Flag of Ireland
The national flag of Ireland, frequently referred to in Ireland as "the tricolour" and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour, is a vertical tricolour of green, white and orange. The proportions of the flag are 1:2.
Presented as a gift in 1848 to Thomas Francis Meagher from a small group of French women sympathetic to Irish nationalism, it was intended to symbolise the inclusion and hoped-for union between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The significance of the colours outlined by Meagher was, "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood".
It was not until the Easter Rising of 1916, when it was raised above Dublin's General Post Office by Gearóid O'Sullivan, that the tricolour came to be regarded as the national flag. The flag was adopted by the Irish Republic during the Irish War of Independence. The flag's use was continued by the Irish Free State and it was later given constitutional status under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. The tricolour has been used by nationalists on both sides of the border as the national flag of the whole island since 1916. It is thus flown by many nationalists in Northern Ireland as well as by the Gaelic Athletic Association.
Design and symbolism
Design
Concerning the national flag of Ireland, the Constitution of Ireland simply states in Article 7:The Department of the Taoiseach takes general responsibility for matters relating to the flag. In its advisory role, the department has issued guidelines to assist the use of the flag; these state that it should be rectangular in shape, its length should be double its width, and the three coloured pales – green, white and orange – should be of equal size and vertically disposed.
The precise colours of the flag as set by the Department of the Taoiseach since at least 2001 are:
According to the guidelines, the flag should normally be displayed on a flagstaff, with the green pale positioned next to the flagstaff, at the hoist. Provided that the correct proportions are observed, the flag may be made to any convenient size.
Symbolism
The green pale of the flag symbolises Roman Catholics, the orange represents the minority Protestants who were supporters of William of Orange. His title came from the Principality of Orange but his power from his leadership as Stadtholder of the Netherlands, a Protestant bastion from the 16th century. The white in the centre signifies a lasting peace and hope for union between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. The flag, as a whole, is intended to symbolise the inclusion and hoped-for union of the people of different traditions on the island of Ireland, which is expressed in the Constitution as the entitlement of every person born in Ireland to be part of the independent Irish nation, regardless of ethnic origin, religion or political conviction.Occasionally, differing shades of yellow, instead of orange, are seen at civilian functions. However the Department of the Taoiseach stated that is a misrepresentation that "should be actively discouraged" and that worn-out flags should be replaced. In songs and poems, the colours are sometimes enumerated as "green, white and gold" by using poetic licence. Variants of different guises are utilised to include, for example, various emblems of Ireland, such as the presidential harp, the four provinces or county arms.
History
Background symbolism
Green has been associated with the Irish for hundreds of years. An anecdote in the Lebor Gabála tells how Gaidel Glas, son of Nel, father of the Irish people, was cured of a snakebite when Moses made fervent prayer and placed his staff on Gaidel's wound. An inserted verse in an earlier passage says of Gaidel: "green were his arms and his vesture". Michael O'Clery's redaction of the Lebor Gabála adds that the snakebite left a green ring on Gaidel from which he earned his nickname 'Glas'. The mark of the Irish people would therefore be green.The harp, which has appeared on Irish manuscripts and stone crosses since at least the 8th century, was a characteristic instrument of Ireland. The presidential flag of Ireland includes a representation of the 14th century "Brian Boru Harp". Both the 13th century Wijnbergen Roll and the late 15th-century painting of arms, the Rous Roll, feature a harp as a representation of Ireland.
As a national flag
A green flag featuring a harp is described as being used by Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill in 1642.The colour green became further associated with Ireland from the 1640s, when the green harp flag was used by the Irish Catholic Confederation. Likewise Green ribbons have been worn on St Patrick's Day since at least the 1680s. Suggesting that green was already a national colour at this time, The Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, an Irish nationalistic fraternity founded in about 1750 adopted green as its colour. Green was for centuries also associated with rebellion and was the unofficial colour of Ireland. In the late 18th century, green had again become associated as the colour of nationalism and was used by the United Irishmen. The United Irishmen, founded in the 1790s, were inspired by the French revolution, and used a green flag, to which they had a harp emblazoned. A rival organisation, the Orange Order, whose main strength was in Ulster, and which was exclusively for Protestants, especially members of the established Church of Ireland, was founded in 1795 in memory of King William of Orange and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which pitted the "green" tradition of the republican United Irishmen against the "orange" tradition of the Protestant Ascendancy loyal to the British Crown, the ideal of a later nationalist generation in the mid-19th century was to make peace between the two traditions and, if possible, to found a self-governing Ireland on such peace and union.
The oldest known reference to the use of the three colours of green, white and orange as a nationalist emblem dates from September 1830 when tricolour cockades were worn at a meeting held to celebrate the French Revolution of that year – a revolution which restored the use of the French tricolour. The colours were also used in the same period for rosettes and badges, and on the banners of trade guilds. However, widespread recognition was not accorded to the flag until 1848. At a meeting in his native city of Waterford on 7 March 1848, Thomas Francis Meagher, the Young Ireland leader, first publicly unveiled the flag from a second-floor window of the Wolfe Tone Club as he addressed a gathered crowd on the street below who were present to celebrate another revolution that had just taken place in France. His description of the flag explained the symbolism of the colours: "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the ‘Orange’ and the ‘Green’, and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants may be clasped in heroic brotherhood." He went on to suggest an alternative design incorporating the Red hand of Ulster: "If this flag be destined to fan the flames of war, let England behold once more, upon the white centre, the Red Hand that struck her down from the hills of Ulster."
The flag was inspired by the tricolour of France. Speeches made at that time by Meagher suggest that it was regarded as an innovation and not as the revival of an older flag. From March of that year Irish tricolours appeared side by side with French ones at meetings held all over the country. John Mitchel, referring to the tricolour of green, white and orange that Meagher had presented from Paris at a later meeting in Dublin on 15 April 1848, said: "I hope to see that flag one day waving, as our national banner".
Although the tricolour was not forgotten as a symbol of the ideal of union and a banner associated with the Young Irelanders and revolution, it was rarely used between 1848 and 1916. Even up to the eve of the Easter Rising of 1916, the green flag featuring a harp held undisputed sway. Neither the colours nor the arrangement of the early tricolours were standardised. All of the 1848 tricolours showed green, white and orange, but orange was sometimes put next to the staff, and in at least one flag the order was orange, green and white. In 1850 a flag of green for the Roman Catholics, orange for the Protestants of the Established Church and blue for the Presbyterians was proposed. In 1883, a Parnellite tricolour of yellow, white and green, arranged horizontally, was recorded. Down to modern times, yellow has occasionally been used instead of orange, but by this substitution the fundamental symbolism is destroyed.
Associated with the national independence movement, flown during the Easter Rising of 1916 and capturing the national imagination as the banner of the new revolutionary Ireland, the tricolour came to be acclaimed throughout the country as the national flag. To many Irish people, though, it was considered to be a "Sinn Féin flag".
In the Irish Free State which existed between 1922 and 1937, the flag was adopted by the Executive Council. The Free State constitution did not specify national symbols; the decision to use the flag was made without recourse to statute. When the Free State joined the League of Nations in September 1923, the new flag "created a good deal of interest amongst the general public" in Geneva. The defeated republicans who had fought the Free State's forces in the 1922–23 Civil War regarded the tricolour as the flag of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, and condemned its appropriation by the new state, as expressed in the song "Take It Down From The Mast". The Executive Council's decision was a provisional one. A 1928 British document said:
In 1937, the tricolour's position as the national flag was formally confirmed by the new Constitution of Ireland.