The Flag of Northern Ireland reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Flag of Northern Ireland

There are currently no official flags of Northern Ireland. The Union Flag is used instead.

From 1953 to 1973 Northern Ireland used a flag, called the 'The Red Hand Flag of Ulster', showing a red St. George's cross on white (like the Flag of England), with a crowned six-pointed white star showing a red hand. This was based on the traditional flag of Ulster (which includes nine counties as opposed to the six in Northern Ireland), which was a red cross on yellow, with the red hand inside a white shield in the centre.

As this flag is associated with the unionists and loyalists, it has no chance of being reintroduced, although it is displayed at the Commonwealth Games. Nationalists and republicans use the Irish tricolour, arging that as they do not recognise Northern Ireland as a separate political entity, they see no grounds for it having a flag of its own.

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