Thursday 9 September 2010

A flag for Northern Ireland?

Sad confession: I'm a bit of a flag geek. So the lack of a flag for Northern Ireland bugs me. This post is basically an excuse for me to share this design I did in a fit of 'putting-off-work' a couple of years ago, but I'll also ask: what do other people think a flag of Northern Ireland should be? If not my design below I'd personally support the plain St. Patrick Saltire - it lacks potentially sectarian imagery like the hand and crown whilst expressing positive unionism via being the flag that represents Ireland on the union jack.

However, combining elements of the old Ulster Banner and the saltire looks quite good, IMO.

EDIT: I submitted this design to a facebook group about the NI flag a couple of years ago, and they made a slightly different version.

3 comments:

  1. I can't say I mind the lack of an officially used NI flag. The Banner serves the purpose for sporting events and so forth, and I'm not really much of a supporter of the state endorsing subnational flags in the UK.

    If I had to choose, I'd be equally enthusiastic about the St P's cross. I also like this design - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proposed_flag_of_Northern_Ireland.svg . The defaced St P's cross that you showed, however, would never be accepted - aside from the crown, it just has too much Protestant/Unionist imagery: red and white, red hand, six-pointed star. You can get away with one, maybe two of those elements - but not all three.

    Anyway, I suspect Irish nationalists are not this fickle. They reject proposed Northern Ireland flags not because of the imagery, but because they are flags of Northern Ireland - a place they reject the very existence of.

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  2. I don't really need nationalists to approve of the flag, as long as it isn't overly provocative. I agree that the defaced flag I designed is impossible, I just think it looks good. I would personally favour Saint Patrick's Saltire becoming the official flag of NI.

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  3. ""potentially sectarian imagery like the hand""

    Actually the Red Hand is a Gaelic Symbol, used by all sides of the political spectrum in Northern-Ireland, the Crown is only controversial to Republicans, a political minority in Ulster, and strictly speaking is appropriate given Ireland's past regional kingdoms, and that Republicanism is an highly unpopular ideology in N-Ireland

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