Given this, its origin within an Roman Catholic fraternal group and the first public appearance of the colours in a centenary celebration of Daniel O'Connell's birth, the "Pink, White and Green" flag may have been based on the then unofficial Irish tricolour flag with the orange panel representing Protestant King William of Orange removed and replaced by pink being a liturgical colour of the Roman Catholic , Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and many other denominations for a joyous celebration and also an official colour on the banner of the Star of the Sea Association. The subsequent use of the "Pink, White and Green" by Catholic Irish groups in the St. John's area as a symbol of Newfoundland nationalism and opposition to confederation with Canada in the late 1800s further linked the flag to its Irish counterpart by analogy to Irish nationalists flying of the strikingly similar Irish tricolour in their resistance to union with Britain.