Monday, May 4, 2009

Did you know.....

On quiet blogging days, at least you can always rely on the Agence Bretagne Presse for a decent yarn:
The flying of a European Union Flag on a Government flagpole at a main sea port on the Isle of Man has been ended.

The Isle of Man Department of Transport had been flying a series of flags (Manx, Irish and Union) including the EU flag purportedly to welcome visitors to the Island at the Sea Terminal building, Douglas Harbour.

However the flying of the EU flag was to be the subject of a question at the next sitting of the House of Keys from Keys member, Quentin Gill, who pointed out the Isle of Man is not (and never has been part of the EU).

Bet you didn't know that?!

But bearing in mind the logic mentioned for removing the EU flag, somebody will have to explain to me why they're still continuing to fly the Irish flag...
Apparently, DOT Chiefs bowing to pressure have removed the offending item and the Manx flag now flies, flanked by the flags of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

7 comments:

Paul said...

It's bizarre - the Isle of Man is British, not Irish. The only flags that should be flying there are Manx and the Union Jack.

I'll have to check ManxForums and see what the locals think about this...

Damon Lord said...

They might like to fly the Irish flag to welcome Irish visitors?

Anonymous said...

Correction - Irish Nationalist visitors. Its a nationalist flag. I am Irish and it is not my flag.

O'Neill said...

Damon,

And they don't want to welcome EU visitors?!

That's the gap in logic I was referrring to; they don't fly the EU flag because they don't belong to the EU, yet they still fly the ROI's flag!!!!

Unknown said...

Back in 2000 I had a 3 month contract on the Isle of Man. I remember getting off the aircraft, taking a deep breath and exclaiming "Ah, the great smell of Freedom from the EU!".

I don't think there's a gap in logic myself. The big difference between the RoI and the EU is that the former have friendly relations with Man and the latter are actively hostile, wanting to close down their Financial Industry and who have even demanded that it be made illegal to breed Manx Cats. (To which the reaction was a flawless destruction of the EU's "logic" followed by the point that as they weren't part of the EU, the EU could go swivel).

Incidentally, Man has said that were the UK to adopt the Euro, they would switch to the US dollar.

So, all in all, a pretty sensible, well run place.

Horseman said...

In fact Man is not part of the UK, so the British flag is no more official than the Irish flag. It was, presumably flying the three flags of its nearest neighbours. Its own flag is the three-leg thing on a red background.

But I presume you knew that?

O'Neill said...

Horseman,

You've missed the point here. The EU flag is taken down because IOM is not a part of the EU. That being the case, then why fly the ROI's flag? It's not part of the UK granted, but it's a crown dependency and in other Crown dependencies you will see often the Union flag flown alongside the local emblem.