Catching a Rainbow

The Breton flag is called Gwenn-ha-Du, which means 'white and black,' in Breton.
It was created by Morvan Marchal a founding member of the nationalist movement Breizh Atao (Brittany forever).
The movement had links with both the Irish Republican Movement (IRA) and the Basque separatists. There is still an underlying nationalist trend in Brittany but it is certainly not as focused as the Irish and Spanish examples and unlike the Basque does not transcend national borders, (There is also a Basque region in France, Biarritz).
Although the Breton language links people of the region, that same language is also a divisive factor. Bretons in adjoining villages speak a different version of the same language and certainly believe that they are different from those in adjoining villages. Indeed the language is so insular some have said that it cannot be classed as a distinctive language at all.
The eleven ermines are for the kings and dukes who governed independent Brittany. The stripes are symbols of the nine old bishoprics. Black representing the dioceses of Gallic language (Dol, Nantes, Rennes, St Malo and St Brieuc). The white represent the dioceses of Breton language (Trégor, Leon, Cornwall and Vannes). We live in Trégor. Some Bretons believe that the eleven ermine spots represent the phrase Breizh dieuh or Free Brittany.

In a recent poll for the Le Telegramme newspaper 62% of people felt that Breton Culture was in danger of being lost. The Bretons should take courage from the Welsh example.
In the 1960's Welsh culture was all but dead but with the re-introduction of the language and a fiercely independent nature the Welsh some forty years later have safeguarded their patrimony for the future by the creation of the Welsh National Assembly in Cardiff.