In the Union Flag…?
Not the Union Jack btw, it’s that if flown from a ship’s Jack flag pole.
Anyway, why is St. Patrick’s Cross (which now represents the Ulster Banner I suppose) off axis?
Most probably don’t know this, but it is entirely possible to fly the Flag the wrong way up. Find one now and look at it. Notice how the red strips of St. Patrick’s Cross are not perfectly in the middle of the white strips? The top right one should always be closer to the top.
Why is this? Why isn’t the Cross normal? If you removed St. Andrews and George’s Crosses and replaced the blue background with a white one it would look like a very crooked St. Patrick’s Cross.
So why? Why isn’t it St. Patrick’s Cross in the Union Flag as it is on it’s own?
2 Responses
Remington S
31 Mar 2010
Star Spangled Br
31 Mar 2010
hi therre
ill try an explain this one as simply as i possibly can! (being a vexillologist – a flag researcher- im more used to using different terms for describing parts of a flag)
the reason for the St Patricks saltire (diagonal cross) being the way it is all comes down to precedence and position of honor.
position of honor is height and ‘to the right’ (the flags OWN right – that is – the observers left)
a flag such as the Union flag is split into 4 quarters
in order of precedence highest first
quarter 1 – TOP LEFT
quarter 2 BOTTOM RIGHT
quarter 3 BOTTOM LEFT
quarter 4 TOP RIGHT
the St patricks cross just happens to be a saltire – the same as that of st andrew- so they had to somehow put both onto one flag
the Scots would have thought it unfair for the st patricks cross to appear over the st andrews cross leaving only the fimbriations of the scottish cross left (fimbriation- a thin white border/edge used to split up colours)
so they came up with a way – using the quarterly positions of honor to display the st patricks cross…
as to whose cross appeared above the others cross (height being position of honor)
position one the top left was given to scotland – as its cross had been on the flag longer
so position 2 the bottom right was given to ireland.
position 3 – the bottom left was scotlands again and position 4 the top right was irelands
that was the fairest way to do it, and thats why the cross appears as it does on the Union flag.- it makes for quite a unique design though don’t you think? – and alot of thought had been put into it.
and yes – its enitrely possible to fly the Union flag upside down. people do it without realizing all the time!
it is quite a subtle difference – but once you get to know the flag – you will notice an upside down one immediatly!
Apparently, since the Andrew’s and Patrick’s crosses are essentially the same except for coloring, using the Patrick’s cross unchanged would have effectively erased the scottish symbol from the flag. So they decided to thin the red cross, and since they were changing it anyway, they offset it as a symbol that the St. Andrew’s cross had precedence, since Scotland was joined to England first.