‘Merkel’ flag flies high on the Southside

ONE of the students who designed the now infamous tricolor that mocked German premier Angela Merkel at the European Championships has paid a visit to the Southside furniture outlet that made an unsuccessful bid for the flag at a recent charity auction.

University of Limerick student Eoin Cantwell travelled to the Expert Hardware store in Inchicore last Wednesday to thank the company for making the bid for the

‘Angela Merkel Thinks We’re At Work’ flag which was auctioned off for charity.

Alan Grant, Marketing Director of Expert Hardware, based at the Goldenbridge Industrial Estate, said the company made an unsuccessful bid of

?¬12,000 for the flag.

The tricolour was bought by Antrim-based Glendun Group and Iris RD, which submitted a joint bid of

?¬15,800 in total at the auction which was staged live on the 2FM Ryan Tubridy show.

Mr Grant said if Expert Hardware had been successful in its bid the company was planning to bring the flag on a grand tour of all its 41 stores in Ireland over a 14-day period because it had captured the imagination of the public.

“We are very active on Facebook, so when we saw how the Merkel flag went viral we decided to make a bid for it at the charity auction,

? he revealed.

“I think everyone has seen it and has talked about it.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do well in the competition but I think the fans set us apart from all the others that were over there and we just wanted to be a part of it in some way.

“We didn’t have the budget to go to the final bid,

? he added.

“But I have to say the lads are stand up guys and they contacted us after the show and said

‘thanks for bidding’. Then they said they would like to call out to us to give us the opportunity to get in a picture with the flag.

?