Flag of the Swedish-speaking Finns in countryside. The flag may have been used in the 16th century, As such, the flag is based on a proposal to civil ensign put forward by the Senate flag committee in 1917. This proposal included nine white roses in the upper left corner. It also contains the same colours as one of the candidates for the Finnish flag on independence in 1917 and may even have been a proposal for the state flag itself. The current blue and white state flag became official on 28 May 1918. The colours are traditional and based on the red and yellow of
Cross-border flag for Ireland Cross-border flag for Ireland There is no cross-border flag universally accepted as representing both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. This can be a problem in contexts where a body organised on an all-island basis needs to be represented by a flag in an international context. The island is politically divided into the Republic of Ireland (a sovereign state comprising 26 of Ireland's 32 traditional counties) and Northern Ireland (comprising the remaining 6 counties in the north-east of Ireland, and a part of the United Kingdom), but all-island organisations are common. Examples include the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the