The design originated in the late 19th century with the Newfoundland Fishermen's Star of the Sea Association, an aid and benefit organization established in St. John's in 1871 by the Catholic Church.

[4] It bears a strong resemblance to the Flag of Ireland, which first appeared in 1848 as an unofficial emblem for Ireland but did not enter wide use until 1916, but with the Protestant representation of the orange panel of King William of Orange removed and replaced by a pink panel; pink being a liturgical colour of the Roman Catholic church and was an official colour of the Star of the Sea Association.

[1][4][5] The legend tells that the flag was created in 1843 by Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming and is symbolic of a tradition between local Protestants and Catholics.

The Protestant English marked their wood piles with the rose flag of the Newfoundland Natives' Society, while the Catholic Irish used green banners.

In 1900 historians Devine and O'Mara told that the concept of the flag was originated by Bishop Fleming in the mid-19th century as a symbolic gesture to quiet tensions between newly arriving Irish settlers and the existing Roman Catholic community in the St. John's area.

In this version of the story, pink similarly represented Newfoundland-born Catholics, possibly members of a "natives" group, that were supplying wood to Fleming himself, with the Protestant English not included in the proceedings at all.

[1] Incidentally, by specifying the colour green in the poem as representing "St. Patrick's emblem",the shamrock, Howley joined many Irish nationalists in rejecting the red saltire of Saint Patrick's Cross, which they see as a British invention and which forms the diagonal red cross of the Union Jack meant to represent Ireland.

The first published record of the now popularly accepted legend was in a Catholic church archdiocese newsletter during the provincial flag debates of the 1970s, and was not presented as fact at that time.

[5] The Newfoundland Natives' Society flag is believed by some historians to have consisted of a green spruce tree on a pink background with two clasped hands and the word "philanthropy" eventually added, though there is no hard evidence to support that this flag ever really existed, that it was ever abandoned, or that the pink, white and green tricolour was ever adopted by the society The NNS was not a Catholic or Protestant society but a nationalist group formed specifically to promote the advancement of careers and interests of native-born Newfoundlanders, no matter what their ethnic origin or religious affiliation.

The pink, white and green colours of the Catholic Church established Newfoundland Fishermen's Star of the Sea Association, as specified in their first published rules and by-laws, appeared sometime after the group's formation in 1871 and may have been confused with the NNS's red, white and green tricolour by reporters and from black-and-white photographs of the period, from which it is impossible to distinguish the actual colours.

There is no reason to believe that the pink and green colours of the Star of the Sea Association flag were intended as a symbol of union between Catholic groups as in the Devine and O'Mara legend.

The actual tricolour flag based on these colours, commonly called the "Pink, White and Green", seems to have surfaced within the Association sometime in the late 1880s and there is no known historical evidence to indicate its existence before that time.

The Newfoundland Fishermen's Star of the Sea Association appeared publicly under these colours, in the form of green, white and pink sashes and green banner with a pink cross and white star for the first time in 1875 when they marched alongside the Benevolent Irish Society in St. John's during their centenary celebrations parade of Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell's birth.

Sometime afterward, the "Pink, White and Green" tricolour appeared and, with the support of the clergy, was adopted by other Catholic groups in the St. John's and surrounding area in the 1880s and 1890s.

In April 1848, Meagher brought a tricolour of green, white and orange to Ireland from Paris, where it is said he received it as a gesture of goodwill from a group of French women.

Given the inaccuracy of The Monitor's 1976 legend and the heated debates in Newfoundland during the 1970s regarding the design of the new provincial flag, the current legend of the "Pink, White and Green" was likely propagated at that time in an attempt to gain Protestant (60% of the province's population[15]) and province-wide support for an Irish-based flag, rather than the various Union Jack based designs being proposed at the time, but it is not supported as a factual account of history.

[9][16][17] Around the turn of the 20th century, the "Pink White and Green" flag gained significant social and possibly commercial use, primarily by Roman Catholic groups in the St. John's and surrounding area.

[19] Contrary to popular myth, photos from Government House during Murray's and Boyle's administrations and during the Prince of Wales visit to Newfoundland in 1860 show the Union Jack, the governmental ensigns, and various other flags being flown on ships in St. John's harbour, but not the "Pink, White and Green".

It has been claimed that the colours of the flag were incorporated into the first public performance of Sir Cavendish Boyle's "Ode to Newfoundland" at the Casino Theatre in 1901, where a character resembling the Statue of Liberty clad in a flowing gown of vertical stripes of pink, white and green is said to have appeared on stage.

The first performance of the Ode to Newfoundland actually took place on December 22, 1902 as part of the closing of the play Mamzelle[23] - a play in which the French character Marianne, bearing a strong resemblance to the Statue of Liberty, appears clothed in a tricolour gown of red, white and blue based on the French tricolour.

[24] Premier Danny Williams announced in late 2005 that he would consider opening debate on the matter, and that he personally preferred the tricolour,[25] but an informal poll commissioned in October 2005 by Williams showed that only 25% of Newfoundlanders supported adopting the tricolour - with cost and the feeling that the colour pink would not be appropriate for the provincial flag being cited as the most popular reasons for rejection.