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Early Irish Republic flags

A series of photographs of flags in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, redrawn by Jaume Ollé:

Irish Republic flag
Erin Go Bra flag
Green Harp Flag
Carpet Weavers Flag
Davis Club flag
De Valera Flag
Fenian flags
Repeal flag
Famine Flag
Joseph Holt's Flag
Maid of Erin flag
Meagher's flag
Mitchell's flag
Father Murphy's flag

See also:

Irish Republic flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

A green flag with the words Irish Republic on it. This image is of the 1916 flag based on my photo taken at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, of the flag flown from the GPO during the Easter rising 1916.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 2 November 2005

Erin Go Bra flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

A flag flown by insurgents during the 1798 rebellion at an engagement near Kilcullen, County Kildare. The "IU" may stand for "Ireland United" (The United Irishmen were part of the revolutionary movement). The lower inscription is ERIN GO BRA (Ireland for ever - in poor Irish. The usual spelling for the last word on flags of the period is BRAGH) (Hayes-McCoy 1979).
Laurence Jones, 27 December 2005

Green Harp Flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

The green harp flag believed widely flown during the 1798 rebellion (Hayes-McCoy 1979).
Laurence Jones, 27 December 2005

Carpet Weavers Flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

The banner of the carpet weavers guild, 1840s.
Laurence Jones, 28 December 2005

Davis Club Flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

Flag of the Davis club, London 1848. Named after Thomas Davis (1814-45), the club was part of the "Young Ireland" movement.
Laurence Jones, 28 December 2005

De Valera Flag

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

Banner (sic) of Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, Sinn Fein Club 1917 (Hayes-McCoy 1979).

De Valera was a commander in the Easter rising of 1916 but escaped execution as there was uncertainty over his American citizenship. He went on to be leader of anti-treaty Sinn Fein, prime minister (under 2 different titles) and President of Ireland.
Laurence Jones, 28 December 2005

Fenian flags

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

From the 1860's, based on the US flag, the 32 stars are supposed to correspond to the 32 counties of Ireland, as featured in the trial of Michael Moore, arrested in 1865.
Laurence Jones, 31 December 2005

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

Flag carried by insurgents raising a barracks at Stepaside, Co. Dublin 1867.
Laurence Jones, 31 December 2005

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

Flag captured by British forces at Tallaght, Co. Dublin 1867.
Laurence Jones, 31 December 2005

image by Jaume Ollé after a photo by Nozomi Kariyasu, 5 May 2005

Fenian flag flown Battle of Ridgeway, Canada 1866.
Laurence Jones, 31 December 2005

The book called "The Voyage of the Catalpa" (written by Peter Stevens and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson of London, 2002) is an historical account of six Irish Fenian rebels who were sentenced to penal servitude for life in a prison in Fremantle, Australia in 1866, and whence they escaped by meansof the Catalpa - a three masted whaling bark from New Bedford - in 1876. On the back cover of the book are two crossed flags on pikes. The left hand flag (from the observers point of view) is a standard green harp flag with the words 'GOD AND OUR COUNTRY' above the yellow harp and there below, the words 'REMEMBER EMMET', all in yellow also. This is shown by Hayes-McCoy to have been a flag used during the Fenian Uprising.

The interesting flag is the one on the right. This is a green and yellow Stars and Stripes with 32 yellow stars (eight five pointed stars per row in four equal rows) on a green canton, and eight white and green stripes starting with white at the top. I could not find it in Hayes-McCoy's 'History of Irish Flags from Earliest Times'. He does show a green flag with the same number and arrangement of stars covering the whole flag (iow, no stripes), but with eight-pointed stars, which was also a Fenian flag during the uprising. It is known that a large number of Irishmen who fought on both sides during the American Civil War, went to Ireland after Appomatox to lend their support to the planned uprising. The natural assumption is therefore that this might have been a flag used by the American Irish contingent, missed by Hayes-McCoy? If so, what would the significance of the 32 stars and the eight stripes have been?
Andries Burgers, 31 January 2007

The 32 stars stand for the 32 counties of Ireland. I don't know what the stripes stand for [just a wild guess- maybe the 4 green stripes are for the 4 provinces and the white stripes are merely to separate them????].
Ned Smith, 31 January 2007

Several others have established beyond doubt that eight-pointed star were common [at the time]. This is, however, not true in the Irish context. Apart from the Fenian flags, I could find only one flag with an eight pointed star in Hayes-McCoy and that was the colour of the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, but this is more of a badge used as a charge on the field of the colour. Having now carefully reread Hayes-MCCoy's chapter on the Fenian flags, I find that he is of the opinion that the two Fenian star flags were directly inspired by the US S&S (Not surprising either as the Fenian movement originated in the US). As was already pointed out, the 32 stars were declared at the trial of Michael Moore, who claims to have drawn and made the Irish S&S, to represent the 32 counties and the four green stripes the four provinces. The white stripes were evidently not counted. Hayes-McCoy makes no mention of the eight-pointed stars apart from describing them as very crudely sewn on the original flag which is preserved.
Andries Burgers, 1 February 2007