Last modified: 2011-08-27 by rob raeside
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My own theory as to the origin of the Irish tricolour is that since 19th
century British / Internationalist republican tricolours and tribands were red,
white, green all that Meagher or somebody that he knew did was to replace the
red with orange, and thus the tricolour of 1848 appeared in Ireland. The flag is
often credited to French women but this may imply that it was a flag devised by
the exiled Irish republican community in Paris. The flag might well have its
origins as far back as 1792 in Year 1 of the Revolution when a host of
international delegates were invited to Paris to contribute to the founding
documents of the French Republic, or even earlier. This is the year that I deem
the Internationalist red, white, green tricolour to have originated by
differentiating it from the first French tricolore by exchanging 'democratic'
green for blue which in British radical eyes was the 'governmental' or 'Tory'
colour in the UK and had been the colour of revolutionaries in France who had
rejected green because it became associated with the reactionary aristocrat the
Comte d'Artois. The red, white, blue flag that was the first French tricolore
had been devised by La Fayette to signify the constitutional monarchy by setting
its royal white between the red and blue of the Paris militia. This was reversed
in 1794 to produce the second flag which signified the republic, the blue,
white, red tricolore which is now identified as the French national flag.
Likewise the modern Irish tricolour was a reversal of Meagher's 1848 flag in the
Easter Rising of 1916, but Meagher's tricolour appears to have its origin
traceable right through to the first French tricolore of 1789 via the British /
Internationalist tricolours and tribands that I date to 1792 ... so, somebody
needs to find a reference to this flag being used in France by Irish republicans
in exile in the 1790's - a project for somebody better resourced than me.
Here is another item about the Irish tricolour culled from Wikipedia, and it
mentions a date a week earlier than so far mentioned on this page for the first
unfurling of the flag in Ireland. This mentions the original Irish tricolour
being orange, white, green with a red hand of Ulster in the middle: in the
legend of Labraid Lámh Dhearg or Labraid Lámderg (Labraid of the Red Hand)
there was a boat race to decide who would claim the land of Ulster. The first
contender to put his hand on the shore would win the kingdom of Ulster, and
Labraid was behind in this contest but so determined to win that he cut his
own hand off and threw it over the heads of the other contestants to secure
the prize. A very appropriate motif for Irish republicans eager not only
drive the British out of Ireland by force but to secure Ulster as well. See
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hand_of_Ulster
From -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Francis_Meagher#Irish_Confederation:
"
In January 1847, Meagher, together with John Mitchel, William Smith O'Brien,
and Thomas Devin Reilly formed a new repeal body, the Irish Confederation. In
1848, Meagher and O'Brien went to France to study revolutionary events there,
and returned to Ireland with the new Flag of Ireland, a tricolour of green,
white and orange made by and given to them by French women sympathetic to the
Irish cause.[25] The acquisition of the flag is commemorated at the 1848 Flag
Monument in the Irish parliament. The design used in 1848 was similar to the
present flag, except that orange was placed next to the staff, and the red
hand of Ulster decorated the white field. This flag was first flown in public
on March 1, 1848, during the Waterford by-election, when Meagher and his
friends flew the flag from the headquarters of Meagher's "Wolfe Tone
Confederate Club" at No. 33, The Mall, Waterford.[26] "
References
given :
25 - PDF ' The National Flag ' Department of the Taoiseach -
http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/The%20National%20Flag.pdf
26 - Cavanagh, Micahel (1892). Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher - The Leading
Events of his career. Worchester, MA: The Messenger Press.
http://books.google.com/?id=ZbsgAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=thomas+francis+meagher.
There is also a National Flag Monument in the village of The
Commons near Ballingarry which claims the first unfurling of the flag -
http://www.ballingarry.net/warhouse/famine_warhouse_flag_raising.htm - and it
is the starting point for the annual 1848 Famine Walk -
http://www.nationalist.ie/news/local/biggest_turnout_ever_at_ballingarry_famine_walk_1_2244607 - ' At the start of the Walk, at the National Flag Monument in
the village of The Commons, Dr Thomas McGrath welcomed Minister Martin
Mansergh and the large number of walkers ' ... " In 1848 Meagher gave Ireland
what would become its national flag. He brought the tricolour back from
France and presented it to the Irish people with the noble words which are
inscribed on the monument in Ballingarry: "The white in the centre signifies
a lasting truce between the Orange and the Green and I trust that beneath its
folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped
in generous and heroic brotherhood." Meagher made a speech in The Commons
during the Rising. The tricolour is a flag of 1848, and as is also inscribed
on the monument, tradition states that the tricolour was flown here at
that time." The annual Walk takes places, rain or shine, on the 25th of July,
the day of the Rising.
Now I had it in the back of my head that Lamartine
had presented the Irish with this flag, and in searching the internet I came
across this reference. 'On 17 March, Lamartine
received a deputation from the Irish community in Paris, led by a Monsieur
Leonard, during which, according to the account in the Moniteur, 'the flag
of Ireland' was presented to the provisional government and Lamartine made a
brief statement in which he praised Daniel O'Connell and expressed the hope
that the Irish people would achieve their constitutional independence in the
same way as they had secured their religious freedom.' This was reported in
The Times 20th March 1848 and caused consternation. (p.498 Irish Historical
Studies, Vol 24 No 96 Nov 1985 - Ireland and France in 1848 - D N Petler -
www.jstor.org/stable/30008757) Lamartine quickly back peddled on these
sentiments that he had expressed towards the various oppressed peoples of
Europe, and made overtures afterwards to the British Ambassador Lord Normanby
who felt that the acknowledgement of the Irish Flag was an acknowledgement of
a potential Irish state. Normanby ' declared that he 'knew of no such thing
as an Irish flag; and that if it was offered to place it by the side of the
French colours it could only be as a rebel flag' . Lamartine hastily assured
the ambassador 'that he had seen no such flag; ... that he had answered the
deputation himself, and had not made the slightest allusion to it' . Normanby
insisted that a denial be printed in the Moniteur, to which Lamartine agreed,
saying 'he would do his best to give me complete satisfaction on the subject'
... or so Normanby reported it to Palmerston on 18th March 1848, and recorded
it in his ' Year of Revolution ' i p243-5. The British government was
concerned about how the events in France were inspiring unrest in Britain and
Ireland, particularly amongst the Chartists, and they passed the Treason
Felony Act 1848 to defend the monarchy on 22nd April after a three day riot
in which republican slogans were chanted by large crowds in Trafalgar Square
fighting with the police and erecting barricades 6-8th March 1848. (For an
account of this online -
http://www.chartists.net/Trafalgar-Square-riots-1848.htm). Amongst the first
people prosecuted under this law only weeks later was Meagher, for, amongst
other things, unfurling his orange, white and green tricolour and inviting
people to enroll in his proposed National Guard. (I found it difficult to
find a single source to quote for this - this is an extensive account and
Meagher is arrested for Treason Felony at the bottom of this page -
http://www.libraryireland.com/Last-Conquest-Ireland/John-Mitchel-172.php)
David B.
Lawrence, 6 July 2011
