Arms of Ireland - History

History

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 in 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 c. 1280 and preserved in The Hague, Netherlands, attributed "D'azure a la harpe d'or" (English: Blue with a harp of gold) to the King of Ireland ("le Roi d'Irlande"). The harp, traditionally associated with 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 the 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 arms were incorporated into the unified Royal Coats of Arms of England, Ireland and Scotland upon the Union of the Crowns of the three kingdoms in 1603. Unlike Scotland, Ireland did not request to keep a unique coat of arms when it formed the United Kingdom by uniting with the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1801. Consequently a uniquely Irish coat of arms temporarily disappeared from official use. Upon the secession of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom in 1922, the harp was taken as the emblem of the independent Irish state.

Today, the image of the harp is used on the coins, passports and official seals of the Republic 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. Exemplars of the modern design, approved by the Chief Herald, were registered by the Government of Ireland in 1984 to protect the symbol as an international trade mark.