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Ted asks: Please explain the phrase “red rag” as in this: “To Michael Collins they were a red rag.” Do you have more examples? My comments: They make Michael mad, angry and furious. That’s what “red rag” means. More examples I do have, but first definitions. Red rag refers to the piece of red cloth that bullfighters wave at a bull with in order to entice, or rather enrage, the foolhardy animal. The full phrase, hence, is “red rag to the bull”, figuratively meaning something that makes people mad and angry. If you’ve ever watched bullfighting, you’d have seen, um, among other things, how terrible a sport it is. I mean, the bulls actually believe it’s a real sport (not murder). They throw themselves at the moving red cloth for fun because that’s something a lot of animals would love to do. Be it with a cat, or a dog, the same thing happens. Likewise use a piece of green rag or yellow, no matter. They would chase it, like a monkey would play with his image in a pond. He puts his hand in the water to catch his likeness, only to raise ripples and thus destroy the image. Then he waits for the water to calm and the image to weave its way back again and he’d splash the water one more time, seemingly making magic. A lot of fun to be sure. A lot of good fun, too, so thinks the mighty bull, plunging his full weight into the red rag, not knowing, however, that the two-legged friend who plays with him is actually the same one that stabs him in the back. | 
