However, without the different identities which they symbolise, the British and Irish flags would be nothing more than pieces of textile.

BBC: Balance of power held by Northern Irish

Mostly those flags symbolise people's British or Irish identity - but on occasions the clash of flags gets more surreal, as in those periods when nationalist areas have displayed Palestinian flags and loyalists have flown Israeli ones.

BBC: Northern Ireland

On Tuesday night the DUP and the Ulster Unionist leaders invited other unionist politicians and groups to join the forum to address the flags issue and that the new grouping would also strengthen British cultural identity in Northern Ireland.

BBC: Nesbitt: Unionist forum no guarantee of full flag return

David Cameron saw the exercise as too American for British tastes, saying dismissively that in Britain we "don't do flags on the lawn".

BBC: Can the teaching of history make us more British?

They have been waving their Scottish flags but we quite surprised to find that a huge chunk of the British team consists of their country cousins.

BBC: Supporters on the sidelines

The BBC understands that the Royal British Legion has indicated it does not want the garden of remembrance being brought into the flags debate.

BBC: Northern Ireland

Uniquely, the union flag has been - and for many still is - a feature of the flags of several other nations, a legacy of the size and endurance of the British empire.

BBC: The union jack: A very complex flag