Part 74 - Postcard Print of Ramillies Flag

A postcard depicting the so-called ‘Ramillies Flag’ captured by soldiers of the Irish Brigade fighting for France at the Battle of Ramillies (23 May 1706). The Irish Brigade was comprised of soldiers of the defeated Irish Jacobite army who arrived in France in an event known as the ‘Flight of the Wild Geese’. The Battle of Ramillies (fought near a small village in what is now Belgium) was a significant Anglo-Dutch victory (led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough) over a combined French and Spanish force. Despite their defeat, an Irish officer managed to capture the remains of an English flag, referred to in the Irish captioned postcard as a ‘Bhratach Shasanach’. The flag remnant shows a gold harp on a pale blue background. It was subsequently presented to a community of Irish Benedictine nuns residing in the town of Ypres. It is now held by the Benedictine community resident in Kylemore Abbey in County Galway.