St. Patrick's Blue

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Blue, rather than green, was the colour most associated with St. Patrick in the past.

St. Patrick's Blue^[1] refers to a blue, often but not always dark blue, associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Although often depicted in green chasuble and episcopal mitre today, before the 20th century the saint was more often shown wearing blue garments.^[2]^[3] This same blue can be seen on ancient Irish flags and in some modern contexts associated with Ireland.

1 Modern use
2 St. Patrick's Day green
3 Other Irish blues
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Modern use

The Irish Presidential Standard, a flag used by President of Ireland since 1945, officially shows a golden Clàrsach (Gaelic harp) with silver strings on a background of St. Patrick's Blue.

St. Patrick's Blue is officially the colour which appears on the Irish Presidential Standard (i.e. the flag of the President of Ireland) and the Coat of arms of Ireland. It also appears in the part of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom representing Northern Ireland.

This blue and gold colour scheme is said to represent "the Ancient Colours of Ireland"^[4] and are the colours also found on the coat of arms of "the Ancient City of Dublin" and the Flag of Munster (which evolved from the coat of arms of the Lordship of Ireland). The Flag of Connacht prominently features blue as well.

As the colours of University College Dublin, the blue and yellow scheme is officially called "St Patrick's Blue and Saffron" and is featured prominently on the institution's coat of arms. These are the original colours of the Catholic University of Ireland and date back to the inception of the College in the 1840s. The colours are used by various sports teams at the university such as the University College Dublin Rowing Club.^[4] For the fencing club at University College Dublin, the blue chosen as their St. Patrick's Blue is "Pantone 295", the same shade of blue as that is used on the pennant of the President of Ireland.^[5]

Badge of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick. The statutes of the Order prescribed a sky blue riband; the exact shade of blue used varied over time.

In the 1930s, the Army Comrades Association's Saint Patrick's Blue shirts earned it the nickname of Blueshirts. It was a quasi-Fascist shirted movement which rejected green as associated with its republican opponents.^[6] The saltire flag of the Blueshirts was a variant of Saint Patrick's Flag with the white background replaced with a blue background.

A group of Sea Scouts associated with St. Patrick's Church in Dalkey near Dublin Port describes their troop neckerchief as "red with a St. Patrick's Blue border."^[7]

The Irish Guards, an Irish regiment of the British Army, wear a plume of St. Patrick's Blue in their bearskins. The guards also wear a cap ornament depicting the eight-pointed star of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick.^[8] Although the last surviving knight died in 1974, the order technically still exists. Knights of the order wore a blue mantle lined with white silk and a blue velvet hat. The ribands of the order were blue as well.^[9]^[10]

[edit] St. Patrick's Day green

Green, the colour most widely associated with Ireland, with Irish people, and with St. Patrick's Day in modern times, may have gained its prominence through the phrase "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing. At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish.^[11] The change to Ireland's association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750s.^[12]

[edit] Other Irish blues

Other flags important to Irish history have also featured blue, rather than green, as the dominant colour. Some are thought to have relationship to the St. Patrick's Blue described here.^[3]^[2]

Among these flags are:

The Flag of Mide, one of the Provinces of Ireland when there were five rather than four of them, is a blue flag emblazoned with a king on a golden throne.
The Starry Plough, a flag used by the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising, had white stars on a blue background. This banner, and alternative versions of it, have also been used by the Connolly Youth Movement, Labour Youth, Ógra Shinn Féin and the Republican Socialist Youth Movement.
The Sunburst Flag, a flag associated with Irish nationalism, and more recently, youth wings of Irish republican groups such as Na Fianna Éireann, is also blue and gold. The flag is first thought to have been used in 1858 by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The Sunburst Flag is still used by both republican groups and the Irish language group Conradh na Gaeilge.