RED HAND OF ULSTER

Motion Text

That this House notes the events that followed a children's television edition of Blue Peter where a suggestion was made by a Northern Ireland-born presenter that the innocent and perfectly legitimate symbol, the Red Hand of Ulster be one of a number of symbols to adorn an aircraft; and repudiates entirely the complaint to the BBC and reported statement from a professor of sociology at Strathclyde University who attempted to portray the Red Hand as a sectarian symbol ignoring the historic and non-contentious nature of the Red Hand which is worn on football, rugby, gaelic football and other sporting tops, is the centrepiece of many flags that have the loyalty of both sections of Northern Ireland Society and is widely recognized as the logo to represent either modern day Northern Ireland or ancient Ulster by people from both main communities.