Quote:
Originally posted by 33girl
I thought everyone knew about that.
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Nope. My family is Ulster Scots -- Scots who came to America by way of Ulster/Northern Ireland. (And please, we [i]don't[i] say "Scotch-Irish," since people aren't "Scotch" and we sort of kept to ourselves, never really intermarrying much with the real Irish.)
For the benefit of others who may not know, green is the traditional color of Catholics in Ireland (and of Irish people in general), while orange is the traditional color of Protestants in Ireland, most of whom came from Scotland. The use of orange came from the Protestant Prince William of Orange (of William and Mary fame -- he was Dutch, and orange is still the national color of The Netherlands. That's why in the Olympics, Dutch athletes always wear orange.) This the origin of the colors of the Irish flag -- the Green is for the Catholics, the Orange for the Protestants and the white for the peace and unity between them. (Would that it were so.)
In all the years I've worn orange on St. Patricks Day, no one (outside family and a few other Ulster-Scot type friends) has ever caught on, other than to say "where's your green?" But as I said earlier, it getting to the point where it's almost embarrasing to claim orange.
Still, it's heartening to see how many people here know about the orange-thing. Just proves again the superior knowledge of GreekChatters.