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“The national flag of Ireland is the tri-colour of green, white and orange”
This is what is stated in the Irish Constitution of 1937.
But what is the story behind these three colors?
The most popular theory regarding the choice of colors says that the green represents the Catholics, the orange the Protestants and the white in the middle stands for the peace between the two groups. In particular, the two colors are symbols of groups with different origins, but united by a common national identity. The green was chosen because it represents ancient Ireland, the Emerald Isle, orange on the other hand identifies the group of Protestants who had supported William of Orange in the War of the Two Kings in France. And it was from the French flag that the idea of a flag for Ireland originated.
The words of Thomas Francis Meagher, leader of « Young Ireland », the independence movement of the nineteenth century supports this view.In 1848 Meagher, in a speech in Waterford, presented to the public for the first time the flag pronouncing these words:
“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 Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood”
Initially the tricolor, however, had little success. The Irish people were identified, before and after the speech of Waterford, in the Green Flag, a green backgound with a golden harp in the center. The green was the color associated with the desire of independence, the harp is the ancient Harp of Brian Boru, the great king of Ireland. This flag was present during all the rebellions, and in 1798 the poet Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin wrote:
“May I see Ireland free and without oppression
And the green flag flying on high,
With every treacherous foreign tyrant
In hell and with no protection from God”
The final « overtaking » of the tricolor on the Green Flag took place during the First World War, when the British army began to use it in their recruitment campaigns. Then the people began to recognize themselves in those colors, until the constitution of 1937.
And today green, white and orange waving proudly to represent each Irish in the world.
