512 



[Proc. B.N.F.C. 



the Papal tiara, to which, from being in pale (£*., one above 

 the other), the resemblance was somewhat close. 



With the accession of James I. to the English throne, a new 

 arrangement of the national insignia was made, and a gold harp 

 with silver strings for Ireland was for the first time quartered 

 in the Royal Arms. At that time Sir William Segar relates 

 that the Earl of Northampton, then Deputy Earl Marshal, ob- 

 served that " he had no affection for the change ; that for the 

 adoption of the harp the best reason he could assign was that 

 it resembled Ireland in being such an instrument that it required 

 more cost to keep it in tune than it was worth." 



Sir Arthur Chichester was re-appointed to the government 

 ot Ireland as Lord Deputy, July, 1 6 1 3 ; it is stated that it was at 

 his instigation the Harp of Ireland was first marshalled with 

 the arms of the sister kingdoms upon the Irish currency, and in 

 one form or another it has ever since continued to be impressed 

 upon the coin of the realm. Some of the 

 copper coins of Henry VIII. and Queen 

 Elizabeth have, it is said, the three harps 

 for Ireland upon the shield, as if undeter- 

 mined whether to follow the triple or single 

 representation of the device. A curious old 

 seal of the port of Carrickfergus, dated 1605, 

 has upon the shield three harps of the Brian 

 Boru type. After tracing the history and 

 development of the various types of harps on the great seals of 

 the sovereigns, we find the symbolic angel gradually became 

 the regulation pattern on the coinage and all heraldic represen- 

 tations ; modern taste, however, tends towards the older form. 



CARRICKFERGUS. 



THE COLOUR OF THE NATIONAL SHIELD OF IRELAND. 



According to the evidence afforded by Sir Bernard Burke, 

 Ulster King-at-Arms, there was, previous to the Anglo Norman 

 invasion, no colour or standard for Ireland at large. Brian 

 Boru's banner at Clontarf was red. The favourite colours of 

 those days were crimson, saffron, and blue ; green was not in 



