---
title: "Flag of Ireland: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Ireland flag stands for, its official 1:2 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/ireland/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Ireland

**The flag of Ireland: Three equal vertical bands of green at the hoist, white, and orange.**

Ratio 1:2 · current design adopted 1937

*[Flag drawn on the page: Ireland]*

The whole flag is an argument for peace: green for one community, orange for the other, and white between them for the truce. That is why the order matters and why flying it reversed — orange at the hoist — is taken as a deliberate insult rather than a mistake. The tricolour was presented to Thomas Francis Meagher by French sympathisers in 1848 and only became the national flag with the 1937 constitution. Ireland's green is a mid-green, not the emerald used in tourism material, and the flag has no official Pantone specification at all.

## Flags it gets confused with

*[Flag drawn on the page: Ireland, Ivory Coast, Italy, India]*

*Drawn at each flag’s own official ratio, which is itself the difference in some of these pairs.*

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Ivory Coast | The mirror image: Ivory Coast has orange at the hoist and green at the fly. Ivory Coast is also squarer at 2:3. |
| Italy | Italy's third band is red, not orange, and its ratio is 2:3. |
| India | India's bands are horizontal, saffron rather than orange, and carry a blue wheel. |

## What the colours mean

*Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.*

- **Green** (#169B62) — The Gaelic and Catholic tradition
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — A lasting truce between the two
- **Orange** (#FF883E) — The followers of William of Orange — the Protestant tradition

- **Ratio:** 1:2
- **Current design adopted:** 1937
- **Colours:** green, white, orange

## Common questions

### What does the flag of Ireland look like?

Three equal vertical bands of green at the hoist, white, and orange.

### What do the colours of the Ireland flag mean?

Green: the Gaelic and Catholic tradition. White: a lasting truce between the two. Orange: the followers of William of Orange — the Protestant tradition.

### How do you tell the Ireland flag from the Ivory Coast one?

The mirror image: Ivory Coast has orange at the hoist and green at the fly. Ivory Coast is also squarer at 2:3.

### When was the Ireland flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1937, and its official ratio is 1:2.

## Related pages

- [Ireland](https://atoneplace.net/country/ireland/)
- [The flag of Ivory Coast](https://atoneplace.net/flag/ivory-coast/)
- [The flag of Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)
- [The flag of India](https://atoneplace.net/flag/india/)
- [Every flag with green in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/green/)
- [The flag of Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/flag/brazil/)
- [The flag of Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/flag/mexico/)
- [The flag of South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-africa/)
- [The flag of Jamaica](https://atoneplace.net/flag/jamaica/)
- [The flag of Pakistan](https://atoneplace.net/flag/pakistan/)
- [The flag of Palestine](https://atoneplace.net/flag/palestine/)
- [The flag of Portugal](https://atoneplace.net/flag/portugal/)
- [The flag of Saudi Arabia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/saudi-arabia/)

## Sources

- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place (/about/)