Why the Crinan Knot and Red Duster?
We decided on the Crinan Knot for our logo at our inaugural meeting, May 1973. It is an ancient symbol found on an old stone in Crinan, Argyll. The everlasting Celtic Knot represents Earth, Fire and Water, the elements of life. The Celts believed that life continued after death in a continuum. The Christians later absorbed it, as they did with many Pagan customs, to mean the Holy Trinity. We do not hold to any mystic meaning, just a nice logo, which we use to denote the past, present and the future in continuum. Scottish Republicanism has a past, a present and future, as has the Scottish nation. We adopted this onto a red field flag representing socialism, or the blood of the workers. At first we had the Scottish Saltire quartered in the top left corner, as in the old Scottish Naval flag, which we called the ‘Red Duster’. After a year or two we placed the Saltire on its side, taking a third of the field. This was in custom with old clan banners, which has a Saltire on its side with the
