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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Alison O'Reilly

Irish tricolour makes surprise appearance at Queen's Jubilee concert

The Irish tricolour made a surprise appearance at Saturday night's Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace – as it emerged the Queen is more popular in the Republic than its own politicians.

Social media users went online to take a swipe at the organisers of the prestigious event, when the Irish flag was mistakenly shown in representation of Northern Ireland during a segment by actor and comedian Doc Brown as he performed a spoken word poem celebrating UK sport.

Images were shown on the large screen behind him including the England and Wales football badge, as well as the Scottish flag and then the Irish tricolour.

Read more: Beacons light up skies across Northern Ireland for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

As Brown referred to the "three lions" he said "Same with the red dragon, shamrock and thistle. Sport is the leveller, now to the finish, son of an immigrant proud to be British.

The images projected behind him of the Irish flag then caused confusion among viewers.

Several social media users took to Twitter to highlight their confusion at the blunder.

The Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace on Saturday (Irish Mirror)

One poster wrote: "Ummmm...did they just show the Irish flat in this segment?"

While another said "Irish flag is approved by Liz".

Another poster wrote: "The Irish flag is not British. We had a war of independence for that".

The mix up comes as the Queen scored a higher approval rate during her Platinum jubilee than any Irish politician.

In a poll in the Republic over weekend, Queen Elizabeth scored 50 percent in popularity.

Behind her, came Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou McDonald who scored 45 percent, while the Taoiseach Micheal Martin ranked below both women at 44 percent.

Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar only scored 38 percent in approval while Green Leader Eamon Ryan ranked a very low 21 percent.

Read more: Queen's Platinum Jubilee: 42-gun salute heralds start of celebrations in NI

Read more: Police warn of traffic delays in parts of Belfast over next four days

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