IRELAND, FLAG OF

vertically striped green-white-orange national flag. Its width-to-length ratio is 1 to 2. A number of official and unofficial flags over the centuries have been flown in Ireland. One of the earliest, in use in the late 15th century, was blue with a gold harp; today it is the presidential standard of Ireland. In the 17th century the Cross of St. Patricklater incorporated into the British Union Jackwas widely employed. White with a red diagonal cross, it was associated both with the family arms of the Fitzgeralds and with the Spanish Cross of Burgundy (a red diagonal cross used in Spain since the 8th century). In the mid-17th century a green flag with a golden harp, attributed to the province of Leinster, came to be recognized as the flag of Ireland even though the island was under English rule. This was one of the flags flown during the 1916 Easter Rising, which led to the establishment six years later of the Irish Free State. In the 19th century various tricolour flags and ribbons came to be symbolic of Irish nationalism. Many of them included the colours green (for the Roman Catholics), orange (for the Protestants), and white (for peace between them). The first known vertical tricolour flag of orange-white-green dated from March 1848, but it was not until 1917 that it gained widespread popularity. The tricolour in its modern form (green-white-orange) was recognized by the constitution on December 29, 1937, and was not altered when the Republic of Ireland ended its participation in the British Commonwealth on April 18, 1949. It is often incorrectly asserted that the third stripe is yellow or gold rather than orange. Whitney Smith History Ireland, lying to the west of Britain, has always been to some extent cut off by it from direct contact with other European countries, especially those from Sweden to the Rhine River. Readier access has been through France, Spain, and Portugal and even Norway and Iceland. Internally, the four ecclesiastical provinces into which Ireland was divided in the 12th century realistically denoted the main natural divisions of the country. Of these, the north had in the earliest times been culturally connected with Scotland, the east with Roman Britain and Wales, the south with Wales and France, and the southwest and west with France and Spain. In later times, despite political changes, these associations continued in greater or lesser degree. The position of Ireland, geographically peripheral to western Europe, became central and thus potentially more important once Europe's horizons expanded in the 15th and 16th centuries to include the New World. But paradoxically it was in the earlier period that Ireland won especial fame as a notable and respected centre of Christianity, scholarship, and the arts. After the Middle Ages, subjugation to Britain stultifiedor the struggle for freedom absorbedmuch of Ireland's native energy. But its influence was always exercised as much through its emigrants as in its achievements as a nation. During the centuries of British occupation the successors of the great missionaries and scholars who had fostered Christianity and learning among the Germanic peoples of the Continent from the 7th to 9th century were those who formed a considerable element in the armies and clergy of Roman Catholic countries and had an incalculable influence on the later development of the United States. In British history innumerable great men of Anglo-Irish origin or nurture have, as statesmen or soldiers, played vital parts; the influence of Ireland itself on Britain has been constant and profound. Early Ireland The human occupation of Ireland did not begin until a late stage in the prehistory of Europe. It has generally been held that the first arrivals were Mesolithic hunter-fisher people, represented largely by flintwork found mainly in ancient beaches in the historic counties of Antrim, Down, Louth, and Dublin. These artifacts have been named Larnian for the type site at Larne, Northern Ireland; dates from 6000 BC onward have been assigned to them. Archaeological work since World War II, however, casts considerable doubt on the antiquity and affinities of the people who were responsible for the Larnian industry; association with Neolithic remains suggests that they should be considered not as a Mesolithic people but rather as groups contemporary with the Neolithic farmers. The Larnian could then be interpreted as a specialized aspect of contemporary Neolithic culture. Lake and riverside finds, especially along the River Bann, show a comparable tradition. A single carbon-14 date of 5725 110 BC from Toome Bay, north of Lough Neagh, for woodworking and flint has been cited in support of a Mesolithic phase in Ireland, but such a single date cannot be considered reliable. History Modern Ireland under British rule The 17th century James I (160325) The English plantation of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries. James VI of Scotland, who also became King James I of England and Ireland in 1603, might have pursued an Irish policy more enlightened than that of Elizabeth, who had been committed to war against the papacy and against Spain. He did make peace with Spain, but his policy of guarded religious toleration was nullified by the intransigence of the established Anglican church and of the papacy. Unfortunately, James allowed Irish policy to be dominated by the interests of the English governing class and also sought to provide in Ireland opportunities for his countrymen. He thereby virtually continued Elizabethan policy, and as a result the steady exodus of Irish soldiers and churchmen to Roman Catholic countries on the Continent was unabated. On a short-term basis, their absence contributed to peace; but their influence abroad made the Irish question an international one. In Ireland the overwhelming majority of the Gaelic Irish and of the old Anglo-Irish remained detached from government in attitude as well as in way of life. As soon as James's policy became clear, the earls of Tyrone and of Tyrconnel and other Ulster Gaelic lords joined the flight from Ireland. Their departure opened the way for the plantation of Ulster by a new landowning class, which included Scots as well as Englishmen. This proved the most successful British settlement made in Ireland, mainly because British tenantry and labourers were introduced as well as landlords. The newcomers were mainly from the Scottish Lowlands, and at first the English feared them almost more than they feared the Irish. In an attempt to counter their influence, the city of London was involved in the Ulster plantation, its name being combined with that of the historic ecclesiastical settlement of Derry to provide the name of a plantation. The Presbyterianism of the Scottish immigrants was successfully kept at bay until the time of the English Civil Wars; the Anglican bishoprics in Ireland were well endowed and powerful, and it was not until 1643 that the first presbytery was established in Belfast. In the Parliament of 161315, summoned to ratify the Ulster plantation, a small Protestant majority was achieved because many new boroughs had been created in the newly planted areas. But government was concerned more with the appearance than the reality of consent, and no Parliament was called again until 1633. In the last years of James's reign, pressure from his Spanish and French allies caused him to concede toleration to the Roman Catholics; and from 1618 a Catholic hierarchy was in residence in Ireland. Charles I (162549) and the Commonwealth (164960) Charles I conceived the idea of raising armies and money in Ireland in return for religious concessions, known as the Graces, by which Roman Catholics were allowed to engage in various public activities. But this policy was abandoned by Thomas Wentworth, later earl of Strafford, lord deputy from 1633 to 1640. He set himself to break the power of the great and of trade monopolists, both Irish and English, including the London city companies. He induced the Catholic members of the Irish House of Commons to join in voting large subsidies in the hope of obtaining further concessions but then abolished most of the existing Graces. He thus seriously weakened the loyalty to the crown of the old landowning classes; and later all his enemies in Ireland joined with those in England in bringing about his execution (1641). His Irish Army was disbanded, and control of the Irish government passed to Puritan lords justices. A general rising of the Irish in Ulster was almost inevitable. It took place in October 1641, and thousands of colonists were murdered or fled. A Roman Catholic confederacy was formed at Kilkenny in 1642, but it did not succeed in welding together the various groups of which it was composed. During the period of the English Civil Wars there were Irish confederate armies in Ulster and in Leinster; English parliamentary armies operated in the north and south; and Dublin was held by James, duke of Ormonde, commanding an army of Protestant royalists. Negotiations for peace between Ormonde and the confederates were difficult and protracted; and in 1646, when it was clear that Charles I's cause was lost, Ormonde surrendered Dublin to a parliamentary commander. The confederates in isolation could offer little resistance (164950) to Oliver Cromwell. By 1652 all Irish resistance was over. During the Commonwealth and Protectorate, authority in Ireland was exercised by parliamentary commissioners and chief governors. A union of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, effected in 1653, resulted in Irish representatives attending Parliaments held in London in 1654, 1656, and 1659. By an Act of Settlement, Ireland, regarded as conquered territory, was parceled out among soldiers and creditors of the Commonwealth, and only those Irish landowners able to prove their constant support of the Parliamentary cause escaped having their estates confiscated. Of these, those who were Roman Catholics were still obliged to exchange land owned to the northeast or south of the River Shannon for land in Connaught. Catholics and Anglicans were forbidden to practice their religion, but the campaign against Irish Catholicism was not successful. After the Restoration (1660) Charles II personally favoured complete religious toleration, but the forces of militant Protestantism sometimes proved too strong for him. The Commonwealth parliamentary union was, after 1660, treated as null and void. History Independent Ireland to 1959 Establishment of the Irish Free State The Anglo-Irish Treaty provided that Ireland should in future have the same constitutional status in the community of Nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa with a parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Ireland and an Executive responsible to that parliament. The new dominion was to be known as the Irish Free State. This peace agreement, ratified by the British Parliament, became operative when it had also been passed (January 1922) by a meeting of the Dil. The new state comprised only 26 of the 32 counties; the northeastern area, known as Northern Ireland, remained part of the United Kingdom. But the terms of the treaty had been accepted by the Irish signatories only because Lloyd George had threatened war on Ireland if they were rejected. Particularly obnoxious were a prescribed oath of allegiance to the British crown and the provisions allowing Northern Ireland to remain outside the new state. De Valera and the Republicans immediately repudiated the treaty, and, after its passage in the Dil, de Valera resigned the presidency. Michael Collins, chairman of the provisional government set up according to the terms of the treaty, and Arthur Griffith, the new president of the Dil, desired an immediate general election to obtain a verdict on the treaty; in the deteriorating conditions Collins eventually made with de Valera an agreement known as the Pact (May 20, 1922), in which it was settled that government and Republican candidates would not oppose each other and that de Valera would consider resuming office. But the Pact naturally could not bind other parties, and at the election (June 16) Republicans were ousted in favour of members of a labour party and a farmers' party and by independents, thus reducing the antitreaty vote to a small minority. Before the Dil could meet, civil war had broken out between the government and the extremist Republicans, who were allegedly accessories to the assassination (June 22) in London of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson soon after his acceptance of the position of military adviser to the government of Northern Ireland. The Republicans in Dublin had occupied the Four Courts (central courts of justice) in April and in late June. Under pressure from Britain, which also provided military equipment, Collins ordered them to retire. Serious fighting ensued for a week, until the Courts were blown up, and Rory O'Connor, the Dublin Republican leader, surrendered. Meanwhile, de Valera, who had escaped to the southwest, was openly supporting the Republicans. Griffith and Collins decided that no further compromise was possible, and military operations were begun. The strain had weighed so heavily on Griffith that he died suddenly on August 12, and Collins, inspecting the military operations, was killed in an ambush on August 22. The government had thus lost two of its most prominent leaders, and surviving ministers could not appear openly without armed protection. Moreover, there was urgency in that, by the terms of the treaty, the newly elected Dil was required to frame its constitution before Dec. 6, 1922. It met on September 9, elected as the new president William Thomas Cosgrave, and, in the absence of the Republican deputies, quickly passed the clauses of the constitution defining the relations of the Free State with the British crown and outlining arrangements for imperial defense. Timothy Michael Healy, a veteran follower of Parnell who had later supported Sinn Fin, was then appointed governor-general, and Cosgrave became president of the executive council. The new constitution was also ratified at Westminster. The Cosgrave ministries Both before and after the ratification of the constitution, the government resorted to strong measures to quell disorder and violence. Its decision to execute those found in unauthorized possession of firearms embittered Irish politics for years afterward. Numerous Republican insurgents were also imprisoned, and 77 were executed. Although Republican opposition was at first more bitter than ever, it eventually became less well organized, and by May 1923, on de Valera's recommendation, armed resistance ended. At the end of August 1923 the fourth Dil was elected, on a basis of adult suffrage for men and women. De Valera retained his personal following, and his party won 44 seats out of 128. Cosgrave's party won less than half the total number of seats, but, as the Republicans refused to sit in the new Dil, he had a majority among those who did attend. The absence of any effective opposition party greatly strengthened the power of the new government, and in the following years it displayed great energy. Despite initial economic difficulties, it pursued an efficient farming policy and carried through important hydroelectric projects. Government was increasingly centralized, with the elimination of various corrupt borough corporations; Kevin O'Higgins, as minister for justice, carried through many judicial reforms, and an efficient civil service was organized. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 had provided that, if Northern Ireland did not enter the Free State, a boundary commission must establish the frontier between the two countries. Two of the six excluded counties, Tyrone and Fermanagh, contained clear, though small, Nationalist majorities, and the southern portions of both Down and Armagh had for years returned Nationalist members. Despite Northern Ireland's reluctance, the Boundary Commission was established and sat in secret session during 1925. But it only recommended minor changes, which all three governments rejected as less satisfactory than maintaining the status quo. In the general election of June 1927, Cosgrave's support in the Dil was further reduced, but he nevertheless formed a new ministry, in which O'Higgins became vice president of the Executive Council. O'Higgins' assassination on July 10 suddenly revived old feuds, and Cosgrave passed a Public Safety Act, declaring all revolutionary societies treasonable. He forced the Republicans to acknowledge allegiance to the crown before being seated in the Dil, though de Valera decried the oath as an empty political formula. Shortly thereafter the Republicans, allied with the Labour Party and the National League, almost defeated Cosgrave, who thereupon dissolved the Dil. In new elections, Cosgrave won 61 seats as compared with Fianna Fil's 57 and again formed a ministry. In the economic depression of the early 1930s, unemployment and general discontent with the government led to its defeat in February 1932. Fianna Fil won enough seats for de Valera, with Labour Party support, to be able to form a new government.