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THE IRISH FLAG is 95 years old this year. Officially, that is.
The flag was first adopted in 1919, having been gifted to Young Irelanders leader Thomas Francis Meagher in 1848 by a group of French women. Its constitutional status was enshrined in 1937.
Despite its storied place in Irish culture, there are very few flown from homes and not all state buildings are required to fly it.
But if you were to fly one, what would the correct way to do it be?
Colour
Ok, first things first. The flag is green, white and orange. Yellow or gold is occasionally used, but guidelines from the Department of the Taoiseach say that this ‘destroys the intended symbolism’.
The exact Pantone system colours are: PMS 347, White and PMS 151. The flag should be divided into three rectangular sections of equal size and should be twice as long as it is high.
Display
When displaying the flag, no flag should fly higher than the National Flag and it should be placed on the right of any formation, that is to the observers left.
When being flown with the EU flag, the EU flag should go immediately bedside the Irish flag.
Things not to do
Funny, but a no-no
The main things to remember when handling a flag are: don’t write on it and don’t let it hit the ground.
Says the guidelines:
“The National Flag should never be defaced by placing slogans, logos, lettering or pictures of any kind on it, for example at sporting events.
“The National Flag should not be draped on cars, trains, boats or other modes of transport; it should not be carried flat, but should always be carried aloft and free, except when used to drape a coffin; on such an occasion, the green should be at the head of the coffin.
“Care should be taken at all times to ensure that the National Flag does not touch the ground, trail in water or become entangled in trees or other obstacles.”
Who flies the flag?
Nobody is required to fly the flag, says the Department of the Taoiseach’s protocol department.
“There is no requirement on any building to fly the National Flag, but where one is usually flown, it is expected that they would observe the guidelines. The flying or non flying and treatment of the National Flag is a matter for each organisation.”
It is, however normal practice to fly the flag from military posts and important state buildings. All state buildings that have a flagpole fly the flag on important national days such as St Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday and the National Day of Commemoration.
All pics: Photocall Ireland.
I haven’t even read the article…sometimes i just love to read comments.
Me too brother, or I look at boobies
Why do you link that song all the time?
@ Ben – You know what – I read it and have not a clue what it is all about. So no point trying to predict me.
68.2% isn’t too impressive. Not exactly foolproof is it?
It’s very impressive actually
In other news: Dublin almost find a way to beat Cork.
fMRI studies are usually small – it’s expensive to do & having your head inside a big magnet isn’t much fun. So it’s promising that they found something.
I can predict some peoples choices:
The socialist: Tax the rich!
The right winger: We need more guns and police
The libertarian: its turning in to a nanny state, stay out of our business
Many people are predictable and a lot make decisions based on their own prejudices and on very little information. So I can see this working a lot.
I was waiting to see how long somebody would make a tenuous link between this article and the government, looks like we have a new record
The subjects chose between 48 pairs and the scientists predicted what they would choose out of the other two pairs??
I bet if do just as well as the scientists on that 50/50 choice?! :)
Why do people waste money on pointless research like this when people are dying from cancer and other disases every day,get your priorites right
Well done Gavin, that’s definitely the most ignorant thing I’ve read all day
Clearly you havent done much reading today so.
I read a few tabloids but your comment still came out on top.
Calling research pointless just because you can’t see any immediate benefit is narrow minded and plain ignorant. If attitudes like yours dictated the direction of scientific research we would not have the kind of technology we do today. For example take space exploration, it seems fairly useless to the average person but the robotic technology developed to build pointless space probes is now being used in hospitals for robotic surgery.
The benefits of research are not always immediately apparent and benefits can arise in unexpected ways. Slating research as pointless is short sighted and ridiculous.
There have been experiments conductef that show decisions are made in the brain before we become consciously aware of them. Kind of puts a dent in the assumption that we all have free will.
If you are talking about Libet’s experiment then 1) He never claimed his findings opposed the existence of free will and 2) Recent experiments call in to question the assumptions made from his findings
You are right Alan ,I knew you say that
they could start with the td in the dail
Minority Report.
They haven’t decided if they have found it yet
“I am Jeremy Kyles wet dream”, national geographic September edition.
There’s a Marcus de Sautoy doc’ on Youtube called “The Secret of Me” which shows this experiment. They could predict decisions 6 sec before he made them, freaky.
have your say