Search any Irish surname with the word “crest” and a hundred shops will sell you one. Almost everything on the plaque is wrong: the word, the idea that a surname can own arms, and usually the arms themselves. What Ireland actually has is more interesting than that — a herald of its own, a genuine tradition of sept arms, and a scandal that ended the chiefs. Here it is, honestly.
A coat of arms is granted to an individual, or to a body like a city or a college, and it passes to that person's descendants. It does not attach to a surname. Two unrelated Murphys have no more claim on each other's arms than on each other's houses. What a shop sells you as 'the Murphy family crest' is, at best, the arms of one particular Murphy, usually a chief or a landed family, and at worst a design nobody ever bore.
In heraldry the crest is one small component: the device set on top of the helm, above the shield, with a twist of cloth called a torse at its base. It began as the sculpture a knight wore on his helmet in tournaments. The whole display (shield, helm, crest and the rest) is an achievement of arms, and the shield is the part that actually identifies anyone. 'Family crest' gets both words wrong at once.
This is where Ireland differs from England, and where the honest answer is not a flat no. Gaelic society reckoned descent by sept, and the arms of the old Gaelic families were registered undifferentiated (no marks to tie them to one man) which suggests they were felt to belong to the sept, or to its ruling kindred, rather than to an individual. Edward MacLysaght, the first Chief Herald, drew the distinction the office still holds: any member of a sept may display its arms, but only a grantee and their descendants may bear them — on stationery, on silver, as their own.
The sept-arms idea cuts the other way too. A Kelly of the Uí Maine in Galway may display the arms of that sept; a Kelly from an unrelated Meath or Kilkenny sept may not, because they descend from a different Ceallach entirely. Most Irish surnames arose independently in several places (this site lists homeland counties for exactly that reason) so the surname alone tells you nothing about which sept, if any, you belong to.
From 1944 the Chief Herald gave courtesy recognition to Chiefs of the Name, senior descendants of the last Gaelic chiefs, beginning with fifteen whose lineages MacLysaght had researched. In 1992 a Belfast man named Terence MacCarthy was recognised as MacCarthy Mór on falsified papers, built a following of clan associations across Ireland and North America, and promoted an 'order' of his own; the Sunday Times exposed him in 1999. After the Attorney General advised that the recognition had no basis in law, the practice was abandoned in July 2003 and the Chief Herald's post itself lay vacant for two years.
You can petition the Chief Herald for a grant of arms of your own, the office's jurisdiction expressly includes people abroad of provable Irish descent, and a grant is a real thing with a real document. A plaque bought from a website is a picture of someone else's arms with your surname printed under it. There is nothing wrong with owning the picture. There is something wrong with believing the caption.
A full heraldic display — an achievement — is a shield, with a helmet above it, a crest on top of the helmet, and a twist of cloth called a torse where the two meet. The shield is the arms; it is the part that identifies anyone. The crest began as the sculpture a knight wore on his helmet at tournaments and became purely pictorial after the sixteenth century. When a shop sells a “family crest” it is usually showing you a shield, which is not a crest, belonging to a person, who is not your family.
Since 1 April 1943 heraldry in the Republic has been regulated by the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland, now part of the National Library on Kildare Street; in Northern Ireland it is Norroy and Ulster King of Arms in London. Irish blazon even has its own vocabulary — gorm and uaine for blue and green where English heraldry says azure and vert. The Chief Herald will consider a petition for a grant of arms from:
Not as a surname. Arms are granted to an individual and inherited by that person's descendants; a surname is not an heraldic unit. What is sold as the arms of a surname is usually the arms of one historical family of that name, and most Irish surnames arose independently in several places.
The crest is the small device on top of the helmet in a full heraldic display; the coat of arms is, strictly, the shield. 'Family crest' is a double misnomer — the crest is not the identifying part, and families as such do not hold arms.
The Office of the Chief Herald holds that any member of a sept may display its arms, while only the original grantee and their descendants may bear them — use them as their own on stationery, seals or silver. The catch is proving you belong to the sept, which a surname alone does not do.
The Chief Herald's jurisdiction covers Irish citizens, residents, and people abroad of provable Irish descent in either line, as well as bodies with significant Irish links. A grant is petitioned for, researched, and paid for; the office is part of the National Library of Ireland.
No. The State gave courtesy recognition from 1944, but after the MacCarthy Mór fraud of the 1990s and legal advice that the recognition had no basis in law, the practice was abandoned in July 2003.
It is a picture. Hang it if you like it. Just know that it is the arms of one particular family of your name, or a modern invention, and not something you inherited.
This page sells nothing and links to no one who does.
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