User:Jnestorius/National colour of Ireland

In modern times, the colour commonly associated with the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is green. This association was popularised by Irish nationalists in the nineteenth century, and often denied by their unionist opponents, who regarded blue as the "true colour" of Ireland and green as merely the "party colour" of the nationalists.

Green

Green was the colour of the United Irishmen, an Irish republican revolutionary group of the 1790s.

Before the United Irishmen

Thomas D'Arcy McGee:

• A memoir of the life and conquests of Art MacMurrogh king of Leinster, from A.D. 1377 to A.D. 1417 : with some notices of the Leinster wars of the 14th century (1847) p.15:
  • c.1390 Art Mór Mac Murchadha Caomhánach:
    • Thus was Leinster situated. The ancient standard of its kings — "on a field vert, a harp strung argent," floated over more than thirty castles in its very midst.
• A Popular History of Ireland (1862) :
  • 671: Battle of Moira between Domnall mac Áedo of Ireland and Congal Cáech of Ulster:
    • King Donald was accompanied by his Bard, who described to him, as they came in sight, the several standards of Congal's host, and who served under them. Conspicuous above all, the ancient banner of the Red Branch Knights-"a yellow lion wrought on green satin"—floated over Congal's host. On the other side the monarch commanded in person, accompanied by his kinsmen, the sons of Hugh III. The red hand of Tirowen, the cross of Tirconnell, the eagle and lion of Innishowen, the axes of Fanad, were in his ranks, ranged closely round his own standard.
  • 1689: James II at Dublin Castle before the Patriot Parliament:
    • At the inner entrance, the primate, Dr. Dominick Macguire, waited in his robes to conduct him to the chapel, lately erected by Tyrconnell, where Te Deum was solemnly sung. But of all the incidents of that striking ceremonial, nothing more powerfully impressed the popular imagination than the green flag floating from the main tower of the castle, bearing the significant inscription—"Now or Never—Now and Forever."

The United Irishmen flag combined the gold harp of the coat of arms on a green field. The flying of a harp flag with a field of green rather than blue is first attested of Owen Roe O'Neill in the 1641 Rebellion. A green ensign was occasionally flown unofficially by Irish vessels, in ignorance or defiance of British prohibitions.

My reading of Regulation Colours suggests Irish regiments had green facings as early as 1747, but that may be misreading based on poor wording.

Saint Patrick's badges worn on Saint Patrick's Day are described as red in the early 17th century and green in 1681.

MacDonagh 1897:

Some confusion in party colours seems, indeed, to have always prevailed. Thus, while yellow or buff is in Ireland the colour of the Orange Society, and is consequently regarded as the anti-Catholic hue, the anti-Catholics during the Gordon riots of 1780 wore blue ribbons. Lord George Gordon appearing on one occasion in the House of Commons with a blue cockade in his hat. Colonel Herbert sprang to his feet and said he would not stay in the House while a member wore the "badge of sedition." The leader of the anti-Catholics was accordingly ordered by the Speaker to put his cockade into his pocket. Again, the English adherents of the movement for Catholic emancipation in the 'Twenties wore orange ribbons as their distinguishing badge, while its most bitter and determined opponents in Ireland displayed the same colour. But in Ireland the vagaries as to party colours, which exist to so confusing a degree in the rest of the kingdom, are not to be found. There each party, North and South, has its own distinctive hue. Green is everywhere in Ireland the colour of the Nationalists, and yellow is everywhere the colour of the Orangemen. Orange and blue were, as I have said, the colours of William III., and these were adopted by the Orangemen; but blue has gradually been discarded by them, and that colour is only used now in Ireland by moderate Conservatives who do not care to identify themselves so closely with Orangeism as to wear its colours. But though orange and blue were the colours of William III., sprigs of green were, curiously enough, worn by his soldiers in their hats to distinguish them from the adherents of the Stuart cause — who wore the white badge of the King of France — at the Battle of the Boyne, which broke the back of that cause and the cause of the Catholic or Nationalist Irish in 1690.

It is interesting to note, as showing that blue was everywhere the coveted colour in popular movements long before the days of Whigs and Tories, that in 1690, and for many years previously and subsequently, blue was the colour of the Catholic and old Celtic Irish. It was not until the Revolutionary Society of the United Irishmen, about 1790, tried to form a union of Catholics and Protestants, or of the native Irish and of the descendants of the English and Scotch settlers, as a step towards the establishment of an Irish Republic, that green — produced by a blending of blue and orange — was adopted as the Irish national colour, which it has since remained.

Eleanor Hull 1931 says echoes above re Battle of the Boyne, "As though to complete the contrariness which meets us here, as at every point in Irish history, William's army marched with sprigs of green in their caps, while the Jacobites wore strips of white paper."

Rev J F M Ffrench (1903) says "The prominence of green, seems to be sufficiently accounted for by the fact that it is the field of the shield of the province that contains the capital city" (ie the arms of Leinster).

Alan O'Day (1987) says

• "about the end of the 1870s the Irish population identified the green flag of the Party with the national flag of Ireland" was identified as the national flag
• not clear whether first used by Henry Grattan around 1780
• "Presumably green was selected by analogy with the shamrock which around 1700 became the emblem of the Catholic Irish in reaction to the anti-Catholic laws of William III) of Orange".
• "the reasons for the change from blue to green as Ireland's national colour, which seems to have taken place at the beginning of the 18th century, still require a more exact examination"

Orange and blue in opposition to green

1790s: "To serve King and Country they always proved true; / Long life and success to the orange and blue"; footnote says "Orange in support of the succession of William of Orange; blue linked to presbyterianism" Also "For Orange and Blue / Will be faithful and true / And Protestant loyalty ever be shown." with footnote "Blue was the colour favoured by staunch presbyterians in the eighteenth century, since the Scottish Covenanters of the seventeenth century had adopted blue as their colour as opposed to red, the royal colour." Sir William Wilde said in 1850 that orange-and-blue were the colours of the bunting on the Twelfth of July in Hollywood, County Down.

"Song of the United Irishmen" in Spirit of the Nation in 1843 (and previously in The Nation) includes:

Tis the green—oh, the Green is the colour of the true,
And we'll back it 'gain the orange, and we'll raise it o'er the Blue!

United Irishmen

Green was associated with liberty during the Atlantic Revolutions. This began with the Liberty Tree of the American revolution, and spread to the green cockades introduced in the French revolution by Camille Desmoulins. Since green was also the colour of the reactionary Comte d'Artois, green cockades were later dropped in favour of tricolour ones in France.

Carpenter 2012, p.26:

and the 'liberty tree' became a powerful symbol for all those who wished to see Ireland 'free', whether the colour of their flag was the white of the Jacobite, the orange of the Orangeman, the blue of the true protestant or the green that would become the colour of nationalism.

The Irish Volunteers militia wore green coats. The United Irishmen were a radical offshoot of the Volunteers. Liam de Paor says (unreferenced; he is unreliable, ignoring the uncrowned-harp-on-blue-field.) that "The Volunteers, the kingdom's defence against French invasion, carried as their national emblem the green banner on which a golden "queen harp" (with a lady looking like a diminutive ship's figurehead) appeared, together with a crown. This was also the authorised emblem of Ireland's independent parliament of 1778-1800."

Some writer have suggested that the United Irishmen chose green as a blend of orange and blue; where the orange (see Orange Order) and blue respectively stand for either Protestants and Roman Catholics, or Ulstermen and southerners, or "the orangemen [and] the rest of their fellow-countrymen".

In 1795, United Irishman William Drennan wrote the poem "When Erin First Rose", full of green symbolism, including the first reference to Ireland as "the Emerald Isle", and the lines "The cause it is good, and the men they are true, / And the Green shall outlive both the Orange and Blue."

John Binns recalled in 1854 (emphasis added):

Green, the national color of Ireland, for years before our arrest, had been adopted and worn as a party badge by the Society of United Irishmen. Just, however, before (James) Coigley and (Arthur) O'Connor left Ireland, the green had been laid aside, and yellow, not orange, had been adopted instead of green.

After the United Irishmen's 1798 Rebellion, the Dublin Castle administration suppressed wearing green as a symbol of sedition, as decried in the song "The Wearing of the Green".

Nineteenth century

The association of green with Ireland has been reinforced by reference to the widespread pastureland. The shamrock, another symbol of ireland, is a green-leaved plant.

In the nineteenth century, unionists often considered green the "party colour" of nationalists and regarded blue as the "true colour" of Ireland. The restriction of green to nationalists is reflected in the Irish tricolour flag, designed in 1848, where green (nationalist) and orange (unionist) are joined by white (peace). The tricolour displaced the "green flag" after the Easter Rising, mirroring the eclipse of the Irish Parliamentary Party (green flag) by Sinn Féin (tricolour).

Instructions to Magistrates and Constabulary in Ireland relative to ...

Instructions for the Guidance of Magistrates in Suppressing Party Processions, referred to in the Commissioners' Report (from Papers relating to Donaghmore Riot, with Report of Commissioners to inquire into Conduct of Justices of Peace at Court of Petty Sessions at Dungannon, October 1866)

Party Processions Act 1850 & Party Emblems Act 1860

As a party colour, it seems green was often paired with white; compare the pairing of blue and orange in the eighteenth century. "White cockade" of Jacobitism; whiteboys? What colour were the ribbonmen's ribbons?

1864 O'Connell monument procession: The Times reported "Every man wore some ribands of white and green, either a rosette, a band on his hat or a scarf, sometimes all three. … There were one hundred and thirty four large banners, more or less green, and many thousand bannerettes, all green"; Attorney-General for Ireland decides "There was no display of party banners or emblems". Maddox concludes "The Castle did not regard the colour green as a party or partisan emblem because it was the national colour of Ireland." Robert Peel defended this interpretation (in the Commons?).

1865 HC debates green emblems in procession possibly party emblems.

Processions (Ireland) Bill 1870 foundered in part on the controversy over whether green was a party colour.

Charles Stewart Parnell, the pre-eminent nationalist leader of 1876–91, had a superstitious aversion to the colour green, and hated receiving green gifts from admirers. When William O'Brien said that green dated only from the United Irishmen and blue was older, Parnell replied, "it's just the same — blue is more than half green".

Green and Orange together?

Select Committee on Orange Lodges, Associations or Societies in Ireland: report, minutes of evidence and appendix p.491 29th November 1830. Moved by Percival Swan, and seconded by James King.

Resolved, That the deputy grand secretary do address the Grand Master of the county town on the subject of a report which, it would appear from a letter addressed to a member of the grand lodge from London, to be at present current in that metropolis ; viz.

That some Orangemen of Down had assembled with a party of Roman Catholics at Shanes Hill, between Portadown and Lurgan, had hoisted an orange and green flag, and entered into resolutions hostile to the interests of the institution, and request he will make particular inquiries into these circumstances, and report the result to this committee.

1835 Report Qs 1793, 3040, 3127; 3040 also says "tri-coloured flag" but does not specify the colours.

"Orange and Green will Carry the Day" (1840s poem by Thomas Osborne Davis from The Nation ).

1916 THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE REBELLION IN IRELAND:

1701. What I want to arrive at is this, had the National Volunteers, the Redmondite Volunteers, had they a uniform, a different uniform, could you distinguish between the uniform of the Redmondite Volunteers and the Sinn Fein Volunteers ?

—The only thing you could distinguish is that the Sinn Fein Volunteers had a badge pinned on, a sort of little brooch, yellow, green and white.

Revolutionary period

Seán O'Casey writing in 1954 about the Starry Plough flag of the ICA in 1916:

My opinion is (for I remember, or seem to remember) how disappointed most of the C(itizen) A(rmy) Men were that the color (sic) wasnt (sic) green instead of blue; green to them being the one color known to poor oul’ Ireland – that the green aspect of the flag rose from the almost sub-conscious idea that every Irish flag must be necessarily green.

Anti-Home Rule c.1912 postcard with "Pat", "John Bull", "Sandy" and "Taffy" arm in arm; Pat is wearing a green jacket and waistcoat.

Modern

Leprechauns in Irish folklore were most often said to wear red clothing. As a kitsch symbol of Irishness in modern times they are usually in bright green.

Green, typically with white trim, is the colour scheme commonly worn by sportspeople representing either the entire island (e.g. rugby) or one of the two jurisdictions into which it is divided, the Republic of Ireland (e.g. association football, Olympics) and Northern Ireland (e.g. association football, Commonwealth Games). In the United States, it is traditional to wear an item of green clothing on Saint Patrick's Day, in a modified interpretation of the phrase "the wearing of the green".

Blue

History

The coat of arms of Ireland is Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent (a gold harp with silver strings on a blue background). This was officially introduced by Henry VIII as King of Ireland, and replicated in independent Ireland in 1945. It forms both the standard of the Irish president and the third quarter of the standard of the British monarch, representing Northern Ireland. Prior to Henry VIII, Ireland was represented heraldically by three gold crowns, also on a blue field.

The robes and ribbons of the Order of Saint Patrick, established in 1783 as the senior order of chivalry in Ireland, are specified as "sky blue". Blue was chosen to reflect the azure field of the Irish arms, and sky blue was specified since royal blue was already used for the English Order of the Garter. The actual colour used for robes changed gradually over the decades, acquiring a green tinge. By the middle of the nineteenth century it was occasionally called "Saint Patrick's Blue".

John Keyse Sherwin's 1783 "Sketch for The Installation Banquet of the Knights of Saint Patrick" clearly a pale blue.

Charles Townshend suggests the blue colour of the early membership cards of the Irish Volunteers was "[p]ossibly reflecting an ongoing debate about Ireland's true 'national colour'".

• 
  Coat of arms of Ireland (since 1945)
• 
  Coat of arms of the Lordship of Ireland
• 
  Badge of the Order of St Patrick, with sky-blue ribbons

Other quotes and points

John Redmond on Government of Ireland Bill in 1912: No, Sir, we will not flaunt the flag of Ireland in the face of anybody, but you will have in the city of Dublin the Union Jack floating as a symbol of the Union, for the first time accepted by the Irish people, as a symbol of the Empire, and alongside it you will find some Irish flag. Personally I do not know what that flag will be. I know what my own predilections are in that respect, but I also know that there is great difference of opinion among Irish scholars as to what the real colour of the old Irish flag was. Whether it will be the St. Patrick blue or whether it will be what we are in the habit of calling the "immortal green," is of little importance to the Members of this House. The important fact is this, that the Irish flag will be a symbol of that local separate nationality which the right hon. Gentleman praised in his speech in the City of London, and the Union Jack will be a symbol of the Empire to which Ireland, then for the first time, will feel she has been admitted on honourable and equal terms.

The New York Times reported that on 22 January 1922:

At the College of Arms it was stated that certain modifications were under consideration and that if any action were taken it would be done by the King in Council. No parliamentary action would be necessary. Heraldry experts say that alterations in arms are very expensive. Some years ago there was a demand from Irish quarters that the blue ground of the golden harp on the royal standard should be changed to green. It was then estimated that the alteration would cost at least £2,000,000. To remove all reference to Ireland from the present Union Jack and Royal Arms would be vastly more expensive.

W. J. Chetwode Crawley mentions in an article on masonic blue: "Presently, it became a sign of pedantic erudition to betray the knowledge that Blue, not Green, had been the National colour".

Song by John Francis Waller published 1852:

The white and the orange, the blue and green boys,
 We'll blend them together in concord to-night;
 :
 Let each Irish heart wear those emblems so true ;
Be fresh as the green, and be pure as the white, boys,
 Be bright as the orange, sincere as blue.
   I care not a jot
   Be your scarf white or not,
If you love as a brother each child of the soil ;
   I ask not your creed,
   If you'll stand in her need

In nineteenth-century folkore, leprechauns wore red jackets; 20th-century depictions changed this to green.

Depictions of Saint Patrick in vestments of green have been criticised on the basis that green is the liturgical colour of Ordinary Time, whereas St Patrick's Day is in Lent, whose liturgical colour is violet.

The Regulation Colours of Irish reiments of the British Army are dark green.

References

Sources

• Wulff, Helena (2013). "ways of Seeing ireland's green: From Ban to the Branding of a nation". The Senses and Society. 8 (2): 233–239. doi:10.2752/174589313X13589681980858. ISSN 1745-8927. S2CID 141876457. Article is generally unreliable but statement that green is more important in tourist branding of Ireland than any colour in other nations' branding
• Carpenter, Andrew (1998). Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland. Cork University Press. ISBN 9781859181034. Retrieved 26 July 2012.

Further reading

• Armao, Frédéric (17 September 2013). "The Color Green in Ireland—Ecological Mythology and the Recycling of Identity". In Leydier, Gilles; Martin, Alexia (eds.). Environmental Issues in Political Discourse in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 177–191. ISBN 9781443852838. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
• Cullen, Emily (November–December 2016). "Summoning her children to which flag?". History Ireland. 24 (6). Wordwell: 32–34. JSTOR histirel.24.6.32. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
• Hopkin, Alannah (1989). "The Greening of St Patrick". The Living Legend of St Patrick. London: Grafton. pp. 106–127. ISBN 9780859762595. (JSTOR 1260374 review says it "traces how and when shamrock came to be associated with the saint and more briefly discusses the adoption of the emblematic colour green and the red saltire.")
• Loftus, Belinda (1982). Images in conflict: visual imagery and the troubles in Northern Ireland (1968–1981) (PhD). Keele University.
• Loftus, Belinda (1990). Mirrors: William III & Mother Ireland. Dundrum: Picture Press.
• Loftus, Belinda (1994). Mirrors: Orange And Green. Dundrum: Picture Press.
• McCartney, Clem (1994). Clashing Symbols?: A Report on the Use of Flags, Anthems and Other National Symbols in Northern Ireland. Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast. ISBN 9780853895381.

Colour Ireland