FIFA Women’s World Cup – A Fun Facts About Flags special – Group B

The Women’s Football World Cup has kicked off and we’re celebrating with a series of posts bringing you fun facts about the flags of the teams in each group.

Today, we’re looking at the flags of the countries in group B: Australia, Canada, Nigeria and the Republic of Ireland.

Australia

The Australia flag has a dark blue background with the Union Flag in the top-left corner. Under the Union Flag is a seven-pointed star and there are a further five stars in the shape of the Southern Cross constellation, which is seen in the sky over Australia.

Did you know:

• The Australian flag design is a collation of 5 near-identical designs entered in an international competition to design a flag for the country. It’s widely considered the only world flag to be chosen in a public competition.
• The Australian national colours are green and gold, but these colours do not appear on the flag.
• There are other official flags in Australia including the Australian Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag and the Australian Red Ensign.

Canada

The Canada flag, adopted in 1965, has a vertical tricolour of red, white (double-width) and red stripes. There is a red maple leaf in the centre of the white stripe.

Did you know:

• The flag is twice as long as it is wide. It is the only world flag with these dimensions.
• The design of the flag was inspired by the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada.
• The largest flag of Canada ever made was 76 metres long and 38 metres wide.

Nigeria

The Nigeria flag has three vertical stripes – the outer two are green and the central stripe is white.

Did you know:

• The Nigerian flag is based on a design by a 23-year-old student at Norwich Technical College in London.
• You cannot buy a Nigeria flag at the market – it is against a sacred injunction.
• Only the cars of special dignitaries are allowed to use the Nigeria flag.

Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland flag was first adopted in 1922. It has a vertical tricolour of green, white and orange stripes.

Did you know:

• 

  The flag represents peace: the green symbolises the Republican Catholics, with the orange symbolising the Protestants. The white between the colours represents a lasting truce between the two sides.

• Before the tricolour, the national flag was green with a harp – the country’s symbol.
• Until 2016 the Irish flag could only be flown between sunrise and sunset. However the National Flag guidelines have since been changed, and it is now allowed to be flown at night.

Check back in the coming days when we’ll be exploring fun facts about the flags of the country’s in Group C of the FIFA Women’s World Cup: Costa Rica, Japan, Spain and Zambia.