I never have understood the fasination that americans of irish decent have with the IRA/ irish rebellion, it is one of the reasons i no longer live there, and it is a dark splotch on irelands history, personally i would tone down the whole IRA feel, its quite cliche. there is nothing wrong with being proud of your history but there should be limits IMHO.
My one comment about the design since this is a comp/concept and not a final was going to be are you Irish Catholic or Irish Protestant? If protestant, keep the orange/add orange. If Catholic, add green take away the orange.
As for CDbrews comments I find them interesting. I'm very intrigued by what goes on over on those islands. I'm of Scottish descent, got more Native American in me than Irish. Hope one day to live in Scotland for a few years.
I used a story in one of my sermons a couple months ago about a rather prominent episode that ultimately helped the peace process in Northern Ireland. (I could look it up, but I'm too lazy) It was the story of a man's young daughter being killed in an IRA bombing. The protestant IRA equivalent groups wanted to retaliated. He insisted they didn't. He was so bold as to approach the IRA and forgive them. He planted a seed that grew to peace.
The fact is that conflict is a direct result of British governmental involvement. The British moved troublesome Scots to N. Ireland and rewarded wealthy loyalists with land in N. Ireland. Essentiall there's always been a rivalry even war between the Irish and Scottish. The english took advantage of the situation by forcing the two sides to fight, while being smart enough to place loyalist as the power brokers. It's a lot bigger and more complicated than that and is directly linked to the numbers of Scottish and Ulster Scots/Scotch Irish peoples in the US. Many are mistaken and think Scotch Irish is a reference to a combined lineage. It's a reference to the Scottish people uprooted from their homeland, mostly Gaelic speaking Jacobite leaning highlanders, and forcibly relocated to Ireland. Following the second Jacobite uprising the British made it illegal to wear Tartans, or identify oneself as a part of a clan in any way, even outlawing the native language.
Being unwanted and suffering from the potato famine much like the native Irish they too fled for America. The true Irish settled in the north, true Scots in the south, and Scots-Irish in Appalachia and southward. All that is too say that justice would have been served if the Scots & Irish would have joined forces to fight the brits instead of one another!
Enough history lesson... I'm a big soccer fan and follow several European leagues including the Scottish Premier League. The biggest rivalry there is between the Glasgow Rangers and Celtics (go Rangers). Look up the songs and you'll understand something of the hatred between the Irish and Scots... and Brits for that matter.
To further understand the dynamics between protestant vs catholic in the area reference Fox's Book of Martyrs.
Schlante,
Phillip