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Culture

Sheffield Council celebrated St David's Day by flying the Scottish flag

By David Owens
The Scottish Saltire flying from Sheffield Town Hall and unhappy Welsh fans!

We're not saying it's a sizeable faux pas, but on the scale of right and wrong, this is so wrong it actually defies belief.

When Sheffield Council decided it would be a nice gesture to fly a flag to celebrate St David's Day, whoever they chose to select said flag to hoist up their flag pole, clearly needs some emergency lessons in the geography of the UK.

There, resplendent on St David's Day morning wasn't a Welsh dragon flying high but the Saltire of Scotland.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌼 Happy St. David's Day! From @SheffCouncil ! pic.twitter.com/hxN6MaNNFo

— Paul Scriven🔶️🇺🇦 (@Paulscriven) March 1, 2023

A mistake at Sheffield Town Hall meant the city marked Wales’ big day in quite the bizarre way.

By early afternoon the flag had been replaced above the city’s Town Hall building – with the flag of St David, which is a yellow cross on a black background.

Sheffield Council said in a statement: “We are really sorry that the incorrect flag was flown above the Town Hall today. As soon as we knew, we rectified this immediately. We want to wish all who celebrate a Happy St David’s Day.”

READ MORE ST DAVID'S DAY STORIES HERE

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12 comments

John Hammond

Oh, how ridiculous this "faux pas" makes this otherwise very sensible (Except for its vote to Leave the EU) English city look.

Reply
Welsh_Siôn

Not the first time, though. Apparently, Sheffield has form in previously flying y ddraig goch ... on St. Patrick's Day: Welsh flag flown on St Patrick's Day by Sheffield City Council - BBC News Ach ... we're all Celts ;)

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Marc

After all St Patrick was Welsh

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Riki

Hahaha, I genuinely love it when people downvote historically factual statements. It reminds me of how Un-knowledgeable many people are.

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Y Cymro

This is no slight towards the people of Sheffield, just their council. I've heard of Sheffield steel, Sheffield stupid more like.. 🥴

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Iago Prydderch

How many people outside of Wales know the flag of St David? Some Welsh people don't even know it. At least they made the effort to recognise the day, unlike others, and corrected the mistake.

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Rhosddu

Given the general lack of knowledge of, or interest in, things Welsh on the part of most people in that part of the UK, I wouldn't expect a council in Yorkshire to recognise a Welsh non-national flag; but it's reasonable to expect them to recognise the Scottish saltire - it's on the telly often enough. Their mistake reveals a profound level of ignorance and insularism that simply makes them look ridiculous. And of course some people in Wales itself wouldn't recognise the flag of St. David since it's only in recent years that Welsh culture and history have been given any kind of profile so there's some catching up to do for anyone who's only been fed a diet of 'British' mass popular culture.

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Wynn

From a Scot, I'm always happy to see our flag up any pole but this takes the biscuit, maybe it's time to make our own Union Flag, add the flag of Cymru and 'forget' to put in the flag of St. George. It would make a change.

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Riki

As opposed to what? The “Foreigner” flag? The flag that exemplifies Wales is the Yr Draig Goch. Which is Thee flag of the British! (Britons) Not Welsh!

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David Charles pearn

Whoever raised the Scotland flag instead of the Welsh flag hope its not the geography teacher 🙄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

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Riki

The Foreign flag of Wales!!! Why would that be raised? Are we foreign to Britain Like the word Welsh implies? The flag itself is fine, not the terminology that’s used alongside it though. It’s Cymric or Brythonic (British)

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Ian Wallace

If you knew anything about Sheffield City Council this would come as no surprise. A multi million £ organisation, run by the comittee of a working mens club.

Reply

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