Madam, – Sean Redmond (June 10th) is correct to point out that the symbolism behind the white band in the Irish Tricolour is a matter of historical record, as Thomas Francis Meagher explained that “the white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the orange and the green” when he first introduced the flag.
This makes it all the more bizarre that Mr Redmond should go on to contradict Meagher on this point later in his letter.
His claim that the white part of the flag “did not represent peace, but revolutionary Jacobinism, as in France” appears to be completely without foundation, not to mention at odds with Meagher’s perfectly clear explanation of what it actually did represent.
The Irish Tricolour as a whole was certainly intended to pay homage to the French revolution, and Meagher was undoubtedly a revolutionary. However, the specific colours chosen for the Tricolour had nothing to do with the French version; indeed the colours of the French version had no particular political significance in the first place.
Meagher hoped that a “heroic brotherhood” between Irish Catholics and Protestants would lead to a new free and independent Ireland, and as such he recognised this concept could escalate the conflict with Britain.
However, that does not change the fact that he intended the flag to represent peace between the two main traditions in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
PAT DIGNAM,
Marcus Beach,
Queensland,
Australia.