Run it up the flagpole

by Citizen Smith

SOME TIME ago, with a few hours to spare in the West End of London I bumped into my son, who, by chance was also free and we went to Trafalgar Square, where the flag of post-Apartheid South Africa had been raised for the first time over South Africa House.

I had often passed the building in over three decades in London, without taking much notice of it, nor even picketing it. I didn't even know what the old flag looked like.

As we stopped to look up at the new standard another bystander remarked that he preferred the old flag. I asked why, and was told that the old flag incorporated the Union Jack, and the speaker appreciated that, being an Ulsterman.

I remarked that I was a Leinsterman, from Dublin, and the Ulsterman recalled that he had enjoyed that city in his youth, as an undergraduate of Trinity College.

"By the way" I asked, isn't Gerry Adams also an Ulsterman?

"Bugger Gerry Adams!" he said, with fervour. "Every man to his fancy" I said , " but don't your lot want to Save Ulster from Sodomy?"