DAD DIARY: Flags firmly on the map

Frankie and Éamon were running through the grounds of Knock Shrine when Éamon saw the Papal flag and excitedly exclaimed, “Look Frankie, it’s the Vatican flag!”
Frankie replied, “Oh my gosh, you’re right Éamon!”
It was a Sunday afternoon, the place was thronged, and loads of people around us looked on with a mixture of amusement and respect.
A six year old and a four year old able to recognise and get so excited about the Vatican City … We must have looked like the perfect Catholics.
I must confess it’s not quite like that.
I’m not in the habit of bringing my kids to Knock. It is a marvelous place, and there’s always a lovely spiritual atmosphere there. But Frankie, Éamon and Séimí have very little concept of religion just yet.
Flags, however, are another matter.
They are obsessed with geography. A map of the world in the kitchen is regularly dissected, yielding questions galore.
‘Daddy, what’s the fifth-biggest island in the world?’ is just one of the many Éamon has thrown at me. (Baffin Island off Canada is what Google told me.)
Even our youngest, Séimí, gets in on the act, pointing to the one country over and over – ‘Rus-sha’. Fair play to him for picking the easiest one to point out.
Anyway, on the travels around YouTube, we found a video called ‘All the Countries of the World with Flags’. It’s an annoyingly catchy tune (have a look for yourself!) going all around the globe showing each country’s location and national flag. The flags are actually a great visual for associating with countries. (Check out Kids Learning Tube on YouTube for some pretty useful educational videos.)
The children have picked up quite a bit from the video but are particularly drawn to extremes – biggest and smallest. So Vatican City, all 121 acres of it, stays in their memory very easily.
“Daddy, is the Vatican bigger than Dooega?”
“No Éamon, it isn’t.” They can’t believe our little village in Achill could be bigger than a country.
So, when they arrived in Knock Shrine, the sight of a real Papal flag was joyous for them.
I was there taking pictures of the Apparition Chapel and the Basilica for work. Afterwards, we had to get a picture of the Connacht GAA Air Dome out the road in Bekan. That was an easy thing to sell to them – we were going to see the biggest tent in the world!
“The biggest tent in the world is in Mayo? Oh my gosh,” said Frankie.
They were suitably impressed by the sight of it too. It’s hard not to be.
“Is this bigger than the Vatican, Daddy?”
“Not quite, Éamon.” Maybe in Phase 2.