illustration / Young Irelander flags

Drawing or illustration of the Young Irelander flags, crossed. Colour. The birth of the tricolour as the National Flag. Left; the tricolour of orange, white and green presented by Thomas Francis Meagher to the Irish people on 15 April 1848. The orange symbolised the Protestants, the green represented the Catholics and the white represented the 'lasting truce' between them. John Mitchell said of it - I hope to see that flag waving one day as our national banner, over a forest of Irish pikes. Right; Meagher's adaption of the tricolour as the Irish Battle Flag, 'If this flag is destined to fan the flame of war, let England behold once more, upon that white centre, the red hand that struck her down from the hills of Ulster.;