Thank goodness the Irish have the "white flag" – which is announced by the commentator – otherwise on-course punters at Irish courses would be unaware the race is about to start – unless they are fixed on the start with their bins.
Maybe that’s why they have the white flag.
The Irish system for starting flat races (the jump races are nearly as bad as ours) is superior to ours, due to them immediately announcing a horse has been withdrawn no matter how late whereas here you may not even know whether a horse is going to be/or has been withdrawn till several minutes after the race has been run.