Celebrating our National Flag
Every morning a group of Transition Year Students raise our National Flag. Our national flag, the Irish Tricolour, symbolises the desire for peace (White) between the two traditions that have lived on our island for centuries Nationalist (Green) and Unionist (Orange). The flag was first flown on March 7th 1848 from the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club at 33 The Mall Waterford City by a Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher. On Easter Monday April 24th 1916 the Tricolour was flown from the top of the GPO in O’ Connell Street in Dublin. Article 7 of the Irish Constitution Bunreacht na Éireann confirms the Tricolor as the national flag of the state. Today, Ireland is a changing society and there are many people living in our country for whom their National Flag is that of the country in which they were born. In celebrating our national flag and what it symbolises we also celebrate our diversity and encourage you to celebrate your own National Flag on March 16th also.
To help you celebrate on the day there is a template of a flag attached where you can write or type in what the national Flag means to you and you might like to take a photograph holding it in front of you at your favourite location, within your 5km zone of course and post it on your social media or send us your photos for inclusion here and in school for display there.
Also, you will find here the Protocol or Rules around displaying the Irish Flag and a short video where St. Anne’s has connected with our National Flag and others in different ways in the past. I hope you enjoy it and that it will encourage you to celebrate the flag on the day. If you would like to make a charity donation or mark the day in a special way please consider a donation to Missionvale Ireland. Donations will be collected after Easter when we are all back in the school building. There will be flag pins on offer for a €2 donation at that time.
As St. Patrick’s Day approaches we wish you a Happy Lá Fhéile Padraig and please stay safe and keep well.