Madam, – Padraig Og O Ruairc (March 21st) complains about the lack of respect shown to the Irish flag by supporters of Enda Kenny in Castlebar recently. It seems to me that the defacement of the flag on that occasion is only one example of such lack of respect.
I refer to the common misrepresentation of the flag’s colours. Ever since I was a child I have heard people casually refer to the colours as being “green white and gold”. It is astonishing to me that even now I hear many people make this mistake. On St Patrick’s Day I heard a commentator on RTÉ radio marvelling about all the “green white and gold” she saw in evidence on the streets.
Article 7 of the Constitution makes clear: “The national flag is the tricolour of green, white and orange”. Green represents nationalism, orange represents unionism and white represents peace between the two traditions. For the life of me I can’t see how orange and gold can be confused.
Clearly some people in the past sought to misrepresent the flag for historical and sectarian reasons. At this stage in our history there is no excuse for such mistakes to be so casually made. If we genuinely as a nation have a problems with the colours, then let’s have a debate about it and discuss whether we want to introduce a different flag (which would require a referendum). Until then, however, the continuous misrepresentation is a disrespect to the national flag (and an insult to the unionist community). – Yours, etc,