Flags of Ireland: the tricolour, the President’s flag and the harp

Ireland has one national flag and a small number of other official flags and emblems. The tricolour is defined in the Constitution; the harp is the emblem of the State and appears on the flag of the President; the EU flag flies beside the tricolour on many public buildings. Around them are the flags with no official status that fill Irish flagpoles on match days: county, provincial and club flags.

The National Flag

Article 7 of Bunreacht na hÉireann states that the national flag is the tricolour of green, white and orange. According to the guidelines of the Department of the Taoiseach, it is rectangular, with a width twice its depth, and the three colours are of equal size and vertically disposed, with the green next to the staff. The flag may be made to any convenient size as long as the proportions are observed. The colours are given as Pantone 347 for the green and Pantone 151 for the orange.

The flag was adopted by the Irish Free State in 1922 and formally confirmed as the National Flag in 1937. Its meaning is described in the guide to the Irish flag and its meaning.

The flag of the President

The State coat of arms is a gold harp with silver strings on an azure field. According to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, it is adapted in flag form as the Presidential Standard, flown at the President’s residence, Áras an Uachtaráin in the Phoenix Park. The Department of the Taoiseach describes the harp as engraved on the President’s seal of office and appearing on the flag of the President.

The harp on the standard, like the State harp generally, is modelled on the fourteenth-century Brian Boru harp, preserved in the Museum of Trinity College Dublin.

The harp and the shamrock

The official State emblems of Ireland are the harp and the shamrock. The National Flag, by contrast, is not a State emblem, but is protected under the Constitution.

Ireland notified its State emblems to the World Intellectual Property Organisation under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention in 1985. Under the Trade Marks Act 1996, a trade mark containing a State emblem cannot be registered without the Minister’s consent, and a person or company that wants to use a State emblem in connection with any business first obtains consent from the Minister. The Department considers each request case by case.

The European Union flag

The flag of the European Union, a circle of twelve gold stars on blue, often flies next to the tricolour on public buildings. It is not a national flag, and according to the guidelines it flies immediately to the right of the National Flag as seen by an observer. More in the guide to flag protocol.

Historic flags

The guidelines describe several older flags:

• The green flag with the harp, an older symbol of Irish nationalists going back at least to Confederate Ireland and Owen Roe O’Neill in the 1640s, used by the Irish Volunteers in the 1780s and the United Irishmen in 1798. Even on the eve of the Rising in 1916, it held undisputed sway.
• The “Irish Republic” flag, a large green flag inscribed with those words, flown over the General Post Office with the tricolour in 1916.
• The Citizen Army flag, with a stylised plough and the constellation Ursa Major on a green field bordered by a gilt fringe, flown on the Imperial Hotel on O’Connell Street during the Rising.

County, provincial and club flags

The flags seen most often on Irish flagpoles after the tricolour are county, provincial and sporting flags. An Irish flagpole supplier lists county, rugby and provincial flags among its stock. These flags have no official status: neither the Constitution nor the guidelines mention them. When they fly together with the tricolour, the basic protocol rules apply, with the National Flag in the place of honour and nothing flown above it.

Flag sizes

The tricolour, the EU flag and most club flags are made in standard sizes. How big a flag suits a given flagpole is covered in the guide to flag sizes.