- St. Patrick's Blue
St. Patrick's Blue [Almost invariably "St. Patrick's Blue" is spelled with a capital "B".] refers to a
blue , often but not always dark blue, associated withSt. Patrick , thepatron saint ofIreland . Although St. Patrick is often depicted ingreen chasuble and episcopalmitre today, before the 20th century thesaint was more often shown wearing blue garments. [http://www.finetravel.com/europe/ireland/insaintpatrick.htm In Saint Patricks's Footsteps - Ireland Travels and the Blarney Stone] ] [http://www.cortezjournal.com/archives/1news1172.htm St. Patrick's Day steeped in legend] ] This same blue can be seen onancient Irish flag s and in some modern contexts associated with Ireland.Modern use
St. Patrick's Blue is officially the colour which appears on the Irish Presidential Standard (i.e. the
flag of thePresident of Ireland ) and theCoat of arms of Ireland . It also appears in the part of theRoyal coat of arms of the United Kingdom representingNorthern Ireland .This blue and gold colour scheme is said to represent "the Ancient Colours of Ireland" [http://www.ucd.ie/boat-men/about/colours.htm University College Dublin Rowing Club] ] and are the colours also found on the coat of arms of "the Ancient City of Dublin" and the
Flag of Munster (which evolved from the coat of arms of theLordship of Ireland ). The Flag of Connacht prominently features blue as well.As the colours of
University College Dublin , the blue and yellow scheme is officially called "St Patrick's Blue andSaffron " and is featured prominently on the institution'scoat of arms . These are the original colours of theCatholic University of Ireland and date back to the inception of the College in the 1840s. The colours are used by varioussport s teams at the university such as the University College Dublin Rowing Club. For thefencing club at University College Dublin, the blue chosen as their St. Patrick's Blue is "Pantone 295", the same shade of blue as that is used on the pennant of thePresident of Ireland . [ [http://www.fencing.tcdlife.ie/constitution.php University College Dublin fencing Club] ]In the 1930s, the Army Comrades Association's Saint Patrick's Blue shirts earned it the nickname of
Blueshirts . It was a quasi-Fascistshirted movement which rejected green as associated with its republican opponents. [cite book |title=The Blueshirts and Irish politics |page=p.47 |first=Mike |last=Cronin |date=1997 |publisher=Four Courts Press |isbn=1-85182-312-3 |location=Dublin ] Thesaltire flag of the Blueshirts was a variant ofSaint Patrick's Flag with the white background replaced with a blue background.A group of
Sea Scouts associated with St. Patrick's Church inDalkey nearDublin Port describes their troopneckerchief as "red with a St. Patrick's Blue border." [ [http://www.dalkey.dublin.anglican.org/scouts.htm 3rd Port of Dublin (Dalkey) Sea Scouts] ]The
Irish Guards , an Irish regiment of theBritish Army , wear aplume of St. Patrick's Blue in theirbearskin s. The guards also wear a cap ornament depicting the eight-pointed star of theMost Illustrious Order of St Patrick . [ [http://www.irishguards.org.uk/pages/history/index.html The Irish Guards: A brief history of the regiment] ] Although the last surviving knight died in 1974, the order technically still exists. Knights of the order wore a bluemantle lined with whitesilk and a bluevelvet hat. Theriband s of the order were blue as well. [ [http://www.dublincastle.ie/history12.html Dublin Castle: The Illustrious Order of St Patrick] ] [cite book |last=Galloway |first= Peter |title=The most illustrious Order: The Order of St Patrick and its knights |year=1999 |publisher=Unicorn |location=London |id=ISBN 0-906290-23-6 ]t. Patrick's Day green
Green, the colour most widely associated with Ireland, with
Irish people , and withSt. Patrick's Day in modern times, may have gained its prominence through the phrase "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear ashamrock on one's clothing. At many times inIrish history , to do so was seen as a sign of Irishnationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain theHoly Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. [ [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0312_040312_stpatrick_2.html "St. Patrick's Day: Fact vs. Fiction"] (Bridget Haggerty, author of "The Traditional Irish Wedding" and the Web site "Irish Culture and Customs", speaks toNational Geographic News)] The change to Ireland's association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750s. [ [http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/spring00/news/v7n91-holiday.html Holiday has history] ]Other Irish blues
Other flags important to Irish history have also featured blue, rather than green, as the dominant colour. Some are thought to have relationship to the St. Patrick's Blue described here.
Among these flags are:
*TheFlag of Mide , one of theProvinces of Ireland when there were five rather than four of them, is a blue flag emblazoned with aking on a goldenthrone .
*The Starry Plough, a flag used by theIrish Citizen Army during theEaster Rising , had white stars on a blue background. This banner, and alternative versions of it, have also been used by theConnolly Youth Movement ,Labour Youth ,Ógra Shinn Féin and theRepublican Socialist Youth Movement .
*TheSunburst Flag , a flag associated withIrish nationalism , and more recently, youth wings ofIrish republican groups such asNa Fianna Éireann , is also blue and gold. The flag is first thought to have been used in1858 by theIrish Republican Brotherhood . The Sunburst Flag is still used by both republican groups and theIrish language groupConradh na Gaeilge .ee also
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Saint Patrick's Flag References
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