Belfast's new first citizen, Martin Morgan, was embroiled in controversy last night (Monday) just minutes after being elected to the post.
The SDLP councillor became only the third nationalist to become lord mayor of Belfast after being voted in with the combined votes of the SDLP, Sinn Féin and Alliance.
At 36, Mr Morgan is one of the city's youngest ever mayors.
However, unionists immediately accused him of alienating the Protestant community after he signalled that he would not be removing a tricolour from the lord mayor's parlour.
The Irish national flag was erected alongside the Union flag in the mayor's parlour last year by Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey.
The new lord mayor said that he did not think it appropriate to remove either flag during his term of office and said he would also be adding the flag of the European Union.
But Ulster Unionist councillor Bob Stoker, who Mr Morgan defeated in the battle to become mayor, said: "By flying this flag he is alienating the majority unionist community in Belfast.
"The majority of people in Northern Ireland wish to remain part of the United Kingdom.
"The union flag is a cultural expression of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom.
"The tricolour is a foreign flag and has no right being flown in the lord mayor's parlour."
However, Mr Morgan dismissed any suggestion that he would use his year in office for party-political gain, insisting that he wanted to work with all parties on the council.
"The SDLP has a very clear message and theme throughout its history – that of partnership," he said.
"Through partnership and consultation with other political parties, with our strategic social partners the trade union movement, we will create a common agenda for all our citizens."
Mr Morgan said that in coming days he would produce a manifesto setting out his goals for his term of office.
He also responded to newspaper reports yesterday that his brother had been jailed in 1991 for an INLA kidnap attempt, stating that the incident was an example of how violence in Northern Ireland had not only divided communities, but families as well.
Ulster Unionist councillor Margaret Crooks was elected deputy mayor with the combined votes of the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the UUP.
Despite praise from the other parties, outgoing mayor Alex Maskey was attacked by the DUP's Sammy Wilson, who described the first Sinn Féin councillor's year in office as an 'annus horribilis' for the unionist community.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor Anne Brolly last night became the first republican mayor to be installed in Limavady.
