rec.autos.simulators

Eddie Irvine is indeed Irish, but he is from Northern Ireland, which as of
today is part of the United Kingdom. So is Scotland. In the case of Northern
Ireland this may change, and if the Scottish Nationalist Party get their way
Scotland might also eventually leave the Union. The British Flag is also
called the Union Flag to represent the union of England, Scotland and
Ireland. It is actually made up of the red cross of St George (England), the
white diagonal cross (or "saltire") of St Andrew (Scotland) and the red
diagonal cross of St Patrick (Ireland). The Welsh do not get their own bit
of the flag.

So unless political changes occur, English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern
Irish drivers and teams will be honoured under the Union Flag and "God Save
the Queen" will be played. I believe Eddie Irvine may have dual citizenship,
and he certainly displays some orange and green on his helmet.

I hope this helps to make things clear.

Tim

***y typical, just because you conquered us 800 years ago and so completely,
you can not even be bothered to include a tiny fragment of what is, without any
doubt the most evocative and aesthetically pleasing flag in the world :-)

Cheers,
Paul

I am interested to know if there have been any Welsh racing drivers since
Morgan the Wheels of Pontypridd had his licence taken away for speeding in
1953.
Dioch!
Tim

Tom Pryce came from Ruthin, Denbighshire in Wales started 42 F1 Grand Prixes. He
got one F1 pole in the British Grand Prix in a Shadow-Ford in 1975 (but crashed
out). He got two podium finishes, both 3rds in the 1975 Austrian and the 1976
Brazilian.

Alan Rees from Newport, Gwent started one race, the British Grand Prix in 1967
(so he's a Grand Prix Legend) in a Cooper-Masarati and got a creditable 9th
place 4 laps down on Clark.

Cheers,
Paul

Well, England may have lost it's empire, but it still has, whether it
wants to or not anymore, Northern Ireland!

Last year Irvine requested that the Irish National Anthem be played
when he got a 2nd, I believe- and the request was turned down.

One of the local FOX Sports guys said (regarding Irvine's win)
something along the lines of "this is a great day for the British."
Struck me as funny. But then, I don't live in europe; maybe it was
indeed. I imagine it was an even bigger day in Ireland, though.

Fact is, maybe it is just me, but playing the national anthem of the
driver that wins strikes me as strange- this is not the Olympics,
after all, where a nation actually joins together to send a team
representing it. Seems reminsicent of the kind of nationalism that
made for lots of problems in this century.

Just one question to all the delirious Fast Eddie fans out there. Should
the Irish flag and national anthem be used? If not, are they strictly
ceremonial (ie. deferential to the UK)? I realise DC also drives under
the Union Jack, but I'm really curious about this technicality.

Stanley Chan

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