One of the good things about travelling for me is that I’m no working, and that gives me the time to find out about things I’ve been thinking about for ages but never got round to.
And the best source for the answers to my questions is Wikipedia.
For years I’ve been wondering why the Union Jack…
… isn’t symmetrical. The red X doesn’t line up at either side. Well I looked it up and it’s cos a flag flown upside down is a distress signal, but if the Union Jack was symmetrical then it would look the same upside down as the right way up.
So there ye go!
I also found out that the flag is made of the St. Andrew, St. George and St. Patrick flags. I thought it was Scotland, England and Wales, no Ireland.
Incidentally, look out when you’re talking about this…
… to someone from the Catholic side of the Northern Ireland fence. I once mentioned that it was the flag of Northern Ireland to someone from there and it was “We don’t have a flag”. I said you do, albeit the unofficial flag, but that’s the only flag you have so that’s the best there is currently. And again it was “We don’t have a flag… that flag is only used by Loyalists”. I said, well, I’ve saw it on the telly, in the news, I’ve saw it used in sport events to represent Northern Ireland and I don’t think the ladies synchronised swimming team or whoever it was would raise the Northern Ireland flag to make a fuck-the-Pope political statement.
Then it descended into asking me what sports event it was or something, the sort of shite you usually answer with “Are you calling me a liar?”. Look, that’s the flag, unofficial, but that’s the flag; we don’t have a flag; you do; I should know; my thoughts entirely; etc. Quite a heated, red-faced affair in all, and this person is just an arty farty type, not some Republican nutter. Then again, they did have a problem with me referring to myself as a Brit, which made their veil of objectivity slip a bit.
I know there are folk from NI reading this, so let me know your views on this matter, along with the name of your favourite Glasgow football team and the name of the primary school you went to.
Back to more flag news. Did you know that the Scotland flag goes back to the 9th century, making it one of the oldest flags in the world, a few hundred years older than the England flag? That’s right! Older than the England flag by hundreds of years! There ye go!
I’ve also found out what a cult of personality is and that I’d like to read up on most of the cunts listed in the article; that Franz Ferdinand are named after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria whose assassination triggered World War I; that rolling an R is called an Alveolar trill, and the sound I make instead of “tt” in the word “better” is called a glottal stop.
I’ve also found out that I’ve turned into a 100% boring teetotal flag fact maniac and general shite talker.
Fuck sake man …………. You need a holiday “.
I went away and checked that you hadn’t put that Union Jack on upside down as a way of secretly communicating that you were in distress.
It appears you’re okay – but if anything happens you know the drill.
The Ulster Banner’s not recognised by republicans because a) they don’t see Northern Ireland being seperate from the rest of the republic and b) the crown is displayed so prominently. Ironically, the “red hand of Ulster”, which has been adopted as a Unionist/Loyalist symbol, has it’s origins in history far pre-dating the Loyalist movement, from the clann UÃNéill. You’ll find the history of it on wikipedia, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ulster
Donnie, if ye know the CSS code thing to make things go upside down (I know it works in IE or something) then let me know and I’ll gie it a dry run.
I see, Phil, a bit like how Israelis can’t get a visa for Malaysia and other Muslim countries cos they don’t recognise the state of Israel.
Awritey Limmy, a went to the Franz Ferdinand concert and they did a pretty kool thing. They had a giant sheet covering the stage from top to bottom and a giant picture of Gavrilo Princip (guy who assassinated Fedinand) and when the show started they burst out on there opening song while the curtain dropped kinda sayin “fuck you Gavrilo, Franz Ferdinand LIVES” Pretty good shit a thought…!
Though i’d share my bit of random knowledge about flags- Paraguay’s flag is the only flag in the world to have two different sides, the front side has the national coat of arms and the back side has a lion with a red cap. I have no idea why i know this but there you go, you’ll all sleep better tonight won’t you!
Phil, calm the fuck down…….a ) coz your a fanny baws and b) dont be so fucking serious anal boy
I’m calm. I’ve only snipered three children this week. See. Spirit of Christmas and all.
But that’s crazy! The flag will look the same when it’s upside down; look, as it is the red is to the left and the white is to the right on the top, and the white is to the left and the red is to the right on the bottom. But if you flip it round 180* that’ll still be true. Check it with paint; flip it 180 degrees and it looks the exact same.
Cheers for the Union Jack info. That’s been bugging me for as long as I can remember. Dunno why I never investigated before to be honest…
your wrong about the union jack, Rotate it 180 degree’s and you’ll understand!
If the “rotate it 180 degrees” mob could assume they’re wrong and the article has got it right and try the other way of turning it upside down, that would be great.
right, im confused now!
lol!
…can someone settle a bet for me…are rio, les, franz and anton ferdinand cousins or brothers???
Listen, calm (dear its only a commercial) down about the flags, you don’t rotate it you turn it over so that the bottom of the reverse site is then the top on the side you are looking at. Its then officially upside down, now before you start drawing flags on pieces of paper remember that its hung from the left hand side (a bit like my good self) and the reverse of the flag maps the colours through the material. So don’t draw the image above on two sides, draw it on one side and trace it through. I hope that you appreciate all this shite I’m writing to prove your correct.
Anyhoo!
Its Christmas day and its pure white out outside with frost and ground fog you can barely see a 100′ outside.
Happy Christmas and enjoy the new year.
turn the fuckin flag 90 fuckin degrees and have done with it – Jeysus!
For fucks sake.
The flag of St Patrick is offset (lower) because the flag of St Andrews (Scotland) has a higher seniority through the 1800 Act of Union (ie. us haggis munchers are better than the bog trotters).
its the white strips that are different surely you dont need to turn anything to see that, let alone start a craft school…?