| It is Ireland’s national flag that is known or called “the tricolor”. It is a vertical tricolor of green, white and orange. The proportion of this flag is 1:2 (length twice the width). The green color on the flag represents the Catholic community and the orange part of the flag represents the Protestants and the white part represents unity or peace in between the two communities.
This flag had been introduced in 1848 by Thomas Francis Meagher a leader of the young Ireland movement around 150 years ago, a historian by the name of Dermot Power had said that it had been displayed on a second floor window where Thomas Francis Meager had addressed to a crowd in the streets below. He regarded it as an innovation rather than a revival of an older flag. However, the flag was not raised until the Easter Rising in 1916. It had been raised above the General Post Office in Dublin, as it had come to be raised as the national flag. Later on the flag had been adapted by the Irish Republic while in the war of independence, and the next who had adapted it would be the Irish Free State (1922-1937), that led to giving it a constitutional status under the Constitution of Ireland in 1937. Many nationalists have considered the tricolor flag to be the national flag o the whole of the Ireland. Although it had always been a subject of controversy by many nationalists in Northern Ireland as well as with the Gaelic Athletic Association as the Island had been represented by other flags that included other flags such as Saint Patrick’s Cross and the flag that represented the four provinces of Ireland. The flag was said to be the vertical opposite of the other flag which is the flag of Côte d’Ivoire. The tricolor idea had originated when the tricolor had been worn during the celebration of the French revolution of the year - a revolution which led to the restoration of using the French tricolor. The other one would be the use of a tricolor flag in 1848 by the Young Ireland movement that had been influenced by another French revolution. “The government in Ireland have taken over the so called Free State Flag in order to forestall its use by republican element and avoid legislative regulation, to leave them free to adopt a more suitable emblem later.” [PRO document DO 117/100 written in 1928] |
