Coat of arms of Ireland

The coat of arms of Ireland is blazoned as Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent (a gold harp with silver strings on a blue background). These arms have long been Ireland's heraldic emblem. References to them as being the arms of the king of Ireland can be found as early as the 13th century. These arms were adopted by Henry VIII of England when he ended the period of Lordship of Ireland and declared Ireland to be a kingdom again in 1541. When the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in 1603, they were integrated into the unified royal coat of arms of kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The harp was adopted as the emblem of the Irish Free State when it separated from the United Kingdom in 1922. They were registered as the arms of Ireland with the Chief Herald of Ireland on 9 November 1945. The design is by an English sculptor, Percy Metcalfe. Metcalfe's design was in response to a competition held by the state to design Irish coinage, which was to start circulation in December 1928. Metcalfe's design became the model for future official interpretations of the harp as an emblem of the state.

The modern design is markedly different from earlier depictions. During the 17th century, it became common to depict the harp with a woman's head and breasts, like a ship's figurehead, as the pillar. It is not necessary to show a full complement of thirty strings, provided that the numbers do not fall below nine. This is sometimes misattributed to 'St. Patrick's blue' but there is no connection. The use of blue in the arms has also been associated with , a Gaelic mythological personification of Ireland. The word ' is a compound of the Irish words ' ("blue") and ' ("sovereign"); it is noted in early Irish texts as the name of several queens closely connected with dynastic politics in the 10th and 11th century Ireland. The National Library of Ireland, in describing the blue background of the arms, notes that in early Irish mythology the sovereignty of Ireland () was represented by a woman often dressed in a blue robe. but this is not strictly accurate: the kundu drum is the symbol of Papua New Guinea, the karyenda drum formerly appeared on the flag and arms of Burundi, and the arms of Trinidad and Tobago depict the steelpan.

Usage

Today, the image of the harp is used on the coins, passports and official seals of Ireland and is incorporated into the emblems of many bodies in Northern Ireland, such as the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The harp is frequently incorporated into the emblems of Irish companies, such as Guinness and Ryanair. It appears on the arms of countries with historical links to Ireland or the United Kingdom, such as Montserrat and Canada. In 1984, exemplars of the modern design, approved by the Chief Herald, were registered by the Government of Ireland with the World Intellectual Property Organization under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention, which relates to state emblems. The government only registered "left-facing" images, with the harp's sound board on the right. While the Attorney General's office felt that right-facing images should also be registered, patent agents advised this might be interfere with Guinness Brewery's use of such harps in its logo since the 1870s.

Presidential standard

thumb|Presidential standard of Ireland

As well as being the arms of Ireland, since 1945 the harp is the arms of each president of Ireland whilst in office. Typically, the arms are borne as a banner in the form of a presidential standard. The standard is flown over Áras an Uachtaráin, the president's residence in Dublin, at Dublin Castle, when the president is in residence and on vehicles used by the president. Like other presidential and royal standards, it is never flown at half mast. However, the Presidential Standard never takes precedence over the flag of Ireland, whereas, for example, the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom takes precedence over the flag of the United Kingdom.

History

thumb|1702 map of [[Great Britain and Ireland with the arms of Ireland, England, Scotland and France. The harp has a woman's head and breasts.]]

As heraldry is essentially a feudal art, it was not until the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 that Irish coats of arms came into being, several decades after the art began to take seed in England and continental Europe. The earliest reference to a herald of arms for Ireland was in 1392 on the creation of the first Ireland King of Arms. The Ireland King of Arms, which was under the English College of Arms, was succeeded by an independent Ulster King of Arms, and an Athlone Pursuivant, in 1552, which despite its name had jurisdiction for arms over all of Ireland. In 1943, the Ulster King of Arms was merged with the Norroy King of Arms in England to form the Norroy and Ulster King of Arms. The office of the Chief Herald of Ireland was created as successor to the Ulster King of Arms and the arms of Ireland were registered by the Chief Herald of Ireland on 9 November 1945.

However, reference to the harp as the arms of the king of Ireland can be found in one of the oldest medieval rolls of arms. The Wijnbergen Roll, a French roll of arms dating from and preserved in The Hague, Netherlands, attributed "D'azure a la harpe d'or" () to the King of Ireland ("le Roi d'Irlande"). The harp, traditionally associated with the biblical King David, was a rare charge on medieval rolls and only two arms with a harp are listed in a collection of 19 early rolls. Triangular devices appeared on medieval Irish coinage by kings John and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. These devices may have been crude harps or it may be that the harp developed from the use of triangles to distinguish Irish coins. The idea of a harp being the arms of Ireland may have originated as a reference to a fictional character, le roi d'irelande, in the courtly legend cycle of Tristan. Alternatively, it may have derived from a celebrated 13th century bardic poem, Tabhroidh Chugam Cruit mo Riogh, dedicated to Donnchadh Cairbreach O'Briain (d. 1242), a Gaelic King of Thomond.

Whatever its origins, the harp was adopted as the symbol of the new Kingdom of Ireland, established by Henry VIII, in 1541. A document in the Office of the Ulster King of Arms, from either the late reign of Henry VIII or the early reign his son of Edward VI, states that they were the arms of the kingdom of Ireland.]]

The Lordship of Ireland, the medieval realm of Ireland that existed between 1171 and 1541 under the English crown, had separate arms. A commission of Edward IV in –8 into the arms of Ireland found them to be blazoned Azure, three crowns in pale Or, bordure Argent (three golden crowns ordered vertically on a blue background with a white border). The association of these arms with Ireland is likely to have originated with Irish magnates (both Norman and Gaelic) who fought in Edward I's Scottish wars at the turn of the 14th century. These were the arms of Edmund the Martyr, which the Irish lords adopted as their banner in the same way as English lords identified with the banner of Saint George.  However, these arms were also well known in other medieval contexts and are often attributed to King Arthur.

Achievement

thumb|upright=0.75|The [[Achievement (heraldry)|armorial achievement of the Kingdom of Ireland, including the infrequently used crest]]

A crest, which was little used, is thought to have been created for the ascension of James I. This crest was blazoned: A tower triple towered or, from the portal a hart springing argent, attired and unguled also or. The torse was Or and azure.

The arms of Ulster are the arms of the de Burgh, Earls of Ulster, combined with the red hand seal of the O'Neills. These two dynasties and symbols are inseparably linked to Ulster. The combination of them is blazoned Or, on a Cross Gules, an inescutcheon Argent, charged with a dexter hand erect aupaumee and couped at the wrist Gules. In the centre is the arms of Mide, while the third quarter features the arms of Hugh de Lacy (Earl of Ulster from 1205 – 1243) to represent Ulster.

Notes

References

External links

Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland. .
Two "Ireland" images in Ulster Office's Draft Grants of Arms : folio 18 (top left) and folio 71