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Ireland should adopt a Denmark-like policy of banning foreign flags from flying over government buildings, a Senator has claimed.
Commenting on social media platform X, Independent Senator Sharon Keogan was reacting to a recent announcement by the Danish government that they would be pursuing legislation to ban flags other than the “Dannebrog” – the Danish national flag – from being flown within Danish territory, with limited exceptions.
“The proposal is intended, among other things, to reintroduce a ban on flying other countries’ national and regional flags. The Act is expected to enter into force on January 1, 2025,” the Danish Ministry of Justice said in a statement late last month.
Denmark is moving to restrict the flying of foreign flags within its territory, describing the national Danish flag as “a symbol that binds Danes together as a people.”https://t.co/a8zxsdvDvq
— gript (@griptmedia) June 27, 2024
Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard described his nation’s flag as “the most important national symbol we have in Denmark” and “a symbol that binds Danes together as a people.”
Notably, the ban will only apply to flying flags from a flagpole – not flags carried at political demonstrations, sporting events, or other similar settings, along with a number of other exceptions.
Responding to the news, Keogan said that “we need to be more like Denmark!”
“No flag other than the Irish flag should be allowed on government buildings or buildings funded by the government,” she said, adding: “Bending the knee to the latest ideology is just crazy.”
In recent years, a wide variety of flags other than the Irish tricolour have been flown over official state buildings, including the Palestinian flag, the Israeli flag, the Ukrainian flag, the European Union flag, the United Nations flag, and the LGBTQIA+ Pride flag, just to name a few.
🇵🇸 🇮🇪 The Palestinian flag proudly flying over the lawn of Leinster House on the day Ireland officially recognises the State of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/P1ppryN7NE
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) May 28, 2024
Several years ago in 2017, a People Before Profit Councillor in Fingal made headlines after suggesting that the Irish flag being flown outside the Council building was potentially offensive to migrant communities.
Fingal councillor opposes flying Irish tricolour above county hall, saying it could offend foreign nationals https://t.co/BIKrsqKAdD pic.twitter.com/Iyrzh2hHHi
— MSN Ireland (@msnireland) November 25, 2017
At a council meeting at the time, Councillor Matthew Waine opposed a motion proposed by Sinn Fein’s Daire Ni Laoi to raise the national flag at the council’s building in Swords, suggesting that the red flag of Marxism should be flown instead.
“We have one of the most multicultural populations in the whole country living in Fingal and I think we need to consider the sensitivity of this,” he said at the time.
“The issue of religion, language, nationality…all of those issues are extremely sensitive and we’ve seen how that can play out to divide people.
“I would prefer to see the flagpoles used to express solidarity, so for example on the week of Pride we should show the Rainbow flag.
“I think we should fly the flags of minority groups like Pavee Point. I come from the tradition of the workers’ movement which doesn’t see the country of your birth as being anything significant.
“I would prefer to see the red flag fly outside County Hall and maybe in the future that will be the case.”
Waine subsequently lost his seat at the following local election in 2019.
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