To “add to the noise”, a designer creates new, welcoming flags

When Dan Eames returned to Dublin in April, he started to notice tricolour flags flying everywhere.

Eames, a digital designer and researcher, had been living in the Netherlands for about three years, he said on Friday afternoon.

They seemed to be everywhere, he said, while sitting at a window seat in the Ground State cafe on Thomas Street. “I felt the meaning more than I knew the meaning of them.”

Nobody was explicitly saying that they were unwelcoming, he said. “But they felt unwelcoming.”

What it felt like was an anti-immigration message being conveyed by members of the far-right, he said. “It just felt very imbalanced towards the right.”

As the flags proliferated, including along nearby Basin View, and across town on Pearse Street, among many other areas, lots of people in the city have been trying to figure out how to appropriately respond.

Including the council. On Monday evening, council officials told Social Democrats Councillor Lesley Byrne that “the issue is one that needs careful consideration due to the broader context in which flying the flag has been interpreted”.

Somebody could take them down, sure, Eames says. “They could take them down because they are put up at half-mast, and not very well. But that’s not a good approach.”

It’s still the national symbol, he says.

An alternative could be to find ways of using the tricolour to send out a more inclusive message, he says, taking one out of his bag, over which he had printed a Palestinian flag within a heart. “We can convert this into a more welcoming symbol.”

This was the thought that informed his decision to launch Céad Míle Flags, a project intended to reclaim the Irish tricolour through the creation of flags that combine it with those of nations like Palestine, Ukraine, Brazil, India and Moldova.

Drown out the message

Reclaiming the flag probably shouldn’t entail ripping down the ones that are up, and replacing them with ones like what Eames has designed, he says, over the chatter of the almost-full cafe. “I’m literally looking to add to the noise.”

Flying flags with a more positive message near those that are being used as a means of intimidation creates more noise, he says. “I’m trying to add just enough to make it unclear as to why those unwelcoming tricolours are being displayed.”

First, it is about making the flag more ambiguous, he says, “and then, maybe eventually more welcoming, because then all of the work that more far-right people have done will not result in what they had originally anticipated”.

The flags that are placed over the tricolour in Eames’s designs vary from those of countries affected by wars, to those of the countries of origin of large groups of immigrants who live in the city, he says.

They’re intended as symbols of inclusivity, or signifiers of the different layers in Irish society today, he says. “To use graphic designer phrasing, it’s a layer, a layer on top of another country. The Irish flag is still there. It’s not like we’re cutting a hole out of the centre. We can have all these layers to it.”

The flags created as part of his project are made from 100 percent recycled materials, he says, rubbing one between his thumb and index finger. “I’ve made 100 so far. Sold about half. And there are donations included.”

Proceeds from the Irish-Palestinian flag go to the Irish Red Cross, and from the Irish-Ukrainian one goes to Ukrainian Action in Ireland, he says. “A Brazilian or Indian one goes to Doras, a general charity for immigrant rights and protections.”

Flags flying everywhere

Although the rain had subsided, Storm Amy sent violent gusts of wind down Thomas Street as Eames left the cafe.

There were a few tricolours up not too far from here, he said, proceeding out towards the Guinness Storehouse.

Over on Basin Street Lower, one was flapping wildly halfway up a steel lamppost. Somebody had fixed it there with a couple of zip-ties.

Eames unfolded one of his own below it, bearing the Palestinian flag within a heart in the middle, and held it out for a few moments, waiting for a gust of wind to catch it.

There was a Palestinian solidarity march tomorrow, and a few of his flags would probably make an appearance there, he said.

And he was right. On Saturday morning, among the Irish and Palestinian tricolours, and a South African flag, one of Eames’s designs was flying high, and people were wearing a few more as cloaks over coats.

Finding the appropriate response

As Eames walked away from the tricolour up on Basin Street, he said the sight of these had provoked a lot of upset, because it felt like one of the first times he was seeing the flag being “weaponised” in the city.

Dublin City Council has been grappling with how to respond to these anti-immigration acts since it reconvened on 1 September for its first monthly meeting since the summer recess.

Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty, in September, asked the council’s chief executive, Richard Shakespeare, what actions it would take to tackle its use “as a means of intimidation”.

The council’s area managers would meet with senior Garda representatives over the coming weeks, read the chief executive’s reply.

Social Democrats Councillor Lesley Byrne submitted a follow-up question at the monthly council meeting on Monday evening.

What criteria was being used to decide when and where flags will be removed, she asked, while also requesting an update on the council’s engagement with Gardaí.

The issue needs careful consideration due to the broader context in which flying the flag has been interpreted, read the chief executive’s reply.

“The city council is also very cognisant of the risks associated with any unauthorised installation on public infrastructure,” it read. “With this in mind, a comprehensive risk assessment is required before any action can be considered.”

These assessments are currently being carried out and would inform any subsequent decisions, it said.

The reply made no reference to the meeting with Gardaí, but it said discussions were ongoing with “local and national stakeholders” on how to identify and address the issues signified by the raising of flags across the city.