I can understand Irish Patriotism, you are a citizen of a fairly new country that was repressed by its far stronger neighbour for hundreds of years.I
I can understand any citizens need to express solidarity with its own republic.
I can't understand why "subjects of a ruler", whose system has oppressed them for just as long as the Irish, but only within its own borders, should wave the Flag , as if they are part of the club.
It depresses me seeing Union Flags or the Flag of St George hanging from grotty rotten windows , I expect it sat behind Tory Cabinet ministers, it's theirs after all.
I can fully understand the Saltaires, the tricolours, red dragon, I appreciate the " help for heroes" sentiments, even the silly Yorkshire or Cornwall flags, all as a protest or a sign of pride.
I just can't see what some people have to be proud of in a country whose system of privilege and inherited wealth and power is designed to keep the majority "in their place" and whose ideology is as far away from levelling up as vertical is to horizontal.