Ирландияның елтаңбасы тарихы

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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 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 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.

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.

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 c. 1467–8 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 St. George. However, these arms were also well known in other medieval contexts and are often attributed to King Arthur.

The design of the harp used by the modern Irish state is based on the Brian Boru harp, a late medieval Gaelic harp now in Trinity College Dublin. 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 (notwithstanding the illustration to the left). 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. 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.]] The arms of the four traditional provinces of Ireland are popularly displayed quartered as arms of Ireland. The quartering is usually in the order Leinster first, Connacht second, Ulster third and Munster fourth. The resulting arms are frequently displayed in the form of a banner. They also appear as charges in other arms and emblems. For example, the arms of the Genealogical Office, which is headed by the Chief Herald of Ireland, are the four provinces shown quartered beneath a chief Gules, charged with a Tudor Portcullis Or between two Scrolls Argent (a red band with a gold Tudor portcullis between two silver scrolls). 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. Finally, Connacht's arms are blazoned Party Per Pale Argent and Azure, in the first an eagle dimidiated and displayed Sable in the second issuant from the partition an arm embowed and vested, the hand holding a sword erect, all Argent. These are believed to have been adopted from the arms of the medieval Schottenklöster (Gaelic monastery) in Regensburg, Germany. The arms of the Regensburg Schottenklöster, which date from at least the 14th century, combined the arms of the Holy Roman Emperor (from whom the abbey received protection) dimidiated with a symbol that may be linked with the crest of the O'Brien dynasty arms (an 11th century O'Brien is listed as the "fundator" of the abbey). The arms may have been granted to Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht and the last High King of Ireland before the Norman invasion, by the abbey as a gift to return his patronage. The arms were given as the "old tyme arms" of Ireland by the Athlone Pursuivant, Edward Fletcher, c. 1575 and, with slight change of tinctures, became the arms of Connacht in the seventeenth century.