Flag of Montserrat

What the flag of Montserrat looks like

The flag is a dark blue field with the British Union Jack in the upper hoist corner, called the canton. The flag's ratio is 1:2. In the fly, which is the right half of the flag, sits the coat of arms of Montserrat, shown as a round-edged shield.

The shield shows a woman in a green landscape with the sea behind her. She holds a golden harp in one arm and a cross in the other. Under the badge the colors are light blue for the sky and the sea, green for the land, and gold for the harp.

Montserrat flag meaning and symbolism

The woman is Erin, the female personification of Ireland. She stands for the Irish settlers who came to the island in the 17th century, and for which Montserrat is sometimes called the “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”. The harp is a national emblem of Ireland, and the cross stands for the Christian faith of the settlers, who were largely Roman Catholic. The green hills and the blue sea in the background represent the island itself.

The Blue Ensign and the Union Jack show that Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory. The flag does not have an official color-by-color meaning beyond this.

History of the Montserrat flag

Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1493, and it was settled from Saint Kitts by English and Irish colonists in the 1630s, many of them Irish Catholics who were seeking refuge from religious persecution. Montserrat has been British since then, with a short French occupation in the 18th century.

Like many British colonies, Montserrat used the Blue Ensign with a local badge. The badge was approved in 1960 when the territory received its coat of arms. The present flag, with a revised version of the badge, was adopted in 1999. The island's volcano, the Soufrière Hills, erupted from 1995 and buried the capital, Plymouth, so the government now works from Brades.

You can compare this with other flags of the same type, for example the Turks and Caicos Islands flag or the flag of the Cayman Islands.