Who wears green in Ireland and why?

Answer

Ireland has long considered green to be it's national colour. Irish football teams wear green, and people around the world wear green on St. Patrick's day.

Rural Ireland has a green landscape (fields, trees, etc) and when many Irish poets fell upon harded times in cities abroad they would lament over the "Emerald Isle".

St. Patrick used a shamrock to introduce Christianity to Ireland (each leaf representing one part of the Holy Trinity).

Also, green was the colour of sympathy for independence in the late 18th Century when Ireland was still struggling for independence from Britain - so much so the Britain actually banned the "wearing of the green" around that time.

On St. Patrick's day it is common for people in Ireland and abroad (especially those with Irish ancestors) to wear green - either a piece of Shamrock or a green item of clothing.

For the past 31 years on Saint Patrick's day, New York's Fire Fighters also wore green berets instead of their usual blue caps. The berets date back to 1970, when the mother-in-law of a Bronx firefighter knitted dozens of the caps for St. Patrick's Day.

2005 was the first year the tradition was banned, as officials decided the firefighters should wear their proper uniform with the blue caps. The firefighters responded by wearing civilian clothes and their green berets instead of their uniform!

Ironically, according to the Irish cultural group New York's Ancient Order of Hibernians, Peter Durkee, "When Ireland got its freedom — its national color was blue," adding that the color was chosen to honor the Virgin Mary.

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