More strange than true: I never may believe
These antique fables nor these fairy toys. …And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. …William Shakespeare (c. 1595). A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Here follows a meander through antique thickets of airy nothing —
+ enlarge
Arms: Azure semé of Mullets of six points appointé Argent.
Crest: On a Wreath Argent and Azure out of a Circlet of Chain broken Argent an Eagle wings expanded Or grasping in the talons the Chain.
Mantling: Azure doubled Argent.
❖ The blazons of English heraldry are in an idiom derived from a macaronic blend of Middle English and Norman French. Some of this is explained in the glossary.
CLARERE AUDERE GAUDERE
Be bright: be daring: be joyful.
ΖΗΤΕΙΝ ΤΗΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ
Seek the truth.
As the badges are not part of the arms, they have no blazons — but notionally these may suffice:
I: Within a Circlet of Chain sans the middle base link Argent an Eagle Or grasping in the talons the loose link broken also Argent.
II: A Mullet of six points within a Circlet of six of the same appointé Argent filled and environed with regular Hexagons all conjoined Azure.
❖ Here the first badge shows an eagle with ‘wings displayed and inverted’, however since there is another form of the badge in which it is shown with ‘wings expanded’, as in the crest, the attitude of the eagle should not specified in the blazon.
* What's in a name? Plainly not enough to ensure singular identity in this instance, since several share the name: but even so only one of them is burdened with these emblems,1 namely:
To each of the others, greetings cousin! / fàilte co-ogha! / col ceathrar beannachtaí!
