History
The earliest Irish county arms date from the late 17th century, when those of counties Carlow, Kilkenny and "Typerary" were recorded by Richard Carney, Ulster King of Arms. In each case the arms consist of an ermine shield bearing a fesse or central horizontal band on which heraldic devices of local families are displayed. The arms of Tipperary became obsolete when the county was divided into North and South Ridings in 1838.
When county councils were established in 1899, each was obliged to adopt a seal. In some cases these used an unofficial coat of arms, but no arms were officially granted prior to the splitting of heraldic jurisdiction in 1943.
In 1914 a system of county and city flags were designed as unit colours for the Irish Volunteers. Each county flag was to include a coat of arms, with a list of suggested designs drawn by The O'Rahilly. While few of these colours were ever manufactured, some of the county devices were later to occur in official grants.
Read more about this topic: List Of Irish Counties' Coats Of Arms
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)