Tricolour from Easter Rising frontline returns to resting place of maker
A remnant of the Tricolour that flew over one of the frontlines in the 1916 Rising has been donated to Glasnevin Cemetery.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Dec 2016, 17:49 BST
Updated 14th Dec 2016, 13:57 BST
Handout photo dated 11/12/16 issued by Fennell Photography of David Blake, left, great grandson of John Le Provost, and John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, holding a remnant of the Tricolour that flew over one of the frontlines in the 1916 Rising, at the graveside of Dublin tailor Thomas Joseph Meldon in Glasnevin Cemetery. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Sunday December 11, 2016. The piece of flag has been in Jersey for the last 100 years after a native of the island and a member of the British Army's Jersey Pals Battalion climbed on to the roof of the Jacob's Biscuit Factory to take it down while under fire from rebel snipers. See PA story HISTORY Tricolour Ireland. Photo credit should read: Iain White/Fennell Photography/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copy
The piece of flag has been in Jersey for the last 100 years after a native of the island and a member of the British Army’s Jersey Pals Battalion climbed on to the roof of the Jacob’s Biscuit Factory to take it down while under fire from rebel snipers.
It is the largest known remnant of the flag to have survived.
The Jacob’s Tricolour was made after the flag over the GPO had been destroyed. It was made by Thomas Meldon, George Ward and a third man known by the suspected nickname Derry Connell and nailed to a flagpole above the biscuit factory on Bishop’s Street on the southside of the city.
Handout photo dated 11/12/16 issued by Fennell Photography of a remnant of the Tricolour that flew over one of the frontlines in the 1916 Rising, as it has been donated to Glasnevin Cemetery. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Sunday December 11, 2016. The piece of flag has been in Jersey for the last 100 years after a native of the island and a member of the British Army's Jersey Pals Battalion climbed on to the roof of the Jacob's Biscuit Factory to take it down while under fire from rebel snipers. See PA story HISTORY Tricolour Ireland. Photo credit should read: Iain White/Fennell Photography/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
It was taken down on Sunday April 30, after the official surrender, and one of the soldiers who climbed up to take it, John le Provost, secured a section of the three colours and sent it to his fiancee Mary La Singe in Jersey.
The flagmakers Meldon and Ward are buried in Glasnevin.
David Blake, great grandson to Le Provost, attended the ceremony in the cemetery to mark the return of the remnant of Tricolour.
“It is only correct and necessary that the Jacob’s Tricolour comes back home. I feel as if I had it for a reason; as if the family had been caring for the flag so when the appropriate time came, it should go back. This year is the appropriate time,” he said.
Handout photo dated 11/12/16 issued by Fennell Photography of a remnant of the Tricolour that flew over one of the frontlines in the 1916 Rising, as it has been donated to Glasnevin Cemetery. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Sunday December 11, 2016. The piece of flag has been in Jersey for the last 100 years after a native of the island and a member of the British Army's Jersey Pals Battalion climbed on to the roof of the Jacob's Biscuit Factory to take it down while under fire from rebel snipers. See PA story HISTORY Tricolour Ireland. Photo credit should read: Iain White/Fennell Photography/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Chief Minister of the Jersey Government Ian Gorst also attended.
“It is an honour to be involved in this ceremony, which will commemorate not just the brave and historic actions of the Jersey Contingent but also the long-standing ties that exist between the people of Jersey and Ireland,” he said.
John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: “It is not only the symbolism of the flag returning to Dublin, to the final resting place of its makers but also the stories it enables us to tell. The story of the Jersey contingent and the Royal Irish Rifles; the story of how the flag went to Jersey.”
