Does it really matter?

Do you have them kicking 6 FGs or have ND getting two safeties? 18 isn’t an easy score to come by.

-1798 rising. Catholics and Protestants join together under the common “United Ireland” movement to break the connection with England. These revolutionaries throughout the 1790’s hoisted the famous “green flag” with the gold harp and “maid of Erin”, with the words “Erin go Bragh”, “Ireland forever”. When famed Father Murphy and his rebels took their last stand against British forces at Vinegar Hill, it was under a green flag with the words, “Liberty or Death”. He was subsequently mutilated and beheaded, with his head impaled on a spike in Tullow village.

– late 1800s- During the United Irishmen period, the British view green as a seditious emblem, and actually execute persons for wearing or hoisting green. This gives rise to the famous “Wearing of the Green” ballad. “ She’s the most distressful country that you have ever seen, for their hanging men and women for the wearing of the green” and so on.

– 1803- Protestant leader, “Bold” Robert Emmet , and Irish rebels hoist the green flag over Dublin town in another tragic rising against British rule. Emmet was beheaded and his comrades either executed or sent to Australia as slaves, but his immortal words on the dock, “When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my epitaph be written” still stir the hears of the patriotic and poetically-inclined worldwide.

-1800s-Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Daniel O’Connell and his Repel movement hoist the Green flag against the hated union with Britain.

-1840s- the revolutionary Young Ireland movement hoists the green flag, but creates the famed Tricolour flag of green, white, and orange, symbolizing the brotherhood of Ireland’s Catholics and Protestants. 1848: the Young Ireland rebels stage a rebellion during the starvation.

-1860s American Civil War- the Irish regiments fight for their newly adopted nation, in part it has been recorded, to gain military training for eventual battle against the British in Ireland. Fr. Corby raised his hand in blessing and general absolution at Gettysburg. The Irish soldiers fought under their own green flag, and Fr. Corby’s statue is featured on Notre Dame’s campus.

-1860s-1880s: the revolutionary Fenians explode on the scene, giving hope to the Irish nation decimated by British-enforced starvation and exile. In a failed yet symbolic uprising in 1867, the Fenians unfurl the green flag with harp, and various other green flags, including one with 32 gold stars symbolizing Ireland’s 32 counties, plus another green flag with “God and Country, Remember Robert Emmet”.

-1866-1871, the Fenian Raids on British Canada- Ex-Civil War soldiers from north and south, accompanied actually by some Native Americans, initiate a series of raids on British-held Canada, in an effort to negotiate British transportation lines for Ireland’s sovereignty. Although the raids are viewed mostly as a footnote in American history, the raids of thousands of Irish troops on British-Canada caused great alarm in Canada. The Fenians of course hoisted the green flag, but also another custom green flag for the event. This flag flown at the Battle of Ridgeway had a gold harp and letters “IRA” (Irish Republican Army) emblazoned. The raids fail, but add to the powerfully symbolic Fenian tradition in Ireland that continued into the 20th century.

-1906- Interesting but little known event, Irish long jump champion in Athens, Peter O’Connor, objects to hoisting the Union Jack, and instead hoists the green flap with gold harp, made by supporters for the occasion. Maybe this is the first time Irish-related athletics employ the green on a world stage!

-1916- The Protestant aristocrat-turned Irish rebel, Countess Markievicz, works diligently in her home preparing the famous green flag with emblazoned gold letters, “Irish Republic”, for the Easter Rising in Dublin. She uses a mixture of gold paint and mustard for the gold-lettering!

James Connolly, 1916, in reference to Ireland’s green, in an article in the Worker’s Republic on April 8th, just weeks before he helped lead the insurrection and before his subsequent execution:
“ For centuries the green flag of Ireland was a thing accursed and hated by the English garrison in Ireland, as it is still in their inmost hearts…the green flag of Ireland will be solemnly hoisted over Liberty Hall as a symbol of our faith in freedom, and as a token to all the world that the working class of Dublin stands for the cause of Ireland, and the cause of Ireland is the cause of a separate and distinct nationality. “

-1920’s-late 60’s- We’ve skipped a lot of important history, but it is important to note that for decades in the British Northern Ireland state, the Irish tricolor flag was banned, the hoisting of which was regarded as an offence against the state. The Irish nationalist villages and enclaves continued to fly the “green flag” in defiance, and still continue to this day.

In sum, when the Fighting Irish take the field tonight under the lights a robed in Irish green, let’s remember the powerful significance of that battle emblem and hope the lads compete in worthy fashion!
(special thanks to flagspot.net and crwflags.com)

Seán Rielley, Kansas City