Colette O’Flaherty: Chief Herald of Ireland
Heraldry is basically a picture of your surname. A coat of arms is a heritable piece of property. It can be passed down to new generations.
The coat of arms you see in gift shops is a representation of a coat of arms of someone of that surname. It doesn’t belong to everyone of the surname. It belongs to a particular grantee and their direct descendants only.
A coat of arms costs €4,400. There have been 1,020 Grants or Confirmations of Arms made by the office since 1943, when the first Chief Herald was appointed.
The heraldic office is the oldest non-ecclesiastical office in the state; that, in itself, is an extraordinary tradition.
