Madam, - Recent discussion of the origins of the national flag has centred on the fact that patriots including Thomas Francis Meagher had one made by rebellious French weavers in 1848 in imitation of the French tricolour. There may have been an earlier model.
According to a cabinet label in the museum at Corner Brook, Newfoundland, the traditional Newfoundland flag, not now much in use, was a tricolour of vertical green, white and pink stripes, the green being closest to the pole. The flag was designed by the Irish Catholic bishop of Newfoundland, Michael Anthony Fleming, vicar general of the diocese from 1829 to 1847 and bishop from 1847 to 1850.
There were many disputes about ownership of the huge piles of felled timber throughout the island and the Irish identified theirs with green banners and the English and Scottish theirs with pink ones. The bishop sought to symbolise the unity and peace which should exist between them, although the white may also have represented snow.
In 1844, he came home to Ireland and set about gaining support and ordering supplies for the large cathedral he intended to build at St John's. He based himself largely in Waterford, from where most of his flock had emigrated, and - though this is so far mere hypothesis - he may well have had dealings with the Catholic merchant who was mayor of Waterford and father of Thomas Francis Meagher.
The tricolour of Ireland is just as likely to have derived from after-dinner conversation in Waterford as from the barricades of France. And the nonsectarian intent of the Newfoundland tricolour would have been sure to recommend it to Meagher's friend and colleague, the nonconformist Mitchel of Newry. - Yours, etc,
GRÉAGÓIR Ó DÚILL,
Merton Drive,
Dublin 6.