An Odd Collection of Flags

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 2 May 2022

The only theory I can call me up with is that an Irish, a Japanese and an Australian share this house, and are showing their support for Ukraine in the current ongoing war. But maybe whoever lives here just likes flags. I heard the other day that the Ukrainian flag symbolises a summer sky over fields of bright wheat. The Japanese one shows a rising sun, and the (it has to be said) rather aspirational Irish one symbolises Catholics and Protestants meeting in peace. The Australian one required some research. The Union Jack at the top left (unfortunately the wind has blown the flag round so it is facing the wrong way, and one of its stars is hard to spot due to it billowing around) obviously is a reference to its roots as a British colony, although this is more to do with the majority of its citizens having descended from British settlers rather than any particular pride in the Empire. The cross beneath it gets called the 'Commonwealth Star'; this seems to be referring to the common wealth of Australia, as opposed to the Commonwealth as we know it generally though, as six of the stars' points apparently represent the country's six states and the seventh their combining to form one overall state. The five stars on the right symbolise its geographic location, and represent a constellation only seen in the night skies of the Southern Hemisphere: the 'Southern Cross'. The original flag was actually a bit better I think. All of the five stars had different numbers of points to represent their relative brightnesses in the sky; today all bar a tiddly five-pointer are the same.

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