No action over Drumcree army photo

The photo caused outrage among nationalists

The government has said that no action will be taken against an army officer who unfurled an Orange Order flag during a regimental photograph.

Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said in a written Commons statement that military police had completed their investigation into the incident last summer, involving a Major in the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment at Armagh's Drumadd Barracks.

The photograph, which was passed on to and published by the west Belfast Andersonstown News, pictures 60 uniformed Royal Irish Regiment members with an Orange Order banner.

The photograph was taken on 12 July 1999, shortly after the army had been supporting the security operation in Portadown, County Armagh, to stop tension surrounding the Orange Order's annual Drumcree march spilling over into violence.

Orangemen had been staging a long running campaign to attempt to reverse a decision preventing them marching down Portadown's mainly Garvaghy Road in July 1998 and 1999.

The photograph outraged nationalists.

The soldiers, whose regiment was formerly known as the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) are holding a banner which appears to read: "Drumcree: Here we stand, we can do no other. For religious and civil liberty."

'Off-duty'

Mr Spellar said the Special Investigations Branch of the Royal Military Police had found that a soldier belonging to F Company the 8th Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment produced the flag after having just come off duty.

"The photoshoot was supervised by a Major who took some of the photos before joining the Company for further photographs, which were taken by a Warrant Officer," he said.

The photos were developed in Belfast and about 40 copies distributed to F Company members, he added.

"No disciplinary action is to be taken against the officer but formal administrative action procedures have been initiated," Mr Spellar said.

He said the circumstances in which photos were taken could be "misinterpreted".

'Cross-community work'

"F Company was deployed on July 12 along with other Army units precisely in order to prevent sectarian violence and it is wrong to label a whole regiment, or the individuals in the photograph, as bigoted."

But Mr Spellar added: "We expect the highest standards of conduct from all soldiers and in particular they should be aware of community sensitivities in Northern Ireland."

The RIR raised more than £133,000 for cross-community charities last year, he said.

He added that the 8th battalion also won the Wilkinson's Sword of Peace award for its cross-community work in Armagh last year.

'Establishment's arrogance'

"These are examples of their cross-community activities and are not indicative of a biased regiment," Mr Spellar said.

However, Sinn Fein assembly member for Upper Bann Dara O'Hagan said the attitude of the British Military establishment in taking no action over the photograph was "arrogant".

She said: "It is further evidence of the arrogant attitude which has characterised the British Army approach to the nationalist community over a long number of years.

"This photograph was clearly triumphalist and designed to offend. It also raises serious questions about the attitude of the RIR in relation to the siege of Garvaghy Road. It must now be ensured that the RIR are allowed nowhere near any future protests at Drumcree.''