The creator of the Irish tricolour was a man from The Liberties
The Irish tricolour was created by Edward Hollywood

Tributes Paid to Liberties Man Who Created Ireland’s Tricolour

01.04.16

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With more and more stories emerging about the Easter Rising we are amazed at how much influence The Liberties and Dublin 8, and the people from this area had on that historic week. Lily Kempson and Michael Mallin are some of the names that come to mind. Today we discovered the man who created Ireland’s tricolour hailed from The Liberties.

Edward Hollywood was honoured on Easter Sunday at a ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery where Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys was joined by British and French dignitaries as wreaths were laid at the grave. Hollywood, born in 1814, was a silk weaver from The Liberties who travelled to Paris as part of an Irish delegation to the second French Republican government in 1848. It was there he was inspired by the French tricolour. A leader of an early trade union for artisans and a member of the nationalist independence movement – the Irish Confederates, Hollywood came up with what would become the Irish national flag, when he returned from France.

His republican tricolour – featuring green to represent the Gaelic tradition, orange to represent the followers of William of Orange, and white to represent peace between them – was later adopted as the flag of the Irish Republic in 1919 and by the Irish Free State which succeed it in 1922.

Follow more news and events in Dublin 8 for the Centenary here.

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