What The Irish Flag means to Me ...Thomas Meagher Foundation

The following is a piece titled “ ‘The Hand is the Tool of all Tools’, written by Claire Foyle for the Thomas Meagher Foundation Flag Foundation Competition, titled “What The Irish Flag means to Me “.It accompanied a fabulous piece of sculpture ,depicting hands , created by Claire. Claire has titled this piece of sculpture ,‘The Hand is the Tool of all Tools’,

In earlier centuries certain groups of people decorated spears and other utensils that showed their tribe's or community's cultural symbols. The early explorers and colonists always put crosses or sculptures up when they landed on newly discovered land ,to proclaim their presence, or show sovereignty. These were the symbols of the past ,and these are what shaped the flags of today.

I have often asked myself why do countries have flags anyway? Having spoken to my peers, we decided that flags are important because they show that we belong to a community, an organisation or nation, and in turn, reinforce that we share the same beliefs and goals, and follow the same set of rules and regulations. In short, we decided that flags are important because they are national symbols. But of what I asked ? This brings me to that very important question.. “What does the Irish Flag mean to me in 2022?

As a child, I was told that the white in the centre of our Irish Flag symbolises the hope for a lasting peace between Catholics and Protestants. I learnt  of the significance of the colours, as outlined by Thomas Francis Meagher, in 1848 :

"The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood"

As I grew older, I found inspiration in the great poem, ‘ The Hand of Lincoln’, by Edmund Clarence Stedman . This poem contains the following great lines :

‘Look on this cast,

And know the hand,

That bore a nation in its hold

What better than a voiceless cast…..’

These great lines moved me to create my own “Voiceless Cast”, a cast to which I now give a voice.

To begin, I found it difficult to depict what the Irish flag means to me . Should I, or could I, present my thoughts in the written form ,or do so through the medium of Art.

How could I represent this symbol in a tangible form? All I had to do was look down at my hands,  themselves a work of art. I reminded myself that  the hands are the most frequently symbolised part of the human body. To quote Aristotle , ‘The hand is the tool of all tools’. 

Our Flag would not have been made without the hands that sewed it together. I now felt I had a responsibility to make these hands out of clay, hands that would symbolise the hands of the maker, the hands that signed the Proclamation, the hands that strive to keep us together. In short, the hands of the nation.

As a member of the future generation, I found myself saying ,my future, Ireland’s future, is in my hands, is in our hands. The power we possess,  joins us together, as  a force to be reckoned with.

Now, one might see my sculpture as  just a pair of hands, but I see much more.As I  took time to carve ,and sculpt the clay, endeavouring to capture the essence of this symbol, I  realised I was carving :

 Unity

                                                             Brotherhood

Togetherness 

Courage

Bravery

Belonging

Hope

Pride 

Respect 

Peace

the fingerprints of our nation past, present and future,fingerprints that would never fade, given the lives they touched ,and would continue to touch.

The lines on our hands are like the threads of the flag woven together, connecting the past with the present, removing any sign of division. As hands join together ,we are united as one. We stand with the Irishmen & Women who have graced this land, their presence symbolised by our Flag. As the Tricolour rises, I hold my head  high, I raise my hands .I see unity and brotherhood, togetherness and courage, bravery and belonging. I see hope, pride, respect and peace in the gesture of a returned handshake. For it is only when you look beyond the cloth, now 174 years old, you understand a deeper meaning, a meaning unique to each individual.