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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.〔Office of the Chief Herald, (Arms of Ireland ), The National Library of Ireland (Grant Type: Registration; Register volume: G.O. MS 111G; Folio number: 20; Date: 9 November 1945)〕 The depiction of the harp has changed over time. In the 17th century, during the period of the Kingdom of Ireland, the pillar of the harp began to be depicted as a bare-breasted woman. When the arms were restored as the arms of the independent Irish state in 1922, a late-medieval Gaelic harp (a ''cláirseach''), the Trinity College Harp, was used as a model. Several variants of the arms of Ireland exist, including a heraldic badge and an infrequently used crest and torse. The Lordship of Ireland, the medieval realm of Ireland that existed between 1171 and 1541 under the English crown, had a separate arms, which are blazoned ''Azure, three crowns in pale Or, bordure Argent'' (three golden crowns ordered vertically on a blue background with a white border). A variant of the arms of the ancient royal province of Meath were also apparently used at one time as the arms of Ireland. ==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" ((英語:Blue with a harp of gold)) to the King of Ireland ("le Roi d'Irlande").〔Michael C. O'Laughlin, 2001, ''The Irish Book of Arms'', Irish Genealogical Association, p 15〕 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.〔William Henry Grattan Flood, 1905, ''The Story of the Harp''; James Simon, 1810, ''Simon's Essay on Irish coins, and of the currency of foreign monies in Ireland''〕 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. 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. 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.〔〔 Images: (IE1 ) (IE2 ) (IE3 ) (IE4 ) (IE5 ) (IE6 ) (IE7 ) (IE8 ) (IE9 ) (IE10 ) 〕 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Coat of arms of Ireland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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