All the blether about the Irish flag had me looking it up to see if what I knew from my youth still accorded with the latest official history. This bit on Wiki strikes me as about as reliable as a USSR school atlas :
Occasionally, differing shades of yellow, instead of orange, are seen at civilian functions. However the Department of the Taoiseach state that this is a misrepresentation which "should be actively discouraged", and that worn-out flags should be replaced. In songs and poems, the colours are sometimes enumerated as "green, white and gold", using poetic licence. Variants of different guises are utilised to include -for example, various emblems of Ireland, such as the presidential harp, the four provinces or county arms.
When I was a child I never heard it described as anything other than green, white and gold, and the idea that the flag of a nation which had spent years and lives trying to throw off union with GB should enshrine in its flag the colour of its greatest antagonist in doing so is about as daft as the idea that the Orange Order still stands for religious freedom.
As the line used to go: "Yes, Mr. Paisley, we know the grass is green, the daisies are white and the dandelions are golden but there's not a fucking thing we can do about it."