THE IRISH FLAG

New Zealand Tablet, 8 April 1915, Page 13

THE IRISH FLAG

The national flags of England, Scotland, and Ireland, quartered, compose the Royal Standard (writes Mr. F. J. Bigger, M.R.1.A., in the Glasgow Observer). The arms of England, the three lions, are used a second time to make up the fourth quarter. Wales considers this an injustice, believing, and with much show of right, that the national griffin of Wales should be in the fourth quarter. No one has the privilege of flying the Royal Standard except Royalty, or under Royal conditions. It must not be generally used nor flown as a party or political flag, and there are many who maintain that the same should apply to the Union Jack. Sir Bernard Burke, who is considered a first-rate authority, states that, according to his view, it is even wrong to display the banner of St. George or the Union Jack from a private house. Be that as it may, the Scottish quarter of the Royal Standard, the golden flag with a red lion and a fleur de li/s border, is flown exactly as it appears, without comment, amendment, or alteration, as the Scottish National ensign, no Union Jack ever being added in the corner. The three lions or leopards are constantly seen as the purely English flag, but the Irish flag is continually altered and a Jack added in the corner without precedent, license, or authority, and against heraldic rules and laws. Anyone applying for information to any of the recognised official heralds will soon be satisfied on this score. The only point on which there is any question regarding the Irish flag, amongst authorities on the subject, is that of color. Sonic maintain that the old Irish color was blue, others say green has been so long used, and is so distinctly Irish, that it has now become universally accepted as the national color. The harp is admitted on all hands as the national symbol, and so it appears always unaccompanied, by any Jack on the Irish quarter of the Royal Standard. The shape of the harp varies. That with the human figure is of more recent origin than the one known as Brian Boru's Harp, which latter is the more correct, and is now the accepted form appearing on the bannerabove the Royal stall in St. George's Chapel, Windsor,, from which all others may, or even should be copied. There is no truth in the statement that Henry VIII., or Cromwell, originated the harp as the arms of Ireland. It was used before the time of either of these potentates . In Behaine's globe, in 1492, the harp is displayed on the flag of Ireland, which disposes of the Henry VIII. fiction, whilst the flying of it by Owen Roe O'Neill, when he landed at Doe Castle, in Donegal, in 1642, equally ■' disposes of the Cromwell romance. >..

. The now accepted flag of Ireland is a golden harp* o i a green ground, and this was the flag so freely used and distributed by the thousand amongst the school children of Dublin by the express direction of the late Queen Victoria on the occasion of her last visit to Ireland. Any addition to it is quite wrong and absolutely unauthorised. The old shape of the Irish shield was round, and the flag square, and not oblong. (A very good example of the three separate shields of England, Ireland, and Scotland is shown on the Queen Victoria florin.) The ensign of Ulster is the red right hand (not the left, which is very wrong) on a white ground, and this is also the standard of the O'Neills. The sunburst is an old Irish symbol, making a most effective flag on a blue ground, and with it those who stand up for blue as the national color might well be satisfied, leaving the green flag and the golden harp in the position it has now so long occupied. It should be regarded by the Irish people of all beliefs, religious and political, as really and truly national in the best sense of that much-abused word, above all social differences, and never used for party purposes.