The flax plant might be bland and its symbolism trite, but the same could be said of the Tricolour
. Its truce between orange and green is the sort of naff literalism a Stormont committee might come up with
The Commonwealth Games is one of several sporting organisations to use the Ulster Banner, the emblem of the old Stormont government, which served as the de facto flag of Northern Ireland until 1973. The flag is associated exclusively with unionism, and members of the Commonwealth Games board say this makes it inappropriate for a cross-community team. They add many athletes are simply indifferent to it, as it fell out of widespread use long before they were born.
Once again, unionism is demonstrating its boundless capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Silence from nationalism indicates it knows its opponent well. Why be seen to reject something positive when unionists will sabotage it for you? One exception is the emblem of the Northern Ireland Assembly, adopted after the Belfast Agreement – six flax plants representing the six counties, in a stylised blue design on a white background. A similar image represented Northern Ireland on British coinage in the 1980s. The potential of this as a civic flag has been almost completely overlooked, despite its obvious attraction as an uncontentious motif in well-established use. .
Common-Ground Northern-Ireland Stormont-Assembly Sinn-Fein Democratic-Unionist-Party
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