(My bolding) – the red saltire (“X” cross) for, nowadays, Northern Ireland, officially-heraldically symbolises St. Patrick (flag thereof on its own, red saltire on white ground). The Union Jack / Flag got its present form in 1801, when Ireland (the whole of it) was formally incorporated in the United Kingdom. When (early 1920s) Ireland was partitioned, and what is now the Irish Republic ceased to be part of the UK; the flag was kept as it had been, because of the six counties of Northern Ireland remaining in the UK.
One wonders whether N.I.'s extremely-zealous Protestant Unionists would be upset about their being represented in the flag, by the saltire of St. Patrick; but seemingly, that’s not a problem. Their kind of Protestantism is apt to regard the whole idea of saints in the sense of past heroes of the faith, known for sure now to be in heaven: as Catholic abominable / nonsensical stuff – so, one takes it, they revere the Union Flag on a secular level, and disregard its element concerning the chimeric St. Patrick.
As someone who grew up in a Republican/Nationalist part of Northern Ireland it was only ever referred to as “Green, White and Gold”.
In retrospect I suppose it was to avoid mentioning Orange and is related to the kind of silliness which currently has Nationalist/Republican communities flying the Palestinian flag and Unionist/Loyalist communities flying the Israeli flag.
Lots of reasons, not all of them make perfect sense except in reaction to each other. Traditional left vs. right politics and solidarity, as seen in other countries as well. Republicans’ perceived underdoggedness. Loyalists’ perceived being surrounded by “others.”
Sorry for the slow reply, I went to bed last night after posting that.
The Republican/Palestinian thing is mostly because of a historical linkage between the two ‘liberation struggles’, though the actual flying of Palestinian flags seems a fairly recent invention.
The Loyalists flying Israeli flags is pretty much just to do the opposite of the Republicans, although thelurkinghorror raises a point I hadn’t considered. Certain strains of Ulster Protestantism also trace a mythical connection to Israel through the lost tribes, believing one of them made their way to Ireland and settled there (not certain if they believe it was only Ulster or not).
Basically though if you asked the average flag waver they probably wouldn’t be able to point the Middle East out on a map.
On a side-note I remember reading an article once where an image of Israel and the Palestinian Territories were superimposed on a map of the UK, I was stuck by how small the region is, I hadn’t realised that before.
What I can find suggests that they Palestinian flag came first, and Israel was a reaction to it. The US has a particular strain of Protestantism, small but vocal, that has similar Biblical interpretations of Israel, which leads to support. It sometimes leads to strange bedfellows, like Johnny Adair types with Israel flags.
Yes the Palestinian flags definitely came first, I don’t know exactly when they first started to appear but it was certainly post-ceasefire. And you aren’t kidding.
