The last full-sized Tricolour from the 1916 Rising still in existence, which was guided at a value of between $500,000-$700,000, has failed to sell at auction in New York.

The flag was withdrawn at $400,000 dollars. The auctioneers say they are still optimistic about the prospects of arranging a private sale.

The Tricolour is thought to have flown from the top of the GPO during the rising.

The auction house’s description says the linen Tricolour is accompanied by a note from Dr George St George, (who owned the flag untill1922) reading ‘Captured by British Troops at GPO Dublin, April 1916 and given to Dr George St George by an old War veteran, Sergt Davis’.

The flag was handed down to Mr St George’s daughter and then was gifted ‘to a neighbour, the son of a famous Irish nationalist and statesman, co-founder and early president of Sinn Féin’.

Bloomsbury Auctions says ‘the fact that this flag is the only recorded full sized Tricolour of the 1916 Rising in existence, and therefore of the utmost rarity and importance… makes it a unique icon of immeasurable significance in the history of the Irish Revolution.’

