Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1916-09-29
FLAGS OF IRELAND
Only Since 1893 Has Green Been
the National Color.
BEFORE THEN 1T WAS BLUE.

That Was the Color of Fionn Mac
CumhaiI's Standard, Which Is Said
to Be the True Flag of Erin-The
Ancient "Spear and Serpent"
The universal belief concerning the
flag Of Ireland is that it has always
been "the harp without the crown" i'm
posed on a field Of green and that
green has from time immemOrial been
Erins color.
l venture to say that ninety out of
every hundred persons will assert, in
answer to a query, that the harp on q
green background has constituted Ire
lands national design these many cen
turtles, this belief obtaining generally
among the Irish themselves.
In opposition to this belief it will ap.
pear strange when the asseveratiOn is
made that Ireland's national color un-
til something more than a century ago
was blue.
1t may indeed produce a bit of
shock to many who have been welded
to the notion that "the Emerald isle"
''the shamrock so green" "our green
isle beyond the sea" and other similar
expressions were tndissOlubly and for
ever connected with the country's ma.
dOnal COlOrs.
But as q matter Of fact the green
flag made its first appearance in 1898
the year of the uprising, so that as
flags go 1t is comparatively new.
Green, you know, is blend of the or
ange and the blue, and it is asserted
that green was adopted in 1898 by the
United Irishmen to typify the union Of
north and south, orange being the
color affected in the northern part Of
Ireland and blue in the southern prov.
inCeS.
In point Of antiquity the real Irish
flag Is the spear and serpent" which
appears in the arms Of the O'Sullivans.
1t is said to commemorate the incident
Of GaOdhal Glas, the ancestor Of Mile
s1us, who, tradition says, was cured Of
snake bite by the rod of Moses.
Next to that comes the flag of Fionn
MacCumhailPs militia, the golden sun
set on a blue ground, and the weight Of
opinion among all Irish students Of re-
search seems to favor this as the true
national flag. Indeed, blue was always
lreland's national color until 1893
Quite number Of other flags have
figured in Irish history, and each Of
them has its line Of enthusiastic SUD-
porters. Not the least popular among
these IS the flag exhibiting three golden
crowns imposed on blue ground,
which figures at the present day in the
arms OF the province Of Munster.
This flag was accepted after the Nor
man invasion in the year ITO as the
ensign Of Ireland the three crowns
representing the kingdoms Of Desmond.
Ormond and Thomond. It was retained
until 1547, when Henry VIII abolished
1t and substituted the harp.
Coming down to more recent times it
is found that the parliament of Ireland,
Of which Henry Grattan was the head,
did not recognize green, although it did
accept the harp. That parliament's flag
was a golden harp on a blue ground
At the time of the union with Eng
land in 1901 new flag was evolved ap-
Darently for the express purpose Of in
cooperating it with what is now known
as the union jack, but it does not seem
to have caught the popular fancy any
more than the act Of union
This was the red satire on a white
ground which was christened St. Pat
rick's cross. Apparently it was taken
from the arms Of Trinity college at
Dublin, though how Dublin came by it
is a mystery.
The tricolor of green. white and or
angc-"The orange and green, with the
stripe of peace between"-is the recog-
niZcd flag Of the Irish Nationalist,
whose aim is complete Independence
James T. Doyle in Baltimore American.