Siege Flags on the Walls of Derry

Apprentice Boys of Derry Club assisted by the Police Service and City Marshals placing the siege flags on Walker's Plinth on Royal Bastion of the historic city walls of Londonderry, and preparing the effigy of the traitor Lundy on Saturday 7th December 2013. This is done annually on the first Saturday of December to mark the anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates of Londonderry on 18th December 1688.

On the 18th December 1688 thirteen Apprentice Boys seized the keys and shut the city gates against the Earl of Antrim's Regiment know as the Redshanks, who had been ordered by the viceroy of King James II to take over the garrison of the city. Thus beginning the siege of Derry.
The siege flags are flown from the walls on the anniversaries of both the Shutting of the Gates, and Relief of Derry at the beginning and end of the siege respectfully.
The Cross of St George on the left and Green Ensign on the right were the flags used in Ireland on land and at sea at the time of the siege. St George's Cross being used on Garrisons like Londonderry and the Green Ensign used on Irish ships although it is debated if this flag had any official status, there is evidence it was used none the less.
The flag in the centre is known as the Crimson Banner and it was first hoisted on the walls and later St Columb's Cathedral by the cities Governor Colonel Mitchelburne as a symbol of defiance or distress or possibly to boost moral, depending on who you talk to. Local legend says the crimson colour comes from the flag being stained by the blood of the city's defenders although sources differ on what the original flag was, some say it was a rag dipped in blood one says it was an unused maritime ensign stained with blood. Col Mitchelburne founded the forerunner of the Apprentice Boys Clubs in 1714 and left money in his will to hoist his Crimson flag from the Cathedral on the anniversaries of the beginning and end of the siege, which continues today. As well as the walls and Cathedral the crimson flag is flown from the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall, and versions are carried by Apprentice Boys clubs on parade.

At the end of the video is the effigy of the traitor Lundy. Lundy was Governor at the beginning of the siege but wanted to surrender, he is even accused of leaving the gates open one night, and of various attempts to sabotage the city's defence. He later fled the city disguised as a common soldier which is why he is remembered as a traitor. His effigy is ritually burned on the anniversary of the shutting on the gates.
For more information on the city walls, the siege, or the commemorations you can visit:
Associated Clubs of the Apprentice Boys of Derry Website
Derry's Walls Website
Siege Hero's Trail
Or various documentaries about the siege on YouTube
BBC "The Siege"
BBC "Battle Field Britain" Clip
Museum audio-visual displays: One, Two and Three.

Walled City Tattoo

As part of the 2013 UK City of Culture, my home city Londonderry is hosting a tattoo called the Walled City Tattoo. This will be based on the Edinburgh Tattoo with some of the acts performing in Edinburgh also performing in Derry. It will include both Scots and Irish dancing as well as marching bands particularly bagpipes, and will take place on Ebrington Square, which is appropriate as it used to be a military barracks and comes complete with a full size parade square. However as far as I am aware this event does not have a logo. Now this is not directly linked with flags but it is related. I had a go at designing a logo which I based on the Logo for the Edinburgh Tattoo shown below.

 

It incorporates the tattoo coat of arms and full title. A rather simple and basic logo to design as the coat of arms already existed before this logo was used.

My design was a little bit harder as I had to design a new coat of arms as this is a new event. My logo is shown below:

As you can see it is directly influenced by the Edinburgh tattoo logo. It also features aspects of the city coat of arms, an oak leaf representing the city's origins and a tower representing the city walls, the city's colour; Derry Crimson is also heavily featured as is the city motto. For more information on all these and my designs for a Londonderry flag click here. The crest like The one on the Edinburgh Tattoo features two crossed flags. Unlike the Edinburgh one they do not appear on the shield. My flags are St Patrick's Saltire a symbol of Ireland and the Red Hand of Ulster. The harp is also featured in the crest as i didn't think it looked right on half of St George's Cross.

This was designed by me, and I would like to know what you think of it. All comments welcome 

Londonderry Flag

This idea really only came to me from a post on a different blog about a new flag for the city of Liverpool. Being a Liverpool FC fan I thought I would have ago too. Then I thought about what about my own city Londonderry? Londonderry(aka Derry, Dorie(Irish) Lunnonderrie/Derrie(Scots) the walled city and the maiden city) is one of the most ancient and historic places in Ireland. It is Northern Irelands second city and is set to be the first ever UK city of culture in 2013, so it seems right we should have a decent flag. The flag currently flown over the Derry City Council offices (not the Guildhall where council sits which has no flag pole) is this:

This is a very simple flag with two main features, the city coat of arms and the crimson field. I will explain both.

First off the coat of arms. the most ancient part of the arms consist of a black shield with a skeleton sitting on a mossy stone with a castle in the background. No one really knowns the origin of these.  

• A suggestion has been made that the castle is related to an early 14th century castle in nearby Greencastle belonging to the Anglo-Norman Earl of Ulster Richard de Burgh.

• The most popular theory about the skeleton is that it is that of a Norman De Burgh knight who was starved to death in the castle dungeons in 1332 on the orders of his cousin the above mentioned Earl of Ulster. Another explanation put forward was that it depicted Cahir O'Doherty (Sir Charles O'Dogherty), who was put to death after Derry was invested by the English army in 1608. 

In 1979, Londonderry City Council, (before the council changed its name,) commissioned a report into the city's arms and insignia, as part of the design process for an heraldic badge. The published report found that there was no basis for any of the popular explanations for the skeleton and that it was "purely symbolic and does not refer to any identifiable person"

The next cheif of the arms bears the arms of the city of London. It was the London Guilds who funded the reconstruction and plantation of the city and the building of new walls(which still stand today) and a new charter in 1613. (hence the name Londonderry). A Harp was added to the centre of the cross, this is sometimes forgot about, and in the past has been dropped completely.  In 2002 Derry City Council applied to the College of Arms to have the harp restored to the city arms, and Garter and Norroy & Ulster Kings of Arms accepted. The harp sometimes appears on top of the shield. In Loyalist and Unionist interpenetration's a crown might appear on top of the arms both with and without a harp. Although no crown was ever offically added to the official armsThe motto Vita Veritas Victoria is Latin for life truth victory. . The cities arms are often flanked with flags,banners and weapons. Below is a carving from inside the city Guildhall it depicts cannon, swords spears and muskets and colours flanking the shield. the four flags in this case are a British red ensign representing that Londonderry is a port. the blue flag with gold harp is a traditional flag of Ireland, and the dark crimson ones in the background I will come to next.

 

The Crimson flag is also part of the Derry tradition. To understand it you need to know that in 1689 the city withstood over 100 days of siege. It was the third and last attack on the walls(which have never been breeched hence the maiden city) During this conflict a crimson emblem was displayed on the walls and later on the Cathedral as a symbol of defiance to the attackers. It features in George Folingsby's painting the Relief of Derry symbolising relief ships lifting the siege. It is belied to have been dipped in blood hence the crimson colour. This colour is known as 'Derry Crimson' and the colour of school blazers, council vehicles

   and the sashes of the Apprentice Boys of Derry Clubs who hoist the crimson banner on the Cathedral and carry it as a colour at the anniversaries of the shutting of the gates and relief celebrations every year.

Top: Crimson Flag flown from St Columbs Cathedral the establish city cathedral (there is a second Roman Catholic one outside the walls) Above Bottom: a crimson Apprentice Boys flag.

The city of culture flag looks like this flown from the Derry-Londonderry round the world race yacht as you can see it is rather operate so I believe we need a better flag to show the world.: 

Not wanting to abandon the coat of arms or the crimson banner I decided to use both I used a banner of the arms in the council logo:

I used a design similar to the flag of City of Dublin shown below:

 

As you can see a banner of the arms appears in the canton of the design. My designs are below:

 Arms in canton

Arms at hoist

This is a little bare so I added the red hand of ulster 

However I don't think it works so a harp on a blue shield seed logical as it is another shield often seen in the Guildhall. 

The problem with these shields are that it might say Ireland, Northern Ireland or Ulster but not Derry. so I needed a badge and walking in Guildhall square I saw it on the walls. 

An oak leaf symbolising the city origins with a bastion symbolising the ancient walls. I incorporated it in the flags

I also made an elongated version for use as street banners on lampposts: 

The new designs belong to me. All comments welcome