Town Suspends Flag Ban Just In Time For Pub To Fly Irish Colors On St. Patricks’ Day

If you’ve ever found yourself out of the house on St. Patrick’s Day, you might possibly have seen hordes of people dressed in all manner of green, white and orange colors. An Irish pub in Florida wanted to dress up, too, but it’s in a town that bans any flags other than the U.S. flag.

The pub will have a cause for even more celebration this weekend, as Reuters says city officials suspended the flag ban this week. Just in time for those chugging and cheers-ing hordes.

The Atlantic Beach City Commission voted unanimously to suspend enforcement on the rule until a new one can be drafted and approved.

“We were able to hang the Irish flag back up today,” said one of four sisters who own the pub near Jacksonville. “The support has been tremendous.”

According to the sisters, they’d flown the Irish flag next to the American one for eight years before code enforcement offers showed up with a citation in February.

The ordinance dates allllll the way back to the 1990s as part of an attempt to clean up the town’s unsightly commercial area, apparently. The town’s acting mayor says it didn’t mean to disparage any other cultures.

“There was never any intent to have any kind of prejudicial feeling against the Irish or anybody,” she added.

Irish flag flies again at Florida pub as town suspends ban [Reuters]

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