{"id":652755,"date":"2026-08-23T20:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T20:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652755\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T20:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T20:17:17","slug":"unionist-flags-removed-from-water-tower-in-co-down-as-councillor-says-act-was-unacceptable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652755\/","title":{"rendered":"Unionist flags removed from water tower in Co Down as councillor says act was &#8216;unacceptable&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A SINN F\u00c9IN councillor has welcomed the removal of unionist flags on a water tower in Co Down.<\/p>\n<p>Several unionist and loyalist flags were placed on a water tower in Rathfriland last month. Similar flags had previously appeared on top of the tower in 2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787516237_166_.png\"  alt=\"Screenshot 2026-08-22 at 18.28.32\" class=\"alignnone inline-image\" \/><br \/>\n            Unionist flags on top of Rathfriland Water Tower, in Co Down.                    Michael Rice.<\/p>\n<p>    Michael Rice.\n<\/p>\n<p>Councillor Michael Rice said that it appeared that \u201cthere was criminality involved\u201d. The PSNI told\u00a0The Journal that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/sinn-fein-calls-for-full-investigation-after-unionist-flags-placed-on-tower-owned-by-ni-water-7105598-Jul2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">padlocks had been damaged by people trying to enter the site<\/a>\u00a0on 10 July.<\/p>\n<p>The flags have subsequently been removed and Rice is seeking\u00a0a meeting with the PSNI and NI Water to ensure this does not happen again.<\/p>\n<p>Rice said on a post on Facebook: \u201cThis act of intimidation and attempt to mark out territory was unacceptable and caused frustration in the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he had been contacted by constituents about the flags, and raised the issue previously with NI Water and the PSNI.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the PSNI said: \u201cOfficers are continuing to engage with partner agencies and community representatives in relation to any complaints about flags.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information is asked to contact police using the witness appeal form, quoting 1329 of 10\/07\/26 or call 101.<\/p>\n<p>NI Water has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A SINN F\u00c9IN councillor has welcomed the removal of unionist flags on a water tower in Co Down.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,31651,13,14,28696,6,11,12,15,16,275862,5,275863,30,251226,47,7,8,275864,275865,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-652755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-co-down","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-flags","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-michael-rice","tag-news","tag-ni-water","tag-psni","tag-rathfriland","tag-sinn-fein","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-unionist-flags","tag-water-tower","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117146671991087450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}