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Montserrat

by zeljko heimer 15-MAY-1996

The arms show a woman with a harp, embracing a passion cross.
james dignan 27-NOV-1995

Last year I posted a GIF of the flag of Montserrat, a British possesion in the Caribbean, though the name sounds much more French to me.

This time I repost it, with colours corrected according to N.Smith's FOTW. They differ a bit from those in W.Smith's book, but basically all the colours in the shield are proper, so may differ from representation to representation. Biggest diference is the background colour of the shield, that is blue in first, and gray-bluish in second book.

Zeljko Heimer 15-MAY-1996

Zeljko posted some time ago about the flag of Montserrat, a Blue Ensign with some apparently Irish symbolism in the device on the fly, and it was rhetorically asked how an English dependent territory with such a French sounding name ends up with Irish symbols.

Welcome to the Caribbean, where the various islands changed hands between Spain, England, France, Holland, and others countless times. It can make for some very confusing symbology; as it turns out, Montserrat comes by its flag quite legitimately.

It was named by that Italian fellow sailing for Spain, Colombo or some such :-), in 1493, after an abbey -- one not in France but in Spain. This abbey was supposedly where Ignacio de Loyola experienced the vision which led to the formation of the Jesuit monastic order. It was eventually settled (the island, not the abbey) by Thomas Warner, a Briton, who brought English and Irish Catholics from St. Kitts, and the island soon gained a reputation as a Caribbean safe haven for Catholics, particularly those fleeing from Virginia (which is extremely odd, considering that Maryland, the only American colony with religious tolerance, was right next door...but that's Virginians for you).

Cromwell also sent Irish political prisoners to Montserrat following his victory at Drogheda in 1649, and the first African slaves, bought by an Irishman, landed in 1651, and there was a slave revolt in 1768.

The French raided several times during the 17th and 18th Centuries, sometimes aided by the resident Irish, but the island became British for good with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783.

BTW, Montserrat was the island hardest-hit by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

The source (Caribbean Islands Handbook 1991, Prentice Hall, B. Box and S. Cameron, eds.) further states:

"The Irish influence can still be seen in national emblems -- on arrival your passport is stamped with a green shamrock, the island's flag and crest show a woman, Erin of Irish legend, complete with her harp, and a carved shamrock adorns the gable of Government House."

Steve `Scooter' Kramer 26-MAY-1996