Basil Blackshaw, H.R.H.A. (b. 1932)

"Dad always loved the gaiety of flags. One year for his birthday we got him a flagpole and it was cemented into the garden at Rosses Point. Friends who flew from Dublin to Sligo said they could see it from the plane. I had two flags made, Matisse's Icarus falling from the sky and Jack B. Yeats' The Old Pilot House, which Dad once owned. For my sister Judy's wedding to Gilles, a fine Frenchman, Dad flew the French flag for the occasion. Those flags didn't last long in the West of Ireland wind and he took it one step further by asking Basil Blackshaw to design a flag. Basil loved the idea and came up the White Flying Horse. We had three made, the last of which blew ragged and faded at half mast when Dad died".
Ciara Ferguson.