Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Some 175 years ago the Irish flag was flown for the first time from 33 The Mall in Waterford by Thomas Francis Meagher. When he was asked of its significance, he said the white in the centre signified a lasting truce between orange and green and that he hoped that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants would be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.

Thomas Francis Meagher went on to have an extraordinary life by any measure. He led the rebellion of 1848 and was put on trial for high treason. He was sentenced to death but it was commuted to transportation for life to Australia. He escaped from Australia and he ended up in the 69th regiment of the Union Army in the American Civil War as a brigadier general, leading it in the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. He become a friend of Abraham Lincoln and was a pallbearer at Lincoln's funeral. He died in the most mysterious circumstances as the acting governor of Montana at the age of only 43.

Meagher also said of the flag that a national flag is the most sacred symbol a nation can possess. We our proud of our national flag today as we were 175 years ago when it was first flown and we remember its significance and its meaning.