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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 was the colour of the United Irishmen, an Irish republican revolutionary group of the 1790s.
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:[1]
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."[2]
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"[3] (ie the arms of Leinster).
Alan O'Day (1987) says[4]
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"[5] 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."[6] 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.[7]
"Song of the United Irishmen" in Spirit of the Nation in 1843 (and previously in The Nation) includes:[8]
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!
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:
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."[9]
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,[10] or Ulstermen and southerners,[11] or "the orangemen [and] the rest of their fellow-countrymen".[12]
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."[13]
John Binns recalled in 1854 (emphasis added):[14]
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".
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;[15] compare the pairing of blue and orange in the eighteenth century.[16] "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."[17] Robert Peel defended this interpretation (in the Commons?).
1865 HC debates green emblems in procession possibly party emblems.[18]
Processions (Ireland) Bill 1870 foundered in part on the controversy over whether green was a party colour.[17]
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".[19][20]
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[21] 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 ).[22]
1916 THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE REBELLION IN IRELAND:
Seán O'Casey writing in 1954 about the Starry Plough flag of the ICA in 1916:[23]
Anti-Home Rule c.1912 postcard with "Pat", "John Bull", "Sandy" and "Taffy" arm in arm; Pat is wearing a green jacket and waistcoat.[24]
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".
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.[25]
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'".[26]
John Redmond on Government of Ireland Bill in 1912:[27] 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.[28]
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".[29]
Song by John Francis Waller published 1852:[30]
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.
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