Several Union and Northern Ireland flags were erected on lampposts in the centre of Wallace Park, Lisburn between Wednesday night and Tuesday morning.
They were subsequently removed by several men before the morning ended, with staff at the park telling the Belfast Telegraph they were unaware of who put them up.
“No idea,” one groundskeeper said.
“It wasn’t done on our time, we finished work at four o’clock. All we knew is that they were up this morning when they come in and now they’re down.”
Several flags remain just outside entrances to the park.
Locals using Wallace Park had different views about the flags flying, with several wishing to remain anonymous.
“I don’t mind flags so much along the route of the march,” Neil McIntyre (78) said.
Neil McIntyre
“I don’t want flags to see flags in the park. Flags in general, I don’t like flags going up in new housing developments, for example, because people are marking out territory.
“Even if they’re national flags. It’s worse if they’re parliamentary flags.”
However, Noel Chapman (64) said the flags act as a reminder of the Battle of The Boyne and denied it was a form of “intimidation”.
Noel said: “I think they have a right to be up, this is a Protestant town and I think they have a right to be up, so I don’t have no real issue with it at all.
“It’s a celebration of 1690, so it’s not an intimidation at all. If you look throughout the town, there’s flags everywhere.”
Noel Chapman
Another parkgoer said: “I didn’t actually even notice them. Sometimes I think it depends on the actual flag itself.
“Some of them obviously belong to paramilitary-style sort of things anyway which I don’t really agree with, to be quite honest with you. I don’t mind if it’s something that belongs to somebody’s country or something like that.”
She added: “It’s just a material to me.”
However, one dog walker believed the flags were “over the top” and remarked it was the first time he had seen them in the public park.
“I think they over-provide them maybe to intimidate certain people, which I don’t agree with. It’s a similar thing with the bonfires. I think it’s so over the top, it’s unbelievable,” they said.
“I don’t disagree with it in total, but I think it should be better controlled by whoever organises it. I don’t remember them in Wallace Park.
“Leave them up and they become tatty and what have you. It becomes an eyesore. To say that that is your culture, to me, is a bit over the top.”
Another park user agreed, adding: “I don’t think there should be any flags in the park because it belongs to everybody. It should just be neutral because the park is for everybody.”
Sinn Fein Councillor Gary McCleave had called for the flags to “be removed immediately”.
He added: “Flags should never be used to intimidate communities or mark out territory and everyone must be able to use our parks free from intimidation.”
UUP Councillor Nicholas Trimble said that he “always looks forward” to seeing the flags arrive in the summer but “I’ve lived in Lisburn for 40 years and I’ve never seen flags go up in the middle of Wallace Park”.
The Lisburn North councillor added that he suspects that those putting up the flags were “a little bit over-enthusiastic” which later led to the flags being taken down.