Rachael: I see your true colors...

On our Wild Wicklow tour on Friday the 29th of June, on which Jimmy has already blogged about in detail, our tour guide mentioned something that sparked my curiosity. Given the history of feuding between the Catholics and the Protestants, which has been going on since the mid 1600’s, it shouldn’t have been a shock to me when the tour guide gave his explanation for the meaning behind the current tri-color Irish flag. He was correct about the background of the orange and green colors. Orange represents the Irish Protestants because of William of Orange, or William III, who in 1690 defeated the deposed King James II, a Roman Catholic. The color green represents revolution, and thus represents the Catholics. Others say the color represents older Gaelic traditions. Still others maintain that it has everything to do with the shamrocks on Emerald Island. Whatever the reason, green stands for Catholicism… The meaning behind the white in the center of the flag was where the tour guide and my own research conflict. The tour guide believes that the white in the center is to separate the two colors (cultures) to maintain peace. Upon looking into the tri-coloration I found this man of “authority” was only half correct. White stands for the peace that will come about by bringing Catholics and Protestants together with the hope of continuing this peace between them, not as a means to separate them in order to keep the peace, as the tour guide said. I found it interesting that he, as a Catholic, decided that the Catholics and Protestants need to be separate in order to keep the peace between them.