Many people will be familiar with the flag that bears the emblems of the four provinces of the island of Ireland.
For those of you who are not, seo daoibh:
You will find that it has in the past, or is still, been a symbol used by several all-Ireland bodies including the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA). Its virtue being, presumably, that in the case of boxing which has a long history of being all Ireland and cross-community, that it is a non-political symbol.
What you or they might not realise is that the flag is now apparently a symbol of the For Roysh. Then again, almost anything that reflects anything suspiciously nationalist is in danger these times of being accused of this awfulness.
And do not take my word for it. The Clare Champion has declared that the four provinces flag “is commonly associated with the far right in this country.” Is it really though? And if so, since when?
Reporter Sharon Dolan D’Arcy does not elaborate on how this came to be, so perhaps it has always been so.
It is impossible to know whether Ms. Dolan d’Arcy formed her belief that the flag in question was of such an abhorrent tendency following long and independent rumination on questions of the intersection of vexillological symbols with political extremism, or whether she was influenced in her conclusions by the claim by an anonymous trader who has a stall in the Market Square at Ennis that “the flag is linked to the far right.”
The flag itself had been placed on the Christmas tree that stands at the roundabout in the Market Square. More sinisterly, the person who hoisted the flag was dressed as Santa. Presumably, he was just dressed as Santa and was not the actual Santa himself on recon to check on the children of Clare and their relative naughtiness as opposed to niceness.
If it was the actual Father Christmas, then of course that would raise serious questions about the political affiliations of the man himself. Even if it was not, surely there must be some identification by the For Roysh with the symbolism of Santy, and maybe even with the Christmas Tree?
The first to spot this sinister nexus were the Stalinist Communists. Christmas and all that was associated with it were too strongly rooted in Russian and European Christian civilisation for them to eradicate it completely from living memory, so they simply re-invented it as an atheist holiday – a forerunner of the Happy Holidays multi-cultural charade pitched by commercial interests in alliance with the liberal left.
In Hungary, the Left moved Christmas Day to December 18 which was Stalin’s birthday. The Christmas Tree became the Fir Tree and Santa was cancelled in favour of Winter Father. The Fir Tree of socialism was meant to be decorated by a chocolate fondant known as szaloncukor rather than anything that might be construed as traditionally associated with the Christian festival.
The only problem with that was that even if you were not one of the tens of thousands of Hungarians who had been interned in slave labour camps, that the country was so abjectly impoverished that the only ones who could get their hands on such luxuries as chocolate fondants were the Party Commissars, secret policemen and camp guards.
Back to Christmas present. The offended market trader presumably not only contacted the intrepid Ms. Dolan D’Arcy but also made a complaint to the County Council. He was also concerned that the mock For Roysh Santa was driving a vehicle apparently registered to the communications company Eir, and that it was its hoist that was deployed to install the obnoxious and deeply offensive flag of the Four Provinces. Eir did not respond to a query from the newspaper on that matter.
Another trader said that he was “perplexed” as to why the flag had been placed on the Christmas tree, but gave it as his opinion that “in his view, the four provinces featuring Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht represented the entire island of Ireland.” He did not proffer an opinion as to whether this constituted evidence of a connection with the ubiquitous far right.
A spokesperson for Clare County Council told the Clare Champion that “This incident will be investigated and the flag will be removed after investigation.” Which begs the question as to why bother having an investigation in the first place.
Gript contacted Clare County Council asking them whether the investigation had been completed and whether the offending flag has been removed. We also inquired as to whether the Council had concluded that “the flag is an offensive symbol, and on what grounds did the investigation conclude that it was?”
Clare County Council stated, in their response, that “Clare County Council’s Ennis Municipal District Office was made aware that a flag had been tied to the top of its Christmas tree in Market Square, Ennis.
“This was not erected by Council staff and thus was removed on Wednesday, 6th December after investigation. Management has no further comment on this matter.”