National Flag to fly on St Brigid’s public holiday – Heydon

Kildare South Fine Gael TD and Minister Martin Heydon has received confirmation from the office of the Taoiseach that the National Flag will be flown on our new public holiday in honour of St. Brigid.

Minister Heydon said: “I had highlighted the importance of this new public holiday with the Taoiseach’s office and questioned if it would be added to a small list of days when the National Flag is flown.

“Confirmation of the flying of the national flag on our newest Public Holiday to mark St. Brigid’s Day is further recognition of the importance of the day. The flag will be flown on all national and official government buildings on that public holiday every year from now on.

Minister Heydon continued: “Kildare’s new public holiday joins a very small and elite group of days in the year when the national flag is flown from all State buildings throughout the Country.  Up until now the National Flag is flown on St Patricks Day (the National Holiday), Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (in commemoration of the Rising of 1916) and on the National Day of Commemoration (on the Sunday closest to 11 July the date of the Anglo-Irish Truce in 1921).

“The flying of the National Flag which is flown at other significant national and local events such as festivals and commemorations, is governed by strict protocols.

“The Flag was first flown from 33 The Mall, Waterford on 7 March 1848 by Thomas Francis Meagher.  It was flown over the GPO during the 1916 Rising and was adopted as the flag of the Irish Free State in 1922, and formally confirmed as the National Flag in the 1937 Constitution.

“Official Protocol has now been updated to include the St. Brigid’s Day/Imbolc bank holiday this year on Monday 5th February, signifying the importance of the day as a National Holiday”, Minister Heydon concluded.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was happy to work with Minister Martin Heydon this initiative.

The Taoiseach said: “St. Brigid of Kildare is particularly associated with light and hope and peace.  In including the Saint Brigid/Imbolc public holiday as one of the official days our National Flag is flown, we pause to remember Brigid the peacemaker, the protector of the natural world and a formidable force for justice whose light shines ever more brightly today.”