‘It was attached to a stick, and I remember reading on a slip of paper which was on the flag “Remerciements Refuged at Ypres, 170....” The flag consisted of three parts--blue with a harp, red with three lions, and yellow. The red and yellow parts were accidentally destroyed, and all that remains is the blue, as you see it, with a harp; and we have also preserved one of the lions. The story that has come down to us is that it was left here after the battle of Ramillies I think, but whether it was the flag of the Irish Brigade, or an English flag captured by them at the battle, I do not know.’ The flag, of course--blue with a harp, red with three lions, and yellow--suggests the royal standard of England, with a difference. At the time of the battle of Ramillies, the royal standard, or ‘King’s Colour,’ consisted of four quarterings: the first and fourth quarters were subdivided, the three lions of England being in one half, the lion of Scotland in the other. The _fleurs-de-lis_ were in the second quarter; the Irish harp was in the third.[5] But this (the Ypres) flag had, when the nun saw it, only three quarters--blue with harp, red with three lions, and yellow; the rest had then been apparently destroyed. At the famous battle of 1706, the Irish Brigade was posted in the village of Ramillies. They fought with characteristic valour, giving way only when the French were beaten in another part of the field. The Brigade was commanded by Lord Clare, who was mortally wounded in the fight. Charles Forman writes, in a letter published in 1735:-- ‘At Ramillies we see Clare’s regiment shining with trophies and covered with laurels even in the midst of a discomfited routed army. They had to do with a regiment which, I assure you, was neither Dutch nor German, and their courage precipitated them so far in pursuit of their enemy that they found themselves engaged at last in the throng of our army, where they braved their fate with incredible resolution. If you are desirous to know what regiment it was they engaged that day, the colours in the cloister of the Irish nuns at Ypres, which I thought had been taken by another Irish regiment, will satisfy your curiosity.’[6] Mr. Matthew O’Conor, in his ‘Military Memoirs of the Irish Nation,’ says:-- ‘Lord Clare ... cut his way through the enemy’s battalions, bearing down their infantry with matchless intrepidity. In the heroic effort to save his corps he was mortally wounded, and many of his best officers were killed. His Lieutenant, Colonel Murrough O’Brien, on this occasion evinced heroism worthy of the name of O’Brien. Assuming the command, and leading on his men with fixed bayonets, he bore down and broke through the enemy’s ranks, took two pair of colours from the enemy, and joined the rere of the French retreat on the heights of St. Andre.’