By Francis K. Beirne
Our tricolour national flag is very dear to all of us, the vertical thirds of green, white and orange representing peace (white) between the Gaelic and Catholic traditions (green) and the Protestant Unionist minority (orange).
That said, what other countries have a similar tricolour (vertical bands with no emblems) as their national flag?
In Europe, there are four others, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania. The colour’s on Belgium’s tricolour were taken from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant while the design on the French tricolour was adopted during the French Revolution and has remained the national flag since.
The green, white and red flag of Italy is a symbol of Italian unification, which culminated on 17 March, 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, while the fifth European tricolour, that of Romania, was adopted in
1989 in the wake of the Romanian Revolution and is defined in the Constitution of Romania as well as by organic law.
There are strict laws applied in most countries for the flying of the national flag which often seem to be ignored, especially by sports fans. For example, national flags should be flown from sunrise to sunset, but can be flown at night if illuminated. Flags should be kept in good condition and replaced if tattered or damaged.
The flag should not touch the ground or water or be entangled in trees. When flown with other flags, the national flag should be in the position of honour and if on the same flagpole, should be placed higher than any other flag. It should be raised briskly and lowered slowly and ceremoniously.
A national flag should never be defaced with slogans, logos or pictures and it should not be used as a decoration, draped on cars or used to cover a speaker’s desk or platform. In many countries, the state flag is draped over a coffin at state or military funerals.
Five countries in Africa have national flags similar in design to our own tricolour – Chad, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. The national flag of Chad is a vertical tricolour of indigo, yellow, and red and was adopted in November 1959, almost a year after the founding of the autonomous Republic of Chad. It is sometimes confused with the flag of Romania.
The national flag of Guinea is a tricolour of red, yellow, and green and was adopted in November 1958 with the publication of the country’s first constitution. Mali’s flag has the same colours as that of Guinea but in reverse order. Green stands for fertility of the land, gold stands for purity and mineral wealth while red symbolises the blood shed for independence from the French.
Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own
