In 1914, the Irish Citizen Army, a militia founded to defend striking workers, settled on a design for its flag: a farm plough made in the shape of the constellation Ursa Major, the plough of the heavens. It became known as the “starry plough.”

The distinctive banner was a source of pride for the Citizen Army’s soldiers, with socialist revolutionary James Connolly developing a mythos about its meaning. “A free Ireland would control its destiny from the plough to the stars,” he explained.

On Easter Monday 1916, the Irish Citizen Army, aided by two other organizations (the Irish Volunteers and the women’s brigade, Cumann na mBan), launched an armed insurrection against British rule.