^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Ireland

Éire, Republic of Ireland, Poblacht na hÉireann

by Vincent Morley, 27-SEP-1996

See also:

Northern Ireland
Vincent Morley's Flags of Ireland website.

History of the Flag

The stripes were found in a different order in the early (pre-independence) days.

James Dignan, 14-MAY-1996

It dates from the uprising of 1848.

Roy Stilling, 14-MAY-1996

Till 1937 the Irish Free State had been a dominion with a governor-general. In 1937 a new constitution was adopted providing for an elected president and making no mention of the king or governor-general. The 1937 constitution, albeit with amendments, is still in force today. In 1949 all that happened was that the de facto republic was made de jure by a formal declaration as such.

The Irish tricolour was used by the IFS from the start. Interestingly the Irish tricolour had only been used by the more extreme nationalists prior to 1916. The flag most Irish people recognised as their country's until then was the Green Flag: a green field bearing a gold harp. However, the Easter Rising, or more to the point its bloody suppression by the British authorities together with the oppression by the "Black and Tans" after WWI, helped cement the tricolour and a firm desire for self-rule among the (southern) Irish people.

Roy Stilling, 13-MAY-1996

The Green Flag

The traditional arms of Ireland have the harp on a blue field. A gold harp on a green field (as opposed to the blue of the arms) was the traditional flag of Ireland before the tricolour became popular.

Roy Stilling, 30-MAY-1996

by Vincent Morley, 21-OCT-1997

A (southern) Irish friend at work told me that when she was at school, they were taught that the Irish flag is green, white and gold - not orange. The usual symbolism that the green stands for the Catholics, the orange for the Protestants and white for peace between them was not taught to her (she'd never heard of it before I told her). Another Irish workmate, however, confirmed my version, so it wasn't a figment of my imagination.

Roy Stilling, 28-SEP-1996

This confusion arose in the 1916-22 period when the tricolour (the current national flag and ensign), which had previously been quite a marginal and little-known flag, was supplanting the Green Flag (the current jack) as the principal national emblem. Green and gold, the colours of the Green Flag, were regarded as the national colours throughout the nineteenth century and some of the home-made tricolours from the 1916-22 period were in fact green, white and gold. There are also some songs from that period which refer to 'green, white and gold' flags and this helped to keep the concept alive, but the symbolism you mention is correct and dates from 1848.

Vincent Morley, 28-SEP-1996