags.
The Belfast-based think tank Democratic Dialogue suggested a competition to create community consensus on the issue.
The organisation said such a flag could re-brand Northern Ireland as "a normal, civic society". The highly emotive issue of flags and emblems is proving stubbornly difficult to resolve.
The number of UDA and UVF flags flying in loyalist areas represents territorial competitiveness between the two paramilitary groupings. Sinn Fein Ministers Mr Martin McGuinness and Ms Bairbre de Brun refuse to allow the union flag over their departments on the 20 designated days for hoisting the flag. Democratic Dialogue acknowledges that it might be thought implausible that a new flag could earn universal approval in Northern Ireland, considering how thorny an issue it has proved for nationalists and unionists. But it points out that the "initially much-derided `Y-front' flag of the `new' South Africa has managed to achieve such a status in a matter of a few years".
Agreement between the parties on a flag would "greatly enhance mutual trust" and increase public confidence in "the durability of the new dispensation," said Democratic Dialogue.
