The Irish Flag appearing everywhere

i have noticed recently that the irish flag has started to appear in a lot of unusual places. i have seen it on the side of bridges, lamposts, esb boxes, traffic lights, even in shopping centres which are private property. i have nothing against this but i am curious to know who is putting these around and also why? i actually think they look good where they are, some of these are big and would have taken some time to do and prob cost alot of money to put there also. i have certinly seen them around dublin, im wondering are they around the whole country?