Crisis Eile

This image appears in the current edition of Phoenix magazine. It is in the jollity section where the magazine takes the mickey bigtime. It has grafted Ireland's real Minister for Europe, Looselips Lucinda Creighton, onto a press conference by the fictional Irish EU Commissioner, Maeve Kelly Clarke (Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh), in the TG4 tv series Crisis Eile.

So far so good. But look at the EU flag on the lectern. It's upside down. How clever of Phoenix to add this little satirical touch. We all know flying the flag upside down indicates a crisis. Nice touch.

This is how it should be in real life. The top point in the five pointed star always points upwards. As someone who has had to deal with EU Commission demands for signage, and with protocol for distinguished visitors, it wasn't long before I realised that this, apparently vertically symmetrical, flag could actually be flown upside down, but that this had better not happen on my watch.

So, out of curiosity, I went and had a look at the original TG4 shot, and, lo and behold, it was the guys in TG4 who did the clever thing.

Well done guys (incl gals). I have already drawn attention on this blog to the upside down flying of the EU flag at the French and Hungarian embassies in Dublin and at the Dublin office of the EU Commission itself. Sinn Féin are probably also in the sin bin in this regard. So it's nice to see this little lapse put to constructive use for a change.

At least, I assume TG4 did it on purpose. Otherwise we will surely have a real crisis eile on our hands.