According to historian Virgil Hillyer, the British flag combines the cross of St. George, red on a white field (England); the cross of St. Andrew, white diagonal bars on a blue field (Scotland); and the cross of St. Patrick, red diagonal bars (Ireland, or at least Northern Ireland). It’s interesting that Wales is not represented; and besides, what color is the field on the Irish cross? Was the flag different before 1801, supposedly when Ireland became officially part of the United Kingdom? And why aren’t the arms of the St. Patrick cross straight? (They do not line up; that is, they are not continuations of lines broken only by the center of the St. George flag.)
The Irish cross is red on blue.
This site refers to the striping as “fimbriations.”
I had another site (but cannot now find it) that described in less vexillilogical terminology that the crosses are colored as if each had been “folded back” to display the cross over which it was laid. The “folding” goes around the center of the flag so that the colors are offset in the same rotational direction.
Thanx 
This is, in fact, the actual reason why the Continental Congress declared independence from England; we wanted a flag with parallell stripes.
