This commemorative year would have been ideal to upgrade our national flag

Last Tuesday was a special day of proclamation, remembrance, and civic commemoration of the founding of our State.

All schools hosted ceremonial flag-raising and commemorative events, in remembrance of the 1916 proclamation of independence.

Given the multifarious perspectives, motley publications, and emblematic gestures being proffered around the 1916-2016 centenary commemorations, and given the historical ramifications, one might have thought the national flag would have come in for some creative renewal.

Something resonant.

I’ve always been impressed by the powerful, aspirational simplicity of the green and orange traditions meeting in peace, to thrive together as a single citizenry on the island of Ireland.

Thomas Francis Meagher has left an enduring, triadic icon, which has served the nation well, albeit only part of the island would fully claim it as their own. Perhaps it’s time to give it a further boost, a peaceful boon to encourage and inspire.

The first (1848) version of Thomas Meagher’s tricolour had the orange next to the mast, and a red-hand on the central white field — and it was made by women in France, during his reconnoitring sojourn there in early 1848.

Given that the white field of space in the middle of the flag is rather vacant and requires some enhancing uplift, I propose that an additional flourish be inserted into the central white tranche of our tricolour. It would consist of a golden harp, cradled underneath by two hands, one orange and one green, the orange-coloured hand placed on the green-side of the central white field, the green-hand on the orange side.

This alignment would respectfully accommodate the other’s cultural traditions. The gold harp would signify the precious value of living in harmony together, as well as celebrating the unifying inspiration of the creative arts and their transformative, expressive value for all.

The harp partly resembles a ‘heart-shape’, and thus is an ideal symbol of peaceful collective endeavour.

The harp emblem also references some earlier flag versions, and the ‘hands’ idea resonates with Meagher’s own, original, 1848 aspiration: “The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the ‘orange’ and the ‘green’, and I trust that, beneath its folds, the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.”

Whether ‘clasped’, green-and-orange hands may be a tad too far for now. Maybe cradled hands under the golden harp, with fingertips touching, might be more realistic. Many national flags have similar, ‘logo-type’ central emblems, which conjure key resonances for their peoples.

Isn’t it time we upgraded ours?

After all, we should always strive to pluck the strings of courageous maturity and grasp the prize of communality.

Next up...the national anthem?

Jim Cosgrove

Chapel Street

Lismore

Co Waterford