Seth Barrett Tillman is an Associate Professor at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology (Scoil an Dlí agus na Coireolaíochta, Ollscoil Mhá Nuad). His research spans public law and legal history. Tillman has written widely on separation of powers, parliamentary law, and the evolution of public law institutions. He is also recognized for engaging in contemporary debates on constitutional governance with both scholarly rigor and public accessibility; his academic works have earned two awards. Additionally, he has published in several literary journals, including: Claremont Review of Books (U.S.), Dorchester Review (Canada), and Quadrant (Australia).

The Irish Flag War

By Seth Barrett Tillman

It appears that more than a few of the best people now believe that the wrong sort of Irish people are putting up Irish flags in Ireland, and that this is being done as anti-migrant “hate speech” directed against fragile foreigners. As night follows day, there will soon be an investigation led by the Gardaí and then debated by the Dublin City Council. And eventually, a proposal will be made to make it illegal for Irish people to put up Irish flags in Ireland. It is possible that such a proposal might be enacted, and it is also possible, perhaps likely, that such a policy will be upheld by the Irish courts.

Let me suggest an alternative policy.

Instead of banning unwelcomed speech from the “unwanted”[1]—engage in speech of your own and win a battle in the market place of ideas and political ideals. Instead of ceding your national symbol, your flag, to alleged extremists, reclaim your symbol and hold that torch high.[2]

More specifically, this is what I propose: In front of the main entrance of every government building, public park and playground, erect an Irish flag.

At every major street corner, place an Irish flag.

And most importantly, in every class room, that is, in every government funded classroom—including classrooms within primary, secondary, and (especially) third-tier educational institutions—set up an Irish flag.

This way if some rowdies or street thugs carry an Irish flag, no one will even notice. And, more importantly, you will, at last, refrain from the long-standing policy of ceding the symbol of your national identity to those who might misuse it. In fact, I put this policy forward as much for foreigners in Ireland as I do for the Irish and Irish nationals. In order to help foreigners integrate into the national narrative and culture, there must be an identifiable national narrative and culture for them to integrate into. A land without flags will be experienced, by many, as an unwelcoming and “cold house.”[3] I will go even further, when foreigners apply for and take up legal residence in Ireland, the Irish state should give them their one-hundred thousand and first welcome:[4] an Irish flag to put on their home’s front door. What could be more welcoming than that?

And should all this come to pass, and work out as well as one could hope, “this nation”[5] “once again”[6] might even hold annual independence day parades, with drums, and fifes, and the Irish tricolour.

There is just no good reason to ban other people’s speech.

[1] Address to the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre (Birmingham, England: Midland Hotel, Apr. 20, 1968).

[2] John McCrae, In Flanders Fields (2015) (“The torch; be yours to hold it high.”).

[3] David Trimble, Ulster Unionist Party, Nobel Prize Lecture (1998) (“Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house, but it was a cold house for [C]atholics.”).

[4] “Céad míle fáilte”—Irish/Gaelic for “one-hundred thousand welcomes,” and the phrase is sometimes intended to be descriptive of Ireland generally.

[5] Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863) (affirming “that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom ….” or “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ….”).

[6] Thomas Osborne Davis, A Nation Once Again (1844); see also The Wolfe Tones, A Nation Once Again (2002) (voted #1 song in a BBC World Service poll).