Sporting Flags
Several all-island sporting organisations send representative teams to compete internationally. In some cases, a flag unique to that organisation is used in lieu of a national flag. Typically such flags include one of the traditional symbols of Ireland.
The Ireland cricket team, which competes in One Day International tournaments, uses a flag depicting shamrocks.
The Ireland national field hockey team uses a bespoke flag with a shield quartered with the symbols of the four provinces.
The Ireland rugby team's flag is a green flag containing the shields of the four provinces and the Irish Rugby Football Union's logo. At matches outside Ireland, this is the only flag displayed. At matches in Northern Ireland (typically at Ravenhill) the Flag of Ulster is also displayed. This is the flag of the nine-county province, similar to but distinct from the Ulster Banner, the former flag of the Northern Irish government. At matches in the Republic of Ireland (typically at Lansdowne Road), the Irish tricolour is flown along with the preceding two.
Eddie Irvine, a Formula One driver from Conlig in Northern Ireland, asked for a white flag with a shamrock to be used if he secured a podium finish. There had been controversy when an Irish tricolour had been used for him in 1997. The FIA insisted the Union Flag be used in conformance with its regulations.
Read more about this topic: Cross-border Flag For Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words sporting and/or flags:
“I once heard of a murderer who propped his two victims up against a chess board in sporting attitudes and was able to get as far as Seattle before his crime was discovered.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“No doubt I shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like bloody flags in my wake. Loose ends, things unrelated, shifts, nightmare journeys, cities arrived at and left, meetings, desertions, betrayals, all manner of unions, adulteries, triumphs, defeats ... these are the facts.”
—Alexander Trocchi (1925–1983)