_THE IRISH JACK._
The lineage of the Irish Jack is not so clearly defined as is that of
the other Jacks. Although "Paddy" has always been so ready for a shindy
that fighting has come to be considered his "natural diversion," he has
never found himself particularly at home on the sea. It is on land that
he has found play for his fierce delight in mingling where the fray is
thickest. It is as a soldier that the Irishman has always excelled.
Wellington, Wolseley and Roberts attest his power in command, and in
many a forlorn hope the wild energy of the Irish blood in the ranks has
scaled the breach and carried the stormers past the anxious moments
of the onset, displaying that same "eager, fierce, impetuous valour"
with which, in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, the
"Inniskillings went into the massive Russian column with a cheer."[74]
[74] Kinglake: "Invasion of the Crimea."
It may be that as Ireland was at no time distinguished as a maritime
nation, and its local shipping not developed to any great extent, the
display of her national Jack had not been so much in evidence among
the sailors of the early days as were the Jacks of the two sister
nations.
The banner of St. Patrick (28), which is the "Irish Jack," is a white
flag, having on it a red cross of the same saltire or diagonal shape as
St. Andrew's cross, the heraldic description being, "_Argent, a saltire
gules_," red saltire cross on a white ground (Pl. I., fig. 3).
[Illustration: 28. ST. PATRICK'S JACK.]
St. Patrick was the Christian apostle of the Irish, and thus became
their traditional patron saint. The story of his life is that he was
born in Scotland, at Kilpatrick, near Dunbarton on the Clyde, and being
taken prisoner by pirates when a child, was carried into Ireland and
sold there as a serf. Having acquired the native language, he escaped
to the continent, and afterwards becoming a Christian and having been
ordained to service in the Church, returned to Ireland for the purpose
of converting the people. The British name said to have been given him
in his youth was _Succeath_ (valiant in war), a temperament which he
certainly impressed upon the Irish. This name was afterwards, when he
returned to Ireland, changed to _Patricius_, in evidence of his noble
family descent, and to add importance to his mission.[75]
[75] Smith: "Religion of Ancient Britain."
The legends of the saint date back to A.D. 411, when he is reported
to have commenced his mission, and to have afterwards devoted his
life to the increase of the well-being of the people and the spread
of Christianity throughout Ireland. Tradition reports, although some
do not put much faith in it, that the saint suffered martyrdom upon
a cross of the shape of this red cross, and thus, when he became the
patron saint of Ireland, it was held in recognition as his emblem, and
for that reason was adopted as the Irish cross.
On the other hand, some people declare that the cross of the saltire
shape is sacred only to St. Andrew.
[Illustration: 29. LABARUM OF CONSTANTINE.]
Another suggestion is that the shape of the saltire cross, both
of the Irish and the Scotch, is derived from the Labarum (29), or
Sacred Standard, which was raised by Constantine the Great, the first
Christian emperor of Rome, as the imperial standard of his armies.
On this he had placed a monogram composed of the first two letters,
[Greek: CHR] (ChR), of the Greek form of the sacred name of Christ
([Greek: CHRISTOS]), and the saltire cross is reputed to be the
repetition of the [Greek: CH] of the lower part of the Christian
emblem.
The Labarum was the official standard of the Emperor of Rome, and
upon it were displayed the "insignia" of the emperor of the day.
Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, had changed his
previous insignia to the Christian emblem.
Should this latter suggestion of the origin of the cross of the
saltire shape be accepted as the preferable one, this saltire cross has
yet a most interesting and particular connection with the early history
of Ireland.
The Roman Governor of Britain, under the Emperor Diocletian, when, in
A.D. 301, the pacification of IBERNIA (Ireland) had been completed, was
Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine.
[Illustration: 30. HARP OF HIBERNIA.]
The goddess of the pagan islanders was the Goddess Hibernia, whose
emblem was a harp, and this Hibernian Irish harp (30) Constantius had
in testimony of his success adopted as the insignia for his standard.
After the resignation of Diocletian, Constantius Chlorus and Galerius
were created joint emperors of Rome, and, dividing the empire between
them, Galerius took the East and Constantius the West.
The death of Constantius occurred soon afterwards in England, at the
city of York (Eboracum), and there he was succeeded as Emperor of Rome
by his son Constantine.
Constantius had in some degree restrained the persecution of the
Christians in Britain, which had raged under Diocletian, but it was now
completely suppressed by the new emperor. Carrying with him his faith
in Christianity, which he had learned in Britain, Constantine removed
to the continent to engage in the contest for the command of the
empire to which he had fallen heir, and in the battle of the Milvian
Bridge, near Rome, in A.D. 312, he defeated the opposing eastern forces
under Maxentius, and entered into undisputed possession of his position
as sole emperor. It was just before this engagement that Constantine is
reported to have seen a cross shining in the heavens at midday, having
on it the inscription, [Greek: EN TOUTÔ NIKA] ("In this conquer"--"_In
hoc signo vinces_"), and, therefore, recognizing the Christian emblem,
he adopted the Christian cross as his standard and placed the sacred
monogram upon his Labarum. This victory resulted in the official
recognition of the Christian religion, and the attaching to it of all
the political power of the Emperor of Rome.
Constantius had lived, and Constantine the Great had been born
and brought up, in the north of England, which, during the Roman
occupation, had been converted to Christianity by missionaries from
Scotland, whence St. Patrick afterwards also went to Ireland; and
as it was to Constantine that the Christians owed their rescue from
persecution, his insignia would, therefore, be heartily received. The
early Christians, through this source, may have adopted the X cross,
the lower part of Constantino's Christian monogram, as their emblem,
and thus it had become associated in Ireland with the Christian labours
of St. Patrick, their apostle and patron saint. In this "story of
the Irish Jack," it is a notable transition that the harp emblem of
Hibernia, carried by Constantius, and transmitted by him to his son,
and by Constantine changed to the Christian Labarum, should in this
diagonal cross of St. Patrick have been returned to become the emblem
of Ireland.
Whichever may have been the source of its origin, the saltire cross, in
its form of the red cross of St. Patrick, is by both lines of descent
intimately associated with the history of Ireland, and is rightfully
claimed as one of its national emblems.
The harp, too, has its story much later than that of St. Patrick's
cross, but yet bringing an interesting connection with the patron saint.
The ancient arms of Ireland, from the time of Henry II., in 1172, had
been three golden crowns set upon a blue ground.[76]
[76] "The Book of Public Arms."
These ancient arms of Ireland are the arms of the Province of Munster,
and are now worn on the helmet plate and glengarry of the Royal Munster
Fusiliers regiment of the British army.
Henry VIII. was the first English king who used an Irish emblem. When
he was proclaimed King of Ireland, he placed the harp of Hibernia upon
the coinage which he then issued, instead of the "three crowns" which
had been used under his predecessors, but he did not introduce the harp
into his royal arms, nor place the red cross of St. Patrick upon his
banner.
The first English monarch to insert an Irish emblem in the official
insignia of the sovereign was Queen Elizabeth, who introduced one in
the design of her "Great Seal." Instead of using the three Irish
crowns, she inserted a harp as the emblem of the Irish nation, and
among the banners displayed at her funeral Ireland was represented by a
blue flag having upon it a golden harp surmounted by a crown.[77] James
I., her successor, was the first king to introduce an Irish emblem
into the "royal standard," and from that time onward the golden harp
of Hibernia, on the ancient blue ground of the three Irish crowns, has
been shown in one of the quarters of the British standard as the emblem
of Ireland. In the arms of all the sovereigns, from James I., 1603
(15), to and including William IV., 1837, the front of the harp was
formed by the female figure representing the goddess Hibernia. During
the Victorian period a change was introduced in the shape of the harp,
which has been altered to that of the ancient Irish harp, connected in
form and legend with King Brian Boru (Boroimhe).
[77] Hulme: "Flags of the World."
The exploits of this most noted of the early kings of Ireland had been
mainly devoted to the defence of his kingdom against the invasions of
the Danes during the period when, under Canute, they had well-nigh
conquered all England.
Although in the main successful, he was slain in battle, according to
some, in 1039,[78] or, as others report, in the hour of victory over the
Danes at Clontarf, near Dublin, in 1014.[79]
[78] King: "National Arms."
[79] "Hadyn's Index."
The king, having accepted Christianity, presented, in 1004, a golden
votive offering upon the altar of the church at Armagh, and here, in
accordance with his dying request, his body was buried after the battle
of Clontarf.[80]
[80] "Ulster Journal of Archæology," Vol. I., September, 1894.
This city of Armagh is reputed to have been founded about A.D. 445,
by St. Patrick, and to this account is accredited the ecclesiastical
pre-eminence which has always enshrined the city, for the Bishop of
Armagh is the "Archbishop and Primate of all Ireland" of the Protestant
Church, and it is the See city also of the "Primate of Ireland" of the
Roman Catholic Church.
Of all the traditional patrons of Irish music, King Brian Boru was the
most renowned, and thus in poetry and song his name became identified
with the Irish harp.
The minstrelsy of the Irish harper has held sway and been cherished
through all the ages by the Irish people, whose temperament may have
been affected, or else has been most touchingly expressed, by its
strange and mystic cadences. The sweet pathos of these ancient melodies
has given tone and inspiration to most of the Irish songs, markedly
to those of the sweet singer Moore, whose music has installed in
affectionate memory,
"The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed."
In the old seal of Carrickfergus (31), granted by James I., the form of
this ancient harp of Brian Boru is excellently displayed.
Within the circle are the initials of the King, I.R. (_Jacobus Rex_),
and the date 1605, and on the shield in the centre are three Irish
harps, having the rounded front pillar and the curious upper sweep of
the neck, termed the "harmonic curve," of the type known as the Irish
harp of Brian Boru.
[Illustration: 31. SEAL OF CARRICKFERGUS, 1605.]
Although this Irish harp was introduced in the seal of the Irish city
during his reign, the emblem which had been placed in his royal arms by
James I. as the emblem of Ireland was the angelic harp of Hibernia, and
in this form it remained on the royal standards of all the succeeding
sovereigns until Queen Victoria, in whose royal arms (32) the Irish
harp was displayed.
[Illustration: 32. ROYAL ARMS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.]
In 1849, when Queen Victoria first visited Ireland, being the first
occasion upon which a British Queen had ever visited the Island, a
medal was struck to commemorate the event. On this are the profiles of
Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort, and on the reverse (33)
is the old Irish harp surmounted by the royal crown.
It is true that the angelic harp is frequently to be seen upon the
flags flown as royal standards, but the Irish harp is most beautifully
shown in the coat-of-arms upon the back of Her Majesty's royal throne
in the House of Lords at Westminster (34).
As the harp of the pagan goddess Hibernia had been changed to the
Christian cross of St. Patrick, so now again it had been followed by
the Irish harp of the Christian King, Brian Boru, and through his
grave at St. Patrick's ancient city of Armagh is again connected with
Ireland's patron saint. Thus, whether it be cross or harp, both the
official emblems of Ireland are associated with St. Patrick.
[Illustration: 33. MEDAL OF QUEEN'S FIRST VISIT TO IRELAND.]
During only one period in the early story of our Flag had Ireland been
represented on its folds, as is shown in Cromwell's Jacks and in the
Commonwealth Ensign (Pl. IV., figs. 1 and 2), but it had not
been by a cross, as were the other nationalities, but by a golden harp
on a blue ground.
Another emblem of Ireland, the green shamrock, is also connected in
legend with St. Patrick, as having been used by him, through the lesson
of its three leaves joined in one, in explaining the doctrine of the
Trinity. Thus both the shamrock and the red saltire cross form the
salient features of the insignia of the "Most Illustrious Order of St.
Patrick," the Irish order of knighthood.
[Illustration: 34. THE THRONE OF QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE HOUSE OF
LORDS, 1900.]
The Irish red cross on a white ground had been the ancient banner of
the Irish family of the Fitzgeralds before the time of the conquest
of Ireland under Henry II., and it still appears in the arms of their
descendants (35). It appears to have been used as a flag at Cromwell's
funeral, but notwithstanding its still earlier associations the red
cross of St. Patrick does not seem to have been formally recognized as
the general national emblem for Ireland until about the close of the
seventeenth century. Its entrance into the Union Jack had long been
delayed for reasons which will be pointed out.
[Illustration: 35. ARMS OF THE FITZGERALDS.]
Though the kings of England had, since Henry II., in 1172, been "lords
paramount," and since Henry VIII. been "kings of Ireland," the national
Jack of Ireland had not been joined with the other Jacks. When the
crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were combined in the "additional"
Jack of James, in 1606, it was not included, nor was it afterwards,
in the first Union Jack of Queen Anne, in 1707; so that for all these
centuries the red cross of St. Patrick had continued alone. At length,
the time was coming when another change was to be made in the Union
Jack, and it was in 1801, under George III., that the red saltire cross
of Ireland first joined the two sister crosses. For the immediately
previous two hundred years the Irishman had gallantly contributed his
prowess to the glories won under the two-crossed Jack, in which his
nation had not been represented; but from this time onward his own
Irish cross entered into its proper place in the national Union Jack,
and received its acknowledged position as the emblem of the Irish
kingdom.