St. Patrick’s Day ended seven minutes ago (I’m up with a cold, ugh)…but it’s worth noting what the Irish tricolor means.
The green represents Catholic Ireland, the orange, Protestant Ireland, and the white is for peace between the factions.
I traditionally wear orange on this holiday because it’s historically accurate. My ancestors were forcibly resettled lowland Scots pushed into Ireland to break up Catholic power. After somewhere between 80–100 years, they came to America…missing out of much of the brutality between the Protestants and Catholics.
Here’s the deal. I wear orange, and sometime have conversations with Irish immigrants, or first generation born Irish, and they’re cool with it.
Halfway between England and Ireland sits the Isle of Man (the second flag below). Weird flag, right? The three legs symbolize the nation’s motto “wherever you throw me, there I stand,” which is a reference to the number of times the island has been invaded over the last 1200 years or so.
Settled by Celts, the Manx Gaelic language is pretty close to the Irish Gaelic next door. The island has been invaded repeatedly by Romans then Vikings throughout history, and often pledged allegiance to the Scottish King (during times when the Scots were free from England).
The Norwegian rulers finally gave up the island in 1244 to Scotland. Today, it’s a “British Dependency,” which basically means it’s a territory, similar to Puerto Rico or Guam for the U.S.
Believe it or not, I’ve had an Irish immigrant (who was pretty open about his sympathy for the IRA) call the “Manx B*stard Celts” as if it was their fault they had been invaded so many times. Pretty tough to fend off trans-continental empires like Rome, the Vikings and England when you’re entire nation is only 20 square miles.
Catholic and Protestant. Irish Celt and Manx Celt. People murdered their neighbors over those titles pretty recently…and yet here we are, all wearing green and tipping back our mugs as the dye runs down the Chicago river.
Makes me half believe that with enough time and forgiveness, Americans might be able to love and get along again.
“Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. Err scawh a ch(k)ale-ah a wir-enn na dee-neh.”
English Translations: In the shelter of each other, the people survive.
