During Easter week, the standard of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), the Starry Plough, flew over the Imperial Hotel (former Clerys building) on O’Connell Street.
The hotel was owned by William Martin Murphy of 1913 Lockout infamy.
That the standard of the workers’ militia that grew out of that bitter industrial conflict now flew over Murphy’s building was a clear indication of the social revolution that some hoped the rebellion would herald.
The exact provenance of the design of the Starry Plough, with its unique combining of agricultural implement, sword and stars arranged in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear or Plough, remains a source of historical debate.
Officially unveiled in Liberty Hall on the 4th April 1914 at an event addressed by Countess Constance Markievicz, the banner, along with their recently obtained uniforms and continued drilling, was part of the ICA’s wider move towards professionalism.
The newspaper of the ITGWU, the Irish Worker, stated that the flag was the work of Belfast man William Megahy, a teacher at the Metropolitan School of Arts in Dublin. However, the evidence would point to Megahy not being the originator of the design.
In his The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, published in 1919, Sean O’Casey, writes that the idea for the banner was “was given by a sympathiser, and executed by Mr. McGahey (Megahy).” Some accounts state that the sympathiser was the writer George William Russell, although there appears to be little evidence to confirm this, and O’Casey dismissed it.
Trade union banner maker Jer O’Leary, who researched and repopularised the original Starry Plough design in the early 1970s, believed that the main inspiration for the flag was most likely Jim Larkin, who was a leader of both the ITGWU and the ICA during most of 1914.
“The historian RM Fox, who was a contemporary of Larkin, places the inspiration for the design with him. The idea that it captures the concept of the Irish working class, free from the plough to the stars also speaks of the epic scope Larkin so often displayed in his thinking.”
The image of the sword being attached to the plough would also seem to draw upon the biblical reference — “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” (Isaiah 2:3–4).
Larkin’s oratory was often strewn with similar Old Testament references. This might be expected of a trade unionist who was first introduced to socialism in industrial England, where the left tradition was deeply underpinned by the radical Protestantism of preceding generations, and whose wife, Elizabeth, was herself the daughter of a Baptist lay-preacher.
The design of the flag also echoes that of the Southern Cross banner which flew over the Eureka Stockade in Australia during a rebellion by gold miners in 1852
This design, which remained prominent within the revolutionary wing of Australian trade unionism, may have had an influence.
The original Starry Plough standard was thought to have been destroyed in the fire that consumed the Imperial Hotel during the Rising. In fact, it had been captured by the British Army and returned to Ireland in 1956 when it was purchased by the National Museum of Ireland.
During the period the Starry Plough was out of the country, it was O’Casey who did much to maintain its imagery within the consciousness of the workers’ movement in Ireland. The banner lending its name to his 1926 play The Starry Plough, in which one protagonist, declares: “It’s a flag that should only be used when we’re building the barricades to fight for a Workers Republic!”
When the Republican Congress attempted to re-assemble the ICA in the early 1930s, it sought to also resurrect the organisation’s banner.
When the Republican Congress attempted to re-assemble the ICA in the early 1930s, it sought to also resurrect the organisation’s banner.
According to O’Leary, it was during this period that the version of the Starry Plough as seven white stars on a blue field first came into use.
“Memory is fickle and in 1934 they had the meeting about reconstituting the ICA as the paramilitary wing of the Republican Congress. Veterans of the ICA at this meeting were asked what they believed the original flag looked like. It would seem that most thought it was blue, which was backed up by an early design of the flag that O’Casey had in his possession. The version of the Starry Plough that emerged during this period remained the one in use by most left-wing organisations until at least the 1970s.”
This article written by Scott Millar appeared in Easter Rising Centenary edition of Liberty.
The paper can be read in full here