ABSTRACT
Flags are potent and visible symbols of collective identity. The symbol that is displayed in public buildings, uniforms, on sports shirts and elsewhere today, is a manifestation of an identity which has been possessed by the Welsh for as long as the people who occupy the country have seen themselves as a people. The dragon embodies much of the way in which Welsh identity was to develop. In the dark ages Wales was a patchwork of kingdoms which, although they forged a common identity as a result of fighting the Vikings, Saxons and Irish, were not to develop a common political and institutional structure. The creation of Britishness was important for the Welsh in that it enabled them to hold on to their identity whilst at the same time securing social and economic advantage in English institutions.
