An Irish Harrington Banner or Coat of Arms?






O hArrachtain, OhOireachtaigh, OhLongadail, HARRINGTON

 


Do Irish Harringtons have a family coat of arms or banner?

This question has a number of problems.

1. Coats of arms are granted to an individual named person. Therefore, arms are not related to, nor belong to, a surname- even though there are many suppliers of family arms paraphernalia on the internet who would have you believe otherwise.

2. Coats of arms were initially a very English affair. They developed as a system of identification- for seals, shields and the surcoats of men in armour from about the 12th century. The College of Arms was established in England in 1484. The Ireland Register of Arms was founded by King Edward VI of England in 1552. Heraldry came to Ireland with the nobles and military forces of the English.

3. Coats of arms for native Irish noblemen became popular after the Battle of Kinsale at a time when Irish families needed to prove their loyalty to the English Crown. In the early 1600s many noble Irish families applied for a Coat of Arms for the family chief upon his death. This showed loyalty to the English Crown, registered the genealogy of the family and signified their acceptance as gentry by the Crown.

4. Even if we allowed for the fact that a surname does not own a coat of arms and decided to adopt an existing coat of arms, which design would Irish Harringtons adopt? The internet would point you to the so called Harrington banner with its motto "In a firm knot" and its black and white depiction of the "Harrington Knot".

5. But- which Harrington does this banner belong to? There were multiple origins for the name Harrington in England and in Ireland three distinct septs adopted the name as the anglicised version of their Gaelic name. These 3 groups were NOT related in any way to the Harrington name in England: 

the O hOirechtaigh sept of Connacht; the O hArrachtain sept of Tralee and the O hIongardail sept of Cork and Tipperary.

 These were all very separate groups who independently adopted the same English name at around the same time. Sir Henry Harrington  was a leading figure in Elizabethan Ireland and this may have influenced the choice of surname.

In relation to the O'Hingerdell/Harringtons of Cork, the O'Hingerdell/Harrington name was problematic at the time as they had fought against the English in the Nine Years War and had been declared traitors after the Battle of Kinsale. For many members of the O'Hingerdell clan it must have seemed that a name change to Harrington would be a good idea at this time.


Conclusion

The Harrington Knot belongs to the Harringtons of England NOT those Irish who changed their name to Harrington to sound more English/less Irish.

So, no, unfortunately there is no Irish Harrington Coat of Arms- even though the shops of SW Cork and the internet would have you believe otherwise....., which is a shame as I quite like the Harrington knot........

If you would like to know more about arms and heraldry visit the The Heraldry Society and The National Library of Ireland.

To watch a video presented by Clans of Ireland about the history of Coats of Arms in Ireland and the rules surrounding their use visit VIDEO.


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