Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-07-15
IRELAND'S MANY FLAGS
COUNTRY HAS HAD NUMEROUS
EMBLEMS OF SOVEREIGNTY.
Harp, Deemed by Most People as Typ
lcalIy Irish, Was Really imposed
Upon the Country by an
English King.

What flag shall Ireland fly? This
is question that is again being dis
cussed, writes a London correspond.
ent of the New York Sun.
Probably no country has had more
national flags than Ireland, so that OF
old-time flags range of choice is by no
means restricted. The most ancient,
without doubt, is the Spear and Ser.
pent," said to commemorate the cur
ing by Moses of an ancestor Of Mile
sius who had been bitten by snake,
Then there is the golden sunburst
upon blue ground, emblem of Fionn
MacCumhall's Fenian (militia). Blue
was always Ireland's national color
until 1898, when the United Irishmen
to signify the blending of north and
south evolved a national color of the
blue formed by the amalgamation OF
blue and orange-namely. green.
Another flag is that which Crom-
wells soldiers are reputed to have
seen when fighting the Kernes, a red
cross upon golden ground. Opinions
as to whether such was ever a ma
tional emblem or not are divided,
many people believing 1t to have been
the arms of an insurgent commander.
The three golden crowns upon
blue ground is another emblem which
has not been overlooked. The design
appears today in the arms of Nun.
ster, and the three crowns are said
to typify the triple kingdoms of ORES.
mond, Thomond and Ormond. Any.
way, this flag was the emblem of Ire
land from ITO to 1547, when Henry
VIII of England substituted the harp
for the three crowns, the reason be
ing that Henry was anxious that the
three crowns should not be confused
with the triple tiara of the pope, with
whom, at this juncture, Henry was
not on the best of terms.
Thus it comes about that the harp,
which is deemed as typically Irish,
was imposed upon Ireland by an Eng
lish king; but had not the United
Irishmen, although they decrowned
the harp in 1898, adopted it as their
emblem, and Grattan's parliament
recognized the harp, although they
did not like the green ground, it is
hardly likely that the average Irish
man today would regard 1t as other
than an upstart burgee.
Still another national device to be
considered is the Lamb Dearg
Eirinn," the Red Hand Of Ireland
which. upon a white ground, was
borne by Shane and Hugh O'NeilPs
armies that defeated Queen Eliza
beth's generals.
The early hours of the nineteenth
century saw Ireland inflicted with the
St. Patrick's Cross, a red satire upon
a white ground. What st. Patrick
had to do with it nobody can say, but
some emblem or the other had got
to be incorporated in the British flag
upon the passing of the act OF union,
and SO the heralds did the rest.
Wherever they got the red satire from
it is not known, but there is
yeason to believe that it was bor
rowed from the arms of Trinity col
lege, Dublin, which had in turn bor'
rowed it from the Fitzgerald family.
In all probability Ireland will
adopt the sunburst upon blue
ground, the chief reason being its an
tiquity. it's distinctly Irish origin, and
it's symbolism of Ireland rising to
take her proper place among the ma,
tons.
But come what may, the ground
of the new flag is going to be blue
The Sim Peiners are resolved upon
that, and that the flags material shall
not be silk or cotton, but good Irish
linen.