College and the 1916 Commemoration

europerson

I see College had the national flag flying today.

Hagar

Why don't they fly it everyday?
Why don't we all fly one everyday?

John

Hagar wrote:

Why don't they fly it everyday?
Why don't we all fly one everyday?

Why fly flags at all? Patriotism and national pride is so 20th century.

ApeXaviour

europerson wrote:

I see College had the national flag flying today.

Glad to see that myself too.

Did anyone read an article about tcd's involvement in 1916 (I cant remember if it was in the record or TN) about a month or two ago. IIRC It was written in quite the anti-revolutionary tone. It praised the dwellers involvement for taking up arms and not letting the rascal fenians capture it.

Kind of made my blood boil a bit tbh. Since the day of the riots though I've become somewhat disillusioned with my own nationalist sentiment if these are the types claiming to co-represent me.

europerson

John2 wrote:

Patriotism and national pride is so 20th century.

Just out of interest, what's so 21st-century?

Andrew 83

I think it was flown because it's a national holiday today (at least Stargal told me it would for that reason). They only fly the flag on days listed in the 'flag protocol'. It can be a nightmare to get them to fly it any other days. It took a lot of hard work from Francis to get the Trinity flag flown at half mast for the Pope's funeral.

As regards the article in TN, i think it was meant to show what the view was in Trinity at the time, what happened in college etc. I don't think it was necessarily anti-revolutionary though its author could answer that better.

Agent Smith

Anyone thats been at council this Year would have seen mannions Blatant waste of time with the Irish Flag...

Ok, nice idea, is it really that important?
surely we should consentrate on more important things? things like ensuring the health center is free and people doing repeats have the correct infomation?

europerson

Andrew 83 wrote:

I think it was flown because it's a national holiday today (at least Stargal told me it would for that reason).

Today's not a national holiday. Tomorrow is.

agent smith wrote:

Anyone thats been at council this Year would have seen mannions Blatant waste of time with the Irish Flag...

Ok, nice idea, is it really that important?

I agree: seeking to have the national flag flown every day is a complete waste of time for the SU.

foxybrowne

Some may say its a waste of time, but perhaps we should ask why the collage doesn't want to fly the flag? Perhaps there is costs associated (eg paying people to put it up and take it down daily, ensure there are clean etc. flags), and why does the collage say its not worth the cost.
Superquinn in Swords puts the Irish flag up daily at sunrise and takes it down at sunset. Why can't the collage do the same?

Nietzschean

whatever their reasons, its not really something the majority of the student body cares about, and is hardly a cause the SU should focus its time on....

cuckoo

foxybrowne wrote:

Some may say its a waste of time, but perhaps we should ask why the collage doesn't want to fly the flag? Perhaps there is costs associated (eg paying people to put it up and take it down daily, ensure there are clean etc. flags), and why does the collage say its not worth the cost.
Superquinn in Swords puts the Irish flag up daily at sunrise and takes it down at sunset. Why can't the collage do the same?

If any flag was to be put up daily over college imho it should be the college flag - it's unifying and would suffice for flag at half mast occasions.

arbeitsscheuer

europerson wrote:

Just out of interest, what's so 21st-century?

SOCIALISM mate.

Destroy all nations

foxybrowne

Nietzschean wrote:

whatever their reasons, its not really something the majority of the student body cares about,

How do you know that?

Nietzschean wrote:

and is hardly a cause the SU should focus its time on....

Isn't it? Generally, as far as I know, the SU council decides what the SU should focus its time on. And the SU council decided both this year and last year that the Irish flag issue is indeed something the SU should pursue. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Cuckoo wrote:

If any flag was to be put up daily over college imho it should be the college flag - it's unifying and would suffice for flag at half mast occasions.

I agree the collage flag should be looked at too, but its not as important as the national flag, I guess.

foxybrowne

foxybrowne wrote:

And the SU council decided both this year and last year that the Irish flag issue is indeed something the SU should pursue. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, technically the SU has no new policy on anything Irish flag related this year (bar the Rainbow flag motion saying how it should be campaigned for 'in tandem' with the Irish flag campaign), so it didn't really decide to re-inforce the decision from last year! It was proposed not to be put since there was existing policy.

Edwardius

SebtheBum wrote:

SOCIALISM mate.

Destroy all nations

You're lookin a bit red there UCD boy, STEP DOWN or I'll get the mercedes steamroller I use for running over hippies

John

SebtheBum wrote:

SOCIALISM mate.

Destroy all nations

Social Darwinism is all the rage now.

Destroy all notions.

Andrew 83

I spend quite a bit of time in UCD and DCU and they both always fly the flag. In my secondary school they flew the Irish flag, the EU flag, and the school flag. I think that's a pretty good way to go.

I don't really go along with the view that it's a waste of time looking for the flag, I doubt it takes up so much time that it precludes them from doing anything else. It's a reasonably simple thing if college decided to do it that would apparently make a lot of students happy. I highly doubt it will happen though.

On the other hand when I saw it flying over the front gate on St Patrick's Day I wasn't really sure. It kinda looked wrong somehow, I think it's better on one of the flagpoles on either corner of the front block rather than over the centre. I don't really think education should be centred on the flag but I think the flag should be there if that makes sense. It shouldn't hold absolute sway over education and research so shouldn't be in the centre if that doesn't sound too mental

John

It's just a piece of cloth

Andrew 83

SebtheBum wrote:

SOCIALISM mate.

The way things are going in South America it might be

shay_562

Originally Posted by Nietzschean
whatever their reasons, its not really something the majority of the student body cares about,

How do you know that?

How do we know the majority of the student body doesn't care about any non-issue? Because hardly anybody you could talk to cares about it, or would even know about it if it weren't for the few dogmatic people who bring it up. It's not that I have anything against the Irish flag (it being our national symbol and whatnot), but given that the Irish flag being flown has literally zero impact on our education and welfare, I have to say that wasting even one minute of SU time on it is one minute too long.

John

Yeah, I had never even noticed that TCD didn't fly the flag until someone here mentioned it. It is exactly as shay says: a non-issue.

europerson

cuckoo wrote:

If any flag was to be put up daily over college imho it should be the college flag - it's unifying and would suffice for flag at half mast occasions.

I think the College Flag would be good too. It represents everyone in College.

Andrew 83 wrote:

On the other hand when I saw it flying over the front gate on St Patrick's Day I wasn't really sure. It kinda looked wrong somehow, I think it's better on one of the flagpoles on either corner of the front block rather than over the centre.

I agree that the flag looked a bit "wrong" on St. Patrick's Day. It would be wrong, however, for College to fly the national flag on the left or right poles, because, according to precedent, they're inferior to the tallest pole.

ApeXaviour

europerson wrote:

I agree that the flag looked a bit "wrong" on St. Patrick's Day.

I don't think it looked "wrong", it looked more "captured" by the fenians that tend to rove around it.

Though tbh if it was there everyday we'd get used to it fairly quickfast. Its absence would then look "wrong".

JustAnother

Andrew 83 wrote:

I spend quite a bit of time in UCD and DCU and they both always fly the flag. In my secondary school they flew the Irish flag, the EU flag, and the school flag. I think that's a pretty good way to go.

None of the three schools I attended flew the flag.

Hermione*

My school (one did me for thirteen years!) never flew the flag either, but UCD do and tbh, I really like the fact that they do. I always notice its presence/ absence walking into college.