More bad manners

[Blue Angel]

Btw a ship anchored of Rome would you would think fly the Italian flag as the Vatican is technically a totally seperate state...

[Blue Angel]

As a piece of slightly off-topic trivia the first ship owned by the Irish Free State was HMY Helga which was renamed Muirchu and was the same ship that shelled the rebels in 1916. Most of the Irish Naval Service ships till the late 1970's were ex RN and two still are (bought from Hong Kong) so the Irish Naval Service really isn't about to set out to insult Britain as until it built a Naval college a few years back it's officers and sailors were actually trained in the UK.

[lochy]

US protocols are that you only fly the flag of another nation if a dignatory from that nation visits the ship. Thus, if Gordon Brown visited the ship they would fly the union jack. Maybe if Jeffrey was a bit more important they would fly it for him as well.....

US navy follows US regulations not international regulations.

Link is here

www.ushistory.org/betsy/images/ntp13b.pdf

1502. OFFICIAL VISITS OF FOREIGN OFFICIAL OR MILITARY OFFICER
a. Upon occasion of an official visit of a foreign president or
sovereign, the national ensign of that nation is flown during the visit.
b. Visits by any other foreign officials require display of the
foreign national ensign or personal flag during the gun salute only:
(1) If the foreign visitor is a military official/officer, his
personal flag, if provided, is flown during the salute and from automobiles.
If no flag is provided, the foreign ensign of such nation is flown during
the salute, and an equivalent personal flag of a U.S. Naval officer may be
flown from automobiles and a comparable plate shown on a military plane
transporting the dignitary.
(2) U.S. personal flags for specific positions i.e., SECNAV,
CNO, VCNO, etc, are not used for foreign visitors. In these cases, either
the military rank equivalent flag (for officers) or foreign national ensign
(for civilians) is used for honors.
(3) During all first official visits for foreign service
chiefs, the rank of the visitor is equal to that of the U.S. counterpart.
Therefore, a U.S. Navy line officer four-star flag is flown for foreign navy
chiefs (instead of CNO personal flag), regardless of the foreign service
chief's rank.

[Jim]

Pretty much it.

Not every country follows certain protocols nor do they have to follow international protocols. I see big Jeff Donaldson kicking up a fuss about a lot of things recently, too bad they're not very important. Infact they're fucking mind numbingly inane.

We have the biggest financial crisis in 30 years going on right now, we are lagging behind Germany and France big time. I don't think Gordon Brown gives a shite about the Irish navy not flying a union jack when it docked.