Saltire or diagonal cross in Jamaica flag!

[Stonigut]

I thought and had heard that the Saltire or diagonal cross in the Ja flag was the connection to Scotland as some articles suggested around the time of the Commonwealth games going as far as saying that a Scotsman had suggested the Saltire to make the gold green and black unique. I was doing some checking on a Jamaica under Spain and it shows that when jamaica was the Spanish colony called Santiago that the flag was a red saltire against a white background. Apparently this was the flag that Spain used on all it's colonies, used through the navy and army and has St. Andrew somehow as the root of this configuration.
See below, that is some coincidence or is it? This is the flag that jamaica flew for about 150 years.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon...tiago_(Jamaica)

Click on colony of Santiago when the wiki page comes up, there is some issue with the page when it first comes up.

[Gamma]

Stoni thank you for these gems. I too was of the opinion that it was from the Union Jack Scotland's contribution and/or St. Andrew's Cross which is the English flag...

[TDowl]

Good find Sar, but they made an error that Ocho Rios being the Spanish name, it was the British corruption.

[Stonigut]

Yeah funny thing happen when you start digging, it s just never as simple as it seems or as it is made out to be, St Andrew is somehow the origin of that configuration but the Scots copied it from the Spanish, it seems it is called the cross of Burgundy.

[Stonigut]

Where you see that Ocho Rios thing, I don't see that on the website, or you just talking more in general.

[Mosiah]

I doubt very much that our founding fathers considered this flag when it came to designing the black, gold and green. I say it was coincidence.

I would more believe that our flag is a direct derivative of the Union Jack, as is the Trini's, the scuba effect an unintended result in their case.

[Stonigut]

Maybe it is coincidence, but I must say I find it strange that Jamaica has never flown a flag that did not have a Saltire in it both under Spanish and under The English or should I say the British, the first Union flag basically superimposed the English flag over the Scottish flag or combined them I should say before somebody takes offense. That was 1606 and Jamaica was taken from Spain in 1655, then in 1801 there was a change with the Irish getting involved but the Saltire remained, then the then again in 1875 another change and now the flag became jamaica nixed with the addition of a Jamaican style coat of arms with the Union Jack remaining in one quarter of the flag and there were a few changes until independence.

So busta had always known a saltire in the flag and all the others on the committee, so it is not as simple as the Scotsman adding a saltire and is a wicked buck up when for the entire history of Jamaica it was always there. busta probably knew that the minister of the church would add a cross to the flag and he was already there, so it was suggested and it was already familiar and a good way to acknowledge the old while bringing in the new.

At the end of the day Jamaica has always had that diagonal cross in its flag every day since 1510 until today, so does that make St. Andrew the Jamaican patron saint?????