Flag of Ireland

The national flag of Ireland (Irish: bratach na hÉireann), frequently referred to in Ireland as "the tricolour" (an trídhathach) and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour, is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange. The proportions of the flag are 1:2 (that is to say, flown horizontally, the flag is half as high as it is wide).

It was intended to symbolise the inclusion and hoped-for union between Roman Catholics (symbolised by the green colour) and Protestants (symbolised by the orange colour). The symbol first appeared in green-orange format when a green and orange cockade (rosette) was worn to symbolise a proposed Irish Catholic and Protestant unity at a political event in Cork City, March 1830. White was added to create the first Irish tricolour by Emelia Eleanor Hamilton of Annadale, Dublin in a tricolour cockade (rosette) of green, orange and white. She sent the symbol as a gift to be presented to a meeting taking place in September 1830 to send salutations to the French on the July Revolution. With the cockade she sent a letter with the words 'Let orange and green, no longer be seen, b'stained by the blood of our island', creating the message of peaceful union familiar in the Irish Tricolour today.

Within months the symbol was adopted by the Repeal Campaign of Daniel O'Connell in December 1830, seeing regular use in the early 1830's in flag, banner and other forms. The Irish Tricolour was later adopted by the Young Irelanders in 1848 who formalised the white to the centre which beforehand had been inconsistent, a speech by Thomas Francis Meagher stating, "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood".

The flag saw ongoing if sporadic use in public and adoption by secret societies between 1850 and 1910, but It was not until the Easter Rising of 1916, when it was raised above Dublin's General Post Office by Gearóid O'Sullivan, that the tricolour came to be regarded as the national flag. The flag was adopted by the Irish Republic during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). The flag's use was continued by the Irish Free State (1922–1937) and it was later given constitutional status under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. The tricolour has been used by nationalists on both sides of the border as the national flag of the whole island since 1916. It is thus flown by many nationalists in Northern Ireland as well as by the Gaelic Athletic Association.