IRELAND'S best known shamrock has gone back to its roots.
The Aer Lingus shamrock, which adorns everything from air craft tailfins to toothpicks, has been redesigned as part of the company's £8 million corporate facelift.
The shamrock, which Aer Lingus says is "the foundation of its corporate identity" has, the company insists, been revolutionised.
Those unfamiliar with the world of corporate design speak may argue that the shamrock has merely been given a stem and stretched somewhat. But Aer Lingus says "The `new' shamrock, with its fluid and natural lines, has been reborn from the old and captures the essence of the new Aer Lingus."
The essence of the new Aer Lingus is "Irish, vibrant, dynamic, responsive, natural, and `green'". This might be discerned from the accompanying picture.
The shamrock is, apparently, "a potent symbol which evokes positive images of fertility, freshness and environmental purity".
The reworking of the shamrock has "unveiled new shades of green", Aer Lingus says.
The new "meadow green", as it is termed, brings the shamrock "visually closer to its botanic roots" while the implied movement in a leaning shamrock supposedly indicates the new dynamism within the company.
The old green was harder reflecting the materialist 1970s and 1980s.
Coupled with the blue, white and grey of the livery, the new shade of green, "evokes a lush and verdant landscape, interspersed with clean lakes and rivers and overcast with mist laden skies", the company rhapsodises.
The new Aer Lingus shamrock and all that goes with it was launched amid a feast of laser lights and more traditional Irish music and dancing. No doubt, this reflects contemporary Ireland, which one might imagine is a unique mix of modern Europe and a Celtic past.
Twenty dancers performed on a raised platform almost level with the fuselage of the newly painted Airbus. The performance cast more than a nod at Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, but this was surely more a mid air dance than a Riverdance.