h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thinking about the early nineteenth-century song 'The Wearing of the Green', especially the lines

Saint Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen
For there's a cruel law against the wearing of the green.

I wondered, when did green become St Patrick's colour? When I graduated as a Bachelor of Music from Trinity College (The University of Dublin), my hood was a delicate duck-egg blue which was officially called 'St Patrick's blue'. It is the colour worn by the choristers and various officials of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

Ireland had a national flag, as far back as the thirteenth century: the coat of arms of the king of Ireland, described as Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent--that is, a gold harp with silver strings on a blue background.

In heraldry azure is generally the colour of lapis lazuli, a rich deep blue. The flag of Ireland in the seventeenth century would have been a golden harp with a female figurehead facing left, with silver strings, on a background of deep blue. That deep blue is now associated in Ireland mostly with Guinness, though it is also the colour of the presidential flag, which has the gold harp without the female features. The image of the harp is taken from Metcalf's 1928 coinage design, still used on Irish euro coins. The iconic Guinness harp is facing left, but otherwise indistinguishable from the presidential/coinage harp; both are copied from the fifteenth-century harp in Trinity College, misleadingly called the Brian Boru harp.

When did pale blue begin to stand for St Patrick? It seems to have been when the Order of St. Patrick—an Anglo-Irish chivalric order—was founded in 1783. These were revolutionary times; Dublin still had its own Parliament, where nationalists such as Grattan and Flood swam against the tide of their mostly unionist peers (only landowners could become members of Parliament--in any country--then) who were about to sell Ireland into the United Kingdom (1801).

One group of nationalists, the United Irishmen, chose the colour green when they were founded in the 1790s. In 1798, inspired by the French Revolution, they led a doomed rebellion, which led to much blood being spilt in various parts of Ireland, and many stirring songs being composed. The leader of the rebellion, General napper Tandy, is commemorated in 'The Wearing of the Green':

I spoke with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand
And he said 'How's dear old Ireland and how does she stand?'
She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen
For they're hanging men and women for the wearing of the green.

Typo: that should say, the Guinness harp faces right.

I wouldn't regard this as authoritative
but the dates indicate you answered your own question.
The arms of Ireland are harp on blue
the green flag appeared in 1790's

http://flagspot.net/flags/ie-green.html
http://flagspot.net/flags/ie.html#pres

Thanks BB. I got most of my info from Wiki, which is generally reliable on historical and scientific matters. The nub of my question was exactly that, and it does seem aggressively close in time that St Patrick's Blue was chosen and then the song mentioned green as St Patrick's colour.

One thing that I copied and pasting without thinking was the description of the Order of St. Patrick as "an Anglo-Irish chivalric order". What did Anglo-Irish mean then? What does it mean now? I tried writing an Entry to answer that but it just started looking utterly intractable.

A3950679

Hmm I might be able to cobble together a little Entry from that sketch and this journal entry. What else should go in? Something about Johnny Cash's song 'Forty Shades of Green"?

http://ukeireland.com/pdf-chords/40-shades.pdf

Sorry I don't seem to be able to open your article.

Have you read the Wiki Entry?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_St._Patrick

Other than that I can't really be much help.

The oldest version of the harp on a green background appears to be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Leinster

And that article refers back to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_Ireland
so 1642 appears to be its earliest use applying to the whole of Ireland.

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-national-colour-blue-828597-Mar2013/

Curious article, G. Misses a few points: yes, Henry VIII chose the golden harp on a blue background when he reinstated the Kingdom of Ireland in 1541, but according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Ireland this cognizance dates back to the Norman period (13th century).

But if it is right about George III founding the Order of St Patrick, then that is good reason I suppose to call it Anglo-Irish.

Last weekend I visited my son in Madrid. His wife is a Madrilena but has excellent English. While staying with them I had a look in her copy of Robert Kee's excellent History of Ireland, and learned a good few things that had passed me by in school history.

As Bob Geldof said, history is a catalogue of disasters.

One disaster was the Penal Laws, brought in after the accession of William III (1690s). Designed to stamp out Catholicism in Ireland, they had the effect of strengthening, or as they say now, copperfastening it.

A lesson unheeded in the current "War On Terror".

Well I knew about the Penal laws, but what I didn't know was that they did not forbid the practice of Catholic worship. It's just that all the church buildings now belonged to the established Anglican church, so Mass had to be said in makeshift settings. Again, Catholic priests were not banished, only bishops and the religious orders (friars and nuns).

There were many other swingeing conditions laid on those who remained Catholic, and the Penal Laws were clearly a disaster for the hundred-plus years they remained on the statute books.

But it surprised me to see wall posters in a primary school last week, stating that the Mass *was* banned and all priests *were* banished under the Penal Laws. Get it right, or else you are furthering the disaster.