A united Ireland is around the corner. Donald Trump indicated this last month at Doonbeg, so it has to be. If he-who-must-be-obeyed says there’s going to be a united Ireland, there’s going to be a united Ireland. Right?
He may even insist it bear his name. Trumpland? It could hardly be called Greenland, there already being that white and cool land he has conquered. Would he insist his united Ireland be called Orangeland, to match his hair? Anything is possible.
Seizing on what he said in Doonbeg, some choose to believe a united Ireland is already upon us. It could happen even before artificial intelligence destroys us, they insist – within a decade, or a little later, depending on which doomsday merchant you talk to.
Believing there could be a united Ireland before the end of the world is not so far-fetched any more.
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Would-be emperor Trump might even favour retaining the Tricolour as the flag of his united Ireland. The Orange bit would probably attract.
It might help that the actual bicentenary of the flag will be in 2030, when (sadly?) the US will have a new president, Trump-allowing.
Thomas Francie Meagher is credited with flying the first Tricolour at Waterford in 1848. However, fellow Waterford man, historian John Crotty, says the first Irish Tricolour emerged in 1830, a year after Catholic Emancipation was achieved by Daniel O’Connell in 1829.
In March 1830, at the start of his Repeal movement [for a parliament in Dublin], O’Connell called for: “Orange and green to blend their colours henceforth, and let the general object be to render their country that place of plenty and happiness which God and nature intended.”
A rosette with both colours was soon being worn at Repeal meetings. In September 1830, Dublin woman Emelia Hamilton created the first Irish Tricolour of green, white, and orange inspired by the words of O’Connell and the French tricolour.
It was launched at an event in Dublin that December to mark O’Connell taking his seat at Westminster.
However, because of the Tricolour’s strong association with republican violence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, it is unlikely to be accepted as the flag of a united Ireland, whenever that happens.
Tricolour, from French drapeau tricolore (flag of three colours), was first adopted by France (blue, white, and red) in 1794.
