The historical national color of Ireland is royal blue. The modern Irish coat of arms (and the standard of the President of Ireland), for example, is a golden harp with silver strings on a royal blue background. Royal blue also represents Northern Ireland in the UK coat of arms. The green is the color of Irish Catholics (supposedly, St. Patrick used shamrock to teach the Irish about the Trinity, so the color green and the shape of shamrock came to symbolize the Irish Christianity, although St. Patrick himself is traditionally associated with the color blue; theres even an expression, St. Patricks blue). The Irish Protestants color is orange. In fact, the modern Irish flag, a tricolor of green, white, and orange, was designed in mid-19th century, decades before Ireland attained independence, to symbolize the desire for peace between Catholics and Protestants. In the words of Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher, 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. As to other national colors, single national colors stopped being used around the time nation-states began to be formed. For centuries now, national colors come in pairs or triplets. The only exception is the color red, associated with Communist governments of China, Vietnam, and the now-defunct Soviet Union... NC 70 months ago
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 18:25:17 +0000
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