Flag of Ireland

Facts about the Flag of Ireland

1. The tricolour was presented to Thomas Francis Meagher in 1848 as a gift from French sympathisers, and its meaning is explicitly reconciliation: green for the nationalist tradition, orange for the unionist, white for peace between them.
2. The order matters. Flying it with orange at the hoist reverses the intended meaning and is treated as an error rather than a variant.
3. The similarity to Côte d'Ivoire's flag is coincidental; the two were adopted more than a century apart and for unrelated reasons.
4. The flag of Ireland was officially adopted on December 29, 1937.
5. The design is older than its adoption. It was already in use in 1848, 89 years before it was formally made the flag of Ireland.
6. The flag in its present form is 89 years old as of 2026.
7. Design type: Vertical tricolour.
8. The flag is known as The Irish Tricolour, a name used far more often than the formal "flag of Ireland".
9. The official proportions are 1:2. It shares that ratio with 54 national flags.
10. The flag uses 3 colours: green, white and orange.
11. The green on the flag stands for the Gaelic and Catholic tradition.
12. The white on the flag stands for the lasting truce between the two.
13. The orange on the flag stands for the Protestant and Williamite tradition.
14. White band: Peace between the two communities — the flag was presented in 1848 as a gesture of reconciliation.
15. The design belongs to the "Vertical tricolour" family, shared with 27 other flags in this reference.
16. Flags most often confused with it: Côte d\\\'Ivoire, Italy and Mexico.
17. Ireland became independent on 6 December 1922 from the United Kingdom.
18. The Irish Free State was established in 1922 and the state was declared a republic in 1949.