Northern Ireland

Last modified: 1998-01-07 by vincent morley
Keywords: northern ireland | ulster | united kingdom | ireland | europe | red hand | cross |
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by Vincent Morley

• History of the flag
• Political flags
• Colours of the Ulster Defence Regiment
• Legal aspects of flag display in Northern Ireland

See also:

• United Kingdom
• Ireland
• Murals

The red hand of Ulster comes from a legend from one of Ireland's many legendary invasions. The leader of a war party promised a prize to the first man to touch land with his right hand; so the winner, a left-handed man, cut off his right hand and threw it onto the shore.

James Dignan, 27-NOV-1995

This was a civil flag for Northern Ireland, but the status of this was abolished when the Belfast Stormont assembly was closed down in 1973. Thereafter, the Union Flag was made official for all purposes in Northern Ireland.

Stuart Notholt, 11-FEB-1996

A yellow flag with a red cross, bearing a white shield charged with the red hand of Ulster, is a banner of the arms of the traditional province of Ulster. Sometime after Northern Ireland was formed as a separate self-governing entity in 1922 it adopted arms based on, but not the same as, Ulster, with which it is not coterminous (three of Ulster's nine counties being in the Republic). Presumably the Northern Irish arms were deliberately made more "British" with the addition of the crown and the changing of field to make it look like the St. George's cross. Interestingly, when these arms were displayed on a flag badge in the Governor of Northern Ireland's flag, the disc was yellow, not the customary white.

Roy Stilling, 6-MAR-1996

There is a book on the subject: Lucy Bryson and Clem McCartney, Clashing Symbols? A report on the use of flags, anthems and other national symbols in Northern Ireland. [bmc94]

Flags are an important element in many of the murals. In the mural 'Loyalist flags' we find the Union flag, the dark red (maroon) flag of Londonderry and the Northern Ireland flag: red St.George's cross on white, with the red hand of Ulster on a white star outlined in red and with a crown s urmounting the star. It is interesting that the crown is sometimes left out, for example in the mural entitled 'Red Hand of Ulster'. In this mural, a red hand flanked by the NI flag without a crown and the Union flag tramples on the Irish tricolour (with 'IRA' inscribed on it). One Loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is identified by a flag with a blue field, a St. George's cross in the canton and the letters UVF in the lower fly. This flag is on the mural called 'Military Images'.

by Jan Oskar Engene 3-MAR-1996

Bryson and McCartney say that:

The Ulster Defence Association has pale blue flags with the UDA shield: The red hand of Ulster on a white background, surmounted by a crown and underneath the words 'Quis Separabit' or 'who will make us separate'. It sometimes includes a Cross of St George in the top corner.

On the nationalist and republican side, the tricolour of the Republic of Ireland is probably the most used flag. However, two other flags are worth mentioning. The first is the Starry Plough, a blue field with seven white stars in the pattern of the Starry Plough (Big Dipper, Ursa Major) constellation. This flag originated with the Irish Citizen Army in the Easter Rebellion of 1916, originally with a green field and a representation of a plough in addition to the stars. The field was changed to blue and the plough drawing dropped when the flag was adopted by theIrish Transport and General Workers Union in 1934. The other flag is the Sunburst flag, a golden sun bursting from the lower hoist corner. The golden/orange sunburst is seen on blue in some murals, for instance the republican paintings entitled 'Military Images' and 'Historical and mythological' at the WWW site referred to above. The flag is used by Fianna Éireann, the youth wing of the IRA.

Jan Oskar Engene, 3-MAR-1996

by Vincent Morley 24-SEP-1996

The above flag of the Orange Order is depicted in its typical proportions of 2:3 but I don't know if these are official. It is often seen with a gold fringe on three sides.

Vincent Morley, 24-SEP-1996

The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternal association dedicated to maintaining Protestantism. It was founded in Northern Ireland in 1795 and is an important organisation there. It spread throughout the British Empire and was very important in Canada, remains influential in Scotland and Liverpool (in England) and has branches in Togo, Ghana, Australia, NZ, USA, Republic of Ireland, NI, England, Scotland and Canada. The Orangemen parade on 12th July. They are called Orangemen because they commemorate the time in 1690 when King William of Orange (a Dutchman and Protestant) defeated King James II (a Catholic) at the Battle of the Boyne thereby ensuring that the British crown was once again Protestant (which it remains today).

Ian Christopher Taylor, 26-SEP-1996

by Jan Oskar Engene 3-MAR-1996

The Crimson Flag was first carried by the Protestant supporters of William of Orange who were besieged in Derry by an Irish Jacobite army in 1688-9. It is currently used by the 'Apprentice Boys of Derry', a loyalist organisation similar to the Orange Order, which holds an annual commemoration every August to mark the lifting of the siege. While Derry is the main focal point of this commemoration, smaller marches are held throughout Northern Ireland on the same day.

Vincent Morley, 5-NOV-1997

I believe there is a group of Ulster separatists (ie supporters of an independent Ulster, neither British nor Irish) who use a flag with the red hand of Ulster on a St Patrick's cross.

Stuart Notholt, 3-MAR-1996

In 1970 the Ulster Defence Regiment was formed within the British Army to replace the B-Specials, Royal Ulster Constabulary auxiliaries, who were tainted with Protestant bias and a reputation for brutality (somewhat like the Black and Tans fifty years earlier). The UDR were a regiment of part-time soldiers much like the Territorial Army (reserves) in the rest of Britain. Like the rest of the Army each infantry battalion was entitled to carry a stand of two colours - Queen's (Union Jack) and Regimental.

The UDR also became slightly tainted since it was very hard to recruit Catholics. In 1992 the UDR was merged with a regular army regiment, once again to help boost its image and reputation. A year previously, as the unit faced extinction in the form it has known for 21 years, the Queen went to Northern Ireland to present the first ever colours to four of the nine UDR battalions.

The colours of the battalions are identical except for the battalion number in Roman numerals in the upper canton. The field of the regimental colours is green, not for Ireland, but because the UDR is considered a "rifle" regiment, and that is the traditional rifle colour. In the center is a circlet inscribed with the regiment's name in gold. In the circle is the regimental badge, a rather plain harp (variations of which are common to most Irish regiments) surmounted by a crown. Around the circlet is a "union wreath" of roses, thistles and shamrocks (a uniform design for the whole army), the whole surmounted by another larger crown. The flags look very bare compared to the rest of the army's which are cluttered with battle honours on gold scrolls around around the union wreath.

T. F. Mills, 3-MAR-1996

There was the Flags and Emblems Act of 1954. According to Chris Ryder in The RUC: A Force Under Fire (London: Mandarin, 1992) this act:

'outlawed the display of a flag likely to cause a breach of the peace - clearly the Irish tricolour - and made it an offence to interfere with the display of the Union flag.' (p. 82).

Jan Oskar Engene, 8-MAR-1996

The act of the Northern Ireland Parliament (1922-1973) was repealed by the UK Parliament sometime in the 1980s.

Roy Stilling, 8-MAR-1996