Historic 1798 flag goes AWOL in Arklow

June 1998

A FLAG specially commissioned by the Dublin-Wicklowmen’s Association for the 1798 commemorations in 1948 has apparently gone missing from the town hall in Arklow.

The Dublin-Wicklowmen’s Association donated the flag to Arklow Urban Council in the early 1990s to be hung in the town hall.

They had been hoping that it would have been used last week during the commemorative events marking the bicentenary of the Battle of Arklow in 1798.

The flag was carried by the Dublin-Wicklowmen’s Association in the 1948 parade.

But Mr John Burke, a Hollywoodman who is chairman of the association, said that they were very disappointed to learn that the flag cannot be located and appears to have gone missing.

The flag with the figure of a pikeman was hand-painted for the Dublin-Wicklowmen’s Association by then flag-makers James Golden from Dublin at a cost of £75 - the equivalent, the association says, of £1,000 in today’s money.

Town Clerk Sean Quirke said that he did not know when the flag was donated to the council.

Any efforts that had been made to date to trace the flag had not been successful.