Ideas for Celebrating a Virtual & Socially Distant Flag Day Event

Flag Raising - outside of the school building

Keeping in mind social distance & current restrictions. A simple flag raising with some members of staff and students such as 5^th & 6^th years who are back in school on the 16th March.

shared as an uplifting message to your school’s community via your social media using the Hashtag #FlagDay2021.

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Flag Day

The Foundation's Annual national Flag Day will take place in schools on the eve of St. Patrick's Day on THURsday, March 16th 2023.

Schools are welcome to celebrate this day at an optimal time for their school calendar during flag week in the lead up to or on flag day thursday March 16th. 

next march will also bring the 175th anniversary of the first flying of the irish flag on march 7th, 1848. we are excited to commemorate this historical anniversary with hundreds of secondary schools across the state at a flag presentation ceremony in waterford on monday,  march 6th 2023.

We are delighted that our network of secondary schools has continued to grow significantly each year with schools taking part nationwide in both flag day activities, celebrations and the annual awards & scholarship programme. 

the vision of the foundation is to see young people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexual orientation have pride in, respect for the irish flag as a symbol of peace and inclusion.

at flag day events in schools, the flags of students of different backgrounds are also celebrated along with the irish flag. the foundation funds and provides registered schools with packs to enable them to take part in all flag day and fund-raising activities:

Flag Packs are posted out to registered schools between the end of february and early March and include:

• An Irish Flag which has been flown from 33 The Mall, where thomas f. meagher first flew the irish flag
• copies of the supplements produced by the irish independent including Lesson Plans devised by the History Teachers Association of Ireland
• irish flag lapel pins to fundraise for charities and/or projects of your choosing
• promotional material and ideas for flag day events 
• information on the ANNUAL AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME
• details on how to fulfil your gaisce award challenge through flag day should you so wish

To assist you in your classes, we are thrilled to work with the Irish Independent and the History Teachers Association of Ireland on lesson plans due to be published in The People's Flag pull-out class room supplement in march. this will contain teaching resources & information such as previous lesson plans which can be found here.

we are delighted to be a gaisce - president's award challenge partner which enables your students to earn their Bronze Award while taking part in Flag Day. 

if your school would like to take part please get in touch with us today by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Flag Day Ideas

Sample Flag Day Event

The below are some ideas and templates that may be of assistance to your school when holding your Flag Day events. These ideas and templates have been taken from previous schools who have held similar events and we hope these are of help and inspiration to you.

Note: If you have not registered for your FREE Flag Day Pack please do so This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you would like to use your activities as part of your Gaisce Bronze Award please see further information on this HERE

Preparation for Flag Day Event

Register with the Thomas F. Meagher Foundation to receive your free Pack.

Form an event planning committee, allow the students to take ownership of this – This committee should be broadly advertised within the school and be fully inclusive of all the school population.

If you wish you could set up a dedicated social media presence for your day or share on your school's social channels.

most years lapel pins are included in to allow schools to raise funds for projects or charities of your choice, however during these past two years of the covid 19 pandemic this has been challenging for schools. we recognise this and hope to include them once again next year in 2023 so schools can Research and decide upon which charity or project they would like their fundraising to go towards.

Flag Day

Your event should be exactly whatEVER your school would like to do. below are just some ideas but we encourage schools and students to be as creative as possible.

Ask all nationalities within your school if they would like to do a little information sheet or speech on the day about their heritage and what the Flag of their other country means to them, also what the Irish Flag means to them. 

Ask all students in your school to bring something which reminds them of a country they have an affinity or relationship with, this could be an item of clothing, food or an object. These countries could be a student’s place of birth, their parent’s place of birth, their grandparents place of birth or even where they have family members. This can then form a display.

Music have been found to be a great source of inclusion and having music from different nations which are represented in the school as part of your event. 

Having a display board where all nationalities of the school are mentioned alongside one word that they associate with the Irish Flag. 

Students have invited prominent members of the local community in to give a speech or an interview about their work or what the Flag means to them, previous examples of these have been local sports stars, the local emergency services or in 2016 family members of those who participated in the Rising. The Foundation is endeavouring to have members of our Honorary Board and Ambassador visit schools, if you would like to enquire about this please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A flag raising ceremony either inside or outside of the school have formed part of previous events. 

Follow up from Flag Day

please send the foundation your photos and videos from your event and you will recieve a dedicated thomas f. meagher foundation certificate of participation.

should you have fundraised with lapel pins please Send the Foundation details of your event, if money was raised and who it was raised for.

Present your charity or project with the money raised for Flag Day. 

Flag Day Events

The Foundation was delighted to have schools from throughout the State take part in Flag Day Activities for the last number of years and hold events in their schools so all students of the school could come together to learn the history of the flag and raise funds. Lapel pins supplied for free by the Foundation were sold for charities locally, nationally and internationally and for projects chosen by the pupils. Many of these pupils then entered the Foundations Awards and Scholarship Programme, more details are available here.  Some of the activities by schools and students and some of the projects monies were raised for are below.

Flag Day 2019 - Loreto Abbey Dalkey TY students involved in re-imagining the Irish flag with an environmental theme

L - R Kate Hamilton, Rebecca Johnston, Charlie Power, Alex McKenna, Ella Fenlon, Anna Martin and Trudie Goodman.

Flag Day 2019 - Maria Immaculata Community College who raised €100 for Jigsaw Cork

Flag Day 2019 - Bremore Educate Together Secondary School, Balbriggan, Dublin

Flag Day 2019 - Grennan College, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny

Flag Day 2019 - Blessington Community College who made €380 for the local Day Care Center.

Flag Day 2019 - Colaiste Bride, Clondalkin, Dublin 22

Flag Day 2019 - Kinsale Community School, Kinsale, Co.Cork

Flag Day 2019 - St Joseph’s College, Lucan, Dublin

Flag Day 2019 - Griffeen Community College , Lucan, Co. Dublin

Flag Day 2019 - North Monastery Secondary School, Cork City, Cork

Flag Day 2019 - St Jarlath’s College, Tuam, Co. Galway

Students from Colaiste Bride, Wicklow with an all school assembly celebrating Flag Day

Students and their teacher from Gorey Community School Wexford  raised a whopping €350 for the Gorey-based North Wexford

SPCA by taking part in Flag Day 2018

Crana College Donegal celebrating Flag Day

Students from Scoil Mhuire Roscommon presenting their chosen charity Mayo Roscommon with the money raised from their Flag Day Activities.

All the €435 raised from our bake sale, all proceeds go directly to funding free palliative care for patients.

Kinsale Community School, held an assembly and music event for Flag Day

St Jarlaths College  students doing a bucket collection on Flag Day for Focus Ireland

Students from North Mon School Cork presenting their fundriaisng money to COFFA House & Jacqui Tyler

Ard Scoil Ris, Limerick held a Flag Raising Ceremony for Flag Day

St Pauls Community College Waterford held a day of fundraising and activities for Flag Day

Flag Day 2020

The Foundation’s annual Flag Day will take place this March 15th 2020. We are delighted our nationwide network of schools continues to grow but if your school has not registered please do so by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Once you register your school you will receive your fundraising pack in early March which will include:

• free lapel pins to sell for any charity or project of your choice
• lesson plans devised by the History Teachers Association
• an Irish Flag which has flown from 33 The Mall
• promotional material to use on Flag Day 2020
• details on the Foundation's awards and scholarship programme

You will also receive a sample event plan as we encourage all schools to hold an event on Flag Day to ensure all students in the school feel included in the celebrations.

To assist you in your classes, we are delighted to work with the Irish Independent on lesson plans, these along with other information is available at https://tfmfoundation.ie/teaching-resources . This year we are delighted to be working with Gaisce, which allows your students earn their Bronze Award while taking part in Flag Day, below is a sample plan to follow to allow your students earn their Gaisce Award, however this can be changed in any way to suit your timetable as long as is it 13 weeks long.