{"id":92503,"date":"2025-09-29T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/92503\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:36:09","slug":"humphreys-canvases-in-cork-hours-after-irish-flags-erected-across-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/92503\/","title":{"rendered":"Humphreys canvases in Cork hours after Irish flags erected across city"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heather Humphreys canvassed Cork<\/a> City just hours after Irish flags were erected on lampposts and bridges across the city in an apparent echo of the far-right, anti-migrant, Tricolour-hoisting across Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the themes of my presidency is about unity. It\u2019s about breaking down those awful prejudices that are creeping into our society. It\u2019s about having the conversations,\u201d Ms Humphreys, Fine Gael\u2019s presidential candidate<\/a>, said.<\/p>\n

Although no groups had publicly claimed ownership of the flags, which were hung on Cork\u2019s public infrastructure, at the time of publication, there was speculation that they were to echo the far-right, anti-immigrant movement\u2019s erecting flags across Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur flag is so strong in terms of trying to unify people, and it is a symbol that we should be so proud of,\u201d Ms Humphreys said.<\/p>\n

That it is now being co-opted into something divisive is \u201cwrong and it shouldn\u2019t be happening\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to speak out against that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys started a special flags programme ahead of the 2016 Easter Rising centenary celebrations when she was minister for arts, heritage, and the gaeltact.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Defence Forces delivered a flag to every single school in this country. They explained the importance of the flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flag belongs to everybody. The flag is a symbol of unity. You have the orange [to symbolise the Northern Protestant and Loyalist tradition], you have the green [Irish Republican], and the white in the middle that represents peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to bring people together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys said she has learned vital lessons about unity, reaching across political, religious, and societal divides to try to build peace and prosperity throughout her life.<\/p>\n

Born in Monaghan, her father was a member of the Orange Order.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Humphreys became \u201ca proud Irish republican\u201d.<\/p>\n

She was the only Presbyterian member of the Oireachtas during her tenure as TD. She said she would support giving Irish citizens in Northern Ireland a vote in the presidential election.<\/p>\n

A referendum would be needed to extend the franchise to people in the North.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s something that we have to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want a united Ireland at some stage down the road, I think it\u2019s important that Northern Ireland citizens should have a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living close to the border, Ms Humphreys feels that she has \u201ca unique understanding of the challenges and the difficulties regarding the different traditions in Northern Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked hard during my time in politics, and indeed before that, to reach out the hand of friendship to people in Northern Ireland,\u201d Ms Humphreys said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring Brexit, I spent many, many hours visiting and talking to businesses to try and find solutions there and how we\u2019d work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the people, and I do know that we need to have more conversations … about building trust, about breaking down barriers, and about bringing people together and deepening understanding of the different traditions in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heather Humphreys canvassed Cork City just hours after Irish flags were erected on lampposts and bridges across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[781,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-92503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92503","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=92503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}