The Irish and French revolutionaries of the 1790s were indeed in close contact, and in the genocidal aftermath of the 1798 Rising, many United Irishmen migrated to France - either to Paris, or to the other areas where the Wild Geese had arrived during the preceding 200 years. Here they continued to work for Irish independence and for a country where no division would be made between people of different religions.

The meaning of "the wearing of the green" is that supporters of the United Irishmen wore a green ribbon or a green cockade (three concentric circles of pleated ribbons), or sometimes a sprig of green leaves, to signify their loyalty. Anyone wearing such a symbol was likely to find him- or herself summarily hanged after the Rising; for instance I was told by a historian that some 3,000 people were hanged at the barracks that is now Collins Barracks and part of the National Museum; the Liffey, a tidal river, did not then have quays holding it in, and the bodies were left on the green that was subsequently known as Croppies' Acre, where the next tide carried them away and out to sea.