Which Flag at the Derry Cenotaph

Which Flag at the Derry/Londonderry Cenotaph?

It is known that the Irish Republican Tricolour and the Union Jack were flown at the Derry/Londonderry cenotaph together to commemorate the Irish fallen in W.W.1 The historical poppy cock that lies at the heart of this display should be examined.

The Flying of the Irish Tricolour on such an occasion implies that the Irish men who fought in France in W.W.1 were republicans. Nothing could be further from the truth. What motivated Irish men to fight and die in France is a complex matter and there are probably as many motives as there were individual soldiers. This can be considered by looking at the Irish Guards in W.W.1. The Irish Guards Regiment consisted of three battalions that fought with honour and distinction in all major engagements in the Great War. The Regiment won 406 medals including four V.C.s An expression of their motivation can be found in Rudyard Kipling’s poem –The Irish Guards---. Kipling wrote this poem as his son fell with the Irish Guards in France in 1915. To quote an extract: -

We’re not so old in the army list
But we’re not so new in the ring.
For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe
When Louis was our king.
But Douglas Haig’s our marshal now
And we’re King George’s men
After one hundred and seventy years
We’re fighting for France again

Old days! The wild geese are ranging
Head to the storm as they faced it before
For where there’s Irish their hearts are unchanging
And where they are changed it’s Ireland no more.

Marshal Saxe refer to the battle o f Fontenoy 1745; in this battle the French army of LouisXV lead by Marshal Saxe and supported by the Irish Brigade defeated the British and Hanoverian forces at Fontenoy. The final attack by Dillon’s Irish Brigade foot soldiers was decisive in the battle. This poem was taught to recruits to the Irish Guards until after W.W.2. It is still part of the regiment’s history.

It is clear in this poem that the Irish Guards in W.W.1 had a keen sense of Irishness and were fighting for King and Country but the country wasn’t England or Britain but France and Ireland. This makes the Irish soldiers Constitutional nationalists but not Republicans since their flag was the Union Jack and their loyalty was to the Crown King George. This constitutional Nationalism of the soldiers is further revealed in the honorary discharge certificate issued to the Irish soldiers after the Great War, the certificate shows a armour clad Britannia holding a shield and sword of state in her left hand and a Union Jack in her right. To fly an Irish Tricolour at the cenotaph in Derry/Londonderry is to misrepresent the Irish Guards in W.W.1 along with all other Irish men who fought and died in France at that time.

The historical balderdash under scrutiny is an example of the Republican subterfuge to hijack constitutional nationalism and take it over. There is a crude attempt by Republicans to revise history and make nationalism republican. In a response to the article--- Whither Nationalism?—Stephen claims that now a days all Nationalists are Republicans, if they are that is to be regretted but perhaps a residual spark of constitutional nationalism still lives in the person of Margaret Ritchie. In a letter to the press written by her some time ago she complains that Sinn Fein has stolen the nationalist clothes of the S.D.L.P. It would seem that Sinn Fein is now ravening Republican wolves masquerading in constitutional nationalist sheep’s clothing. The reality is Sinn Fein are Republican in theory only but sit in a Unionist Union Jack assembly as crypto-unionists and with the withdrawal of articles 2 and 3 from the southern Republican Constitution the Irish tricolour in N. Ireland meaningless. TH Irish Tricolour has a place on the G.P.O. in Dublin where it represents a futile Catholic sectarian uprising to overthrow the U.K. constitution and the crown and set up a republic The Irish men who fought in France stood full square with the U.K. constitution and the crown so the Irish tricolour isn’t their flag no does it represent them. In more recent times the Irish Tricolour has been defiled by the Provisional I.R.A. to bomb and gun Protestant Loyalist Ireland in to a republic against their democratic wish.

The debased Irish Tricolour needs to be remade again in a new design as the Royal Flag Of Ireland that is representative of the history of both communities and can be recognised by all at the Cenotaph in Derry/Londonderry or any where else. The definition and design of such a flag is given in the published National Government of Ireland Act article 9 page 224. . For as long as there is a flag for Catholic Republicans and another for Protestant Loyalists for so long will the people of the city be divided and sectarianism and strife will thrive.

Michael Gillespie