Police called after Ryder Cup fan's EU flag mistaken for 'Arabic flag'

Rory McIlroy is arguably Holywood's most famous son - that's Hollywood in County Down.

This Hollywood is in celebratory mood following the world's best golfer's starring turn in Europe's successful defence of the Ryder Cup.

But the BBC's Mark Simpson reports the mood has been shattered by a row over the flying of an EU flag - after a local resident mistook it for "an Arabic flag".

Police were actually called to an address a day after the owner held a Ryder Cup party.

"I was tidying up on Sunday morning and two police officers arrived. They didn't seem to know what the flag was themselves," the golf fan, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

"I said 'it is a European Union flag for the Ryder Cup'.

"They said there'd been a complaint about it being some sort of Arabic flag.

"I just laughed. In the end they were laughing too. It was crazy."

This is what the EU flag looks like:

Although we don't know for sure what the complainant suspected was flying from their neighbour's home, we can guess they mistook it for the flag of Isis, the jihadist group being bombed by western and Middle Eastern states in Iraq and Syria.

This is what the Isis flag looks like:

Local Alliance Party councillor Andrew Muir said: "In some ways you couldn't make it up.

"It's rather depressing that we would be focused upon flags. People are entitled to fly whatever legal flag they want from their house and in Northern Ireland we need to be able to celebrate our success and the European flag is an open, inclusive symbol of Europe coming together."

Just for the avoidance of any doubt:

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