Today marks 170 years since Irish tricolour was first flown publicly

Today marks 170 years since the Irish tricolour was first flown publicly. Thomas Francis Meagher raised what would later become the national flag at the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club at 33 The Mall in Waterford city in 1848. The flag was presented to Thomas Francis Meagher (August 3 1823 – July 1 1867) when in France by a group who were sympathetic to Irish aspirations for independence. He was a founder member of the Irish Confederation, an Irish nationalist independence movement formed in 1847.  

The national flag of Ireland (Irish: bratach na hÉireann) is a vertical tricolour of green white and orange. It has been regarded as the national flag since it was raised above the General Post Office in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising. This was the rising of Irish republicans against British rule and the flag has been used by nationalists in the whole of the island of Ireland since then. It was adopted in 1919 by the Irish Republic during its war of independence, then by the Irish Free State (1922 – 1937) and given constitutional status in 1937.