Along with formal ceremonies and commemoration events that have been taking place across Ireland for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising (All of which can be found on the Decade of Centenaries Website), which serve to commemorate the actions at the inception of a free Republic of Ireland and reaffirm collective memory, the way the people of Ireland see their flags is also quite important. Public works like murals or unofficial holidays, especially in Northern Ireland where divisions are most distinctly drawn, bring public opinion to the forefront rather than formal and polished government ceremonies. Still, other means of commemoration come in the form of stamps and souvenirs which are also addressed on this website.
Murals
Murals are essentially public displays of human emotion. Northern Ireland, in the cities of Belfast and Derry to a nationalist or Londonderry to a unionist, has a long history involving the large paintings. Many in Derry are used to convey anti-sectarianism beliefs and use the horrors of the Troubles to represent their message. As such, those murals tend to be less flag focused. Particularly in the Bogside neighborhood of Derry, the artists focus more on the people associated with or killed during the Troubles in the late twentieth century. Flags, even in their absence, still carry particular messages and ideas surrounding nationalism and the partisanship the murals advocate against. However, Irish Tricolour flags are regularly displayed on the streets that run alongside the Bogside murals. Despite the focus away from divisiveness and violence, a flag that originated from Irish nationalism. Moreover, a large sign displays the words “You Are Now Entering Free Derry,” dividing a whole city by sectarianism.
Murals are also prominently displayed throughout the largest city and capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast. Many of the murals in Belfast usually fall under either “nationalist” or “unionist” and often times use specific symbols to express support for either, often at odds, side. Here are two murals in Belfast that employ the use of flags to show their respective political ideology:
The unionist mural emphasizes the phrase “Ulster to Britain” and displays the flags of (From top to bottom) Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to reaffirm Northern Ireland’s legitimate place amongst the other nations of the United Kingdom. Paralleling the flags, symbols representing the each nation of the UK are shown. For instance, the English flag is opposite a poppy and the Northern Irish flag is opposite a shamrock. The mural also focuses on the red hand of Ulster, a symbol widely used to represent Ulster and is even used on the Northern Irish Flag. The girl, labeled “Ulster,” carries a Union Jack insinuating a deep devotion and connection of Ulster to the United Kingdom.
The other mural is a direct reference to the Easter 1916 Rising. While slightly less symbolic, the mural displays a scene of soldiers involved in the rising defending a smoke filled Dublin General Post Office. In the background, a Tricolour is flying to remind onlookers of the causes and ideologies the men fighting in 1916 stood for: irish Independence and republicanism. At the very top of the mural, an Easter lily is displayed to commemorate the soldiers who fought and died in 1916 as well as symbolize future peace.
Eleventh Night and The Twelfth
The night of July 11th and July 12th are Protestant/unionist holidays in Northern Ireland that commemorate the Protestant King William of Orange’s defeat of the Catholic forces of King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Battle of the Boyne saw protestant forces successfully fight off Catholic forces, and, when put into a modern context, celebrates the Protestant/Catholic divides that still linger today by painting modern Catholics and the Irish Republic they are associated with as aggressors against the Protestants of Northern Ireland.
Leading up to July 12th, Protestant communities throughout Northern Ireland set up huge bonfires littered with Irish Tricolours and other republican paraphernalia as proxies for the object’s Catholic roots. The bonfires are then lit at midnight, beginning the festivities of the Twelfth. Disunity between Protestants/unionists and Catholics/nationalists is common in Northern Ireland due to partition and the issues during the Troubles, but such public displays in such heavily divided areas do more than protest the actions of the Republic of Ireland. The bonfires easily turn into acts of hatred or intimidation, especially if done in mixed areas. The use of flags for intimidation in such a manner furthers sectarianism of both sides by actively invalidating the ideologies behind the Irish Tricolour and the people that hold those beliefs through flag burning.
The Twelfth is also steeped in controversy. Throughout the day of July 12th, large parades of Protestant brotherhoods like the Orange Order. The routes of the parades have long been criticized for going into nationalist-majority areas and acting with intimidation and sectarianism in mind as they walk with their Union Jacks and Northern Irish flags. Whether or not the Protestant and unionist groups are actually using the parades as displays of power or dominance, the parades more so divide the communities by ideology than mend them.
Some displays of flags and other emblems are used to promote anti-sectarianism or making political statements speaking against the violence of the past. Others employ flags and symbols as a means to divide and isolate themselves from the ideologies they perceive as unjust. Intimidation, in attempts to validate a flags power through fear, allows for tensions to be much more strained between communities. Hatred and division are what can and have bring Ireland back to the ways of violence of the past which employed fear as a means to legitimize what a particular flag stands for.
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