3 ms·
First time I've heard of the Red Hand being viewed negatively by the nationalist community. Given its place in ancient Irish mythology that surprises me. Perhap
by anonymousDan 4y ago
First time I've heard of the Red Hand being viewed negatively by the nationalist community. Given its place in ancient Irish mythology that surprises me. Perhaps in the North it is true but I certainly don't think it's viewed that way in Ireland. Although I know the Irish flag (green/white/orange) is viewed quite negatively by the unionist community even though ironically it is supposed to symbolize peace (white) between the nationalist (green) and unionist (orange - a la William of Orange) communities.
- jan_Inkepa 4y agoI grew up in the republic of Ireland and only associated the Red hand with unionism. ( I can find an article from 1999 talking about Sinn Fein complaining about the Red Hand in the north - https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-red-hand-of-ulster-1.264922 https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-red-hand-of-ulster-1.... ). Don't know about nowadays though. > is viewed quite negatively by the unionist community even though ironically it is supposed to symbolize peace (white) between the nationalist (green) and unionist (orange - a la William of Orange) communities. In my (Catholic) school down the country we were (IIRC) never taught that the third colour was orange, but gold. Wikipedia gives two reasons for this, IIRC - one that it's easier to rhyme and the other being that people don't want to acknowledge the meaning/have to think about unionists when talking about the flag. (I don't remember learning the meaning of the flag either, but maybe it was covered once).
- basisword 4y agoThe red hand appears on the UVF flag I believe which would explain the negative view regardless of the mythology/history behind the symbol itself.