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House flags of Irish shipping companies

Alliance & Dublin Consumers' Gas
Arklow Shipping Ltd.
Bell Lines Ltd.
British & Ireland Steam Packet Co. Ltd
City of Cork S.P. Co. Ltd.
City of Dublin Steamship Company
Dublin Shipping, Ltd.
Dundalk, Newry, S.P., Co., Ltd.
Guinness Co.
Holland Ireland Line (Palgrave, Murphy (S) Ltd.)
Irish Ferries (Irish Continental Line Ltd.)
Irish Shipping
Limerick Steamship Company, Limited
Michael Murphy, Limited
Waterford Steamship Co.
J. Weathergill & Sons

See also:

Alliance & Dublin Consumers' Gas

image by James Dignan

Source: "The dumpy book of ships and the sea" (ed. Henry Sampson, published by Sampson Low, London, circa 1957).
James Dignan, 11 October 2003

Alliance & Dublin Consumers' Gas Co. Ridley Chesterton in his 1967 Coastal Ships describes an orange flag bearing the coat of arms of the company in black and white.
Neale Rosanoski, 17 June 2004

Arklow Shipping Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Arklow Shipping Ltd., Arklow - white flag, the firm's arms
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Bell Lines Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Bell Lines Ltd., Dublin - purple flag, 4 alternating parallelograms, white and black.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

British & Ireland Steam Packet Co. Ltd

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the British National Maritime Museum

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of "the house flag of the British and Irish Steam Packet Co. Ltd, Dublin. On a white field, there is a red cross with a green border. The flag is made of nylon fabric, with a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. It has a rope and toggle attached.

Started in 1836, the British and Irish Steam Packet Co. Ltd was a Dublin based company running services to London via Falmouth and Plymouth. It merged with Coast Lines in 1938 and was taken over by the Irish Government in 1965."
Jarig Bakker, 6 August 2004

British & Irish Steam Packet Co. (Coast Lines Ltd): Liverpool, Southampton, Plymouth - Dublin. Dublin-Preston; Manchester.
Houseflag: White, with Red St. George's Cross over Green St. George's Cross.
Phil Nelson, 12 October 2003

Some sources show the green a lot narrower but this seems to be the generally accepted version.
Neale Rosanoski, 17 June 2004

image by Rob Raeside

Around 1967 a blue flag with a white Gaelic "e" was produced in line with a funnel change but it was never actually used as a houseflag although it was used briefly by the "Leinster" as a stem jack [Loughran (1979)]. In the late 1980s the name changed to B&I Line plc and then in the latter 1990s it became part of the Irish Continental Group having been owned by the Irish Government since 1966.
Neale Rosanoski, 22 March 2004

City of Cork S.P. Co. Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker

City of Cork S.P. Co. Ltd., Cork - white swallowtail, red cross; in center white oval disk charged with the city arms.
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies [Wedge 1926].
Jarig Bakker, 18 January 2005

City of Dublin Steamship Company

image by Rob Raeside, 18 June 2018

City of Dublin houseflag is a white cross on red, overlain by a blue disk bearing three castles, 2 and 1.
Philip Lecane, 14 June 2018

Dublin Shipping, Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Dublin Shipping, Ltd., Dublin - white flag with the firm's logo incorporating a large green wave and smaller blue waves above and below.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Dundalk, Newry, S.P., Co., Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker

Dundalk, Newry, S.P., Co., Ltd., Dundalk (Dundalk is in the Republic of Ireland, Newry (now) in Northern Ireland) - blue flag, white disk with D&N in red.
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies [Wedge 1926].
Jarig Bakker, 18 January 2005

Guinness Co.

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the British National Maritime Museum

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of "the house flag of Guinness Co., Dublin. A red swallow-tailed burgee with a black 'G' in the centre. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn."
Jarig Bakker, 14 August 2004

Holland Ireland Line (Palgrave, Murphy (S) Ltd.)

image by Jarig Bakker

From the flagchart "Vlaggen in de haven van Amsterdam" (flags in the harbour of Amsterdam), no date: the Holland Ireland Line (Palgrave, Murphy (S) Ltd., - ship
City of Waterford.
Horizontal triband of red-white-red with on white P.M.(S) LTD.
More on http://www.irishships.com/palgrave.htm.
Jarig Bakker, 5 July 2004

Irish Ferries (Irish Continental Line Ltd.)

image by Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

Irish Continental Line Ltd., Dublin - three horizontal stripes of bright blue - green - blue, separated by narrow white stripes; over all white shamrock.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 24 February 2006

EuCon uses same flag.
Al Fisher, 09 Feb 1999

image by Neale Rosanoski

Irish Ferries. Formed in 1973 as the Irish Continental Line Ltd. with a service between Rosslare and Le Havre with the original flag combining emblems of the two countries being white with a red saltire surmounted by a black and white fleur-de-lis.

image by Rob Raeside

In 1978 the Irish connection was stressed by the adoption of a green flag bearing a white shamrock. In 1988 the name was changed to the Irish Continental Group plc and at some stage the flag shown here was adopted.
Neale Rosanoski, 17 June 2003

Irish Shipping

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the British National Maritime Museum

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of the Irish Shipping Ltd, Dublin. A white rectangular flag with a red St Patrick's saltire. The arms of the four Irish provinces Leinster, Connacht, Ulster and Munster, are placed in the quarters. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. The four shields are printed on cotton appliqués. A rope and toggle is attached.

The shipping company was established in the early 1940s with the Irish government as a major shareholder. It was the first Irish flag operator of deep sea vessels. Initially, the house flag had the company initials in the quarters, but these were replaced with the arms of the four provinces in 1947."
Jarig Bakker, 17 August 2004