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" (English: Blue with a Harp of gold) to the King of Ireland ("le Roi d'Irlande").
Originating in this format from Elizabeth I's Great Seal of 1586, the motif had earlier featured of the coins of the Lordship of Ireland during the Tudor period and continued to be used on the coins of the Kingdom of Ireland. Following the creation of the United Kingdom, the device was used on the cap badges of the Royal Irish Constabulary and later the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The badge can be seen today on the cap badge of the Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army. The Harp, unsurmounted by a crown, is used as a badge in the Republic of Ireland today.
Though not officially a Royal Badge, the Shamrock is undeniably a symbol of Ireland as it is traditionally based on the Irish Patron Saint St Patrick's teaching of the the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity when Christianising Ireland in the 5th century. There is also a pagan tradition in Ireland of three being a significant number. The Irish had many triple deities which could have aided St Patrick in his evangelisation efforts. The first evidence of a link between St Patrick and the shamrock appears in 1675 on the St Patrick's Coppers or Halpennies. The story does not appear in writing anywhere until a 1726 work by the botanist Caleb Threlkeld who identifies the shamrock as White Field Clover (Trifolium pratense album) and comments rather acerbically on St. Patrick's Day customs including the wearing of shamrocks |
This plant is worn by the people in their hats upon the 17. Day of March yearly, (which is called St. Patrick's Day.) It being a current tradition, that by this Three Leafed Grass, he emblematically set forth to them the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. However that be, when they wet their Seamar-oge, they often commit excess in liquor, which is not a right keeping of a day to the Lord; error generally leading to debauchery.
Since the 1800 Acts of Union between Britain and Ireland the Shamrock was incorporated into the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom, depicted growing from a single stem alongside the Rose of England, and the Thistle of Scotland to symbolise the unity of the three Kingdoms. Since then, the Shamrock has regularly appeared alongside the Rose, Thistle and (sometimes) Leek for Wales on, for instance, British coins such as the two shilling and crown. The Rose, Thistle and Shamrock motif also appears regularly on British public buildings such as Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. Both the Harp Badge and the Shamrock are shared between Northern Ireland and the Repulic of Ireland |
Although the College of Arms in London, on 6th January 1971, added a Compartment to the then official Coat of Arms of Northern Ireland on which the Supporters stand (namely: On a grassy Mount two Flax plants each with three Flowers on Stems proper) and the plant has been used to represent Northern Ireland on UK coinage and in the Badge for the Supreme Court, the plant, whose flower is representative of the many flax fields found throughout the county. has had its detractors and is not universally supported. Neither is it an official Royal Badge.