Does Dublin Need "An Updated Coat of Arms"?

I ran across an article last last week (October 9, 2014) entitled "Time to tell Dublin's old motto: `You're fired'" by Frank McNally.  Mr. McNally seems to feel that because (1) Dublin's coat of arms is some 400 years old, and (2) "nobody - not even City Hall - now knows which castles they're supposed to be, or indeed whether they're castles at all," that it may be time for Dublin to adopt something new as its emblem.

As an academic herald I, of course, disagree.  But still ...

Mr. McNally does have some good points in his article, which I am not going to repeat here. (He also speculates about the origins of the flames.) You can read the entire thing yourself on the website of The Irish Times at http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/time-to-tell-dublin-s-old-motto-you-re-fired-1.1956569)  It is worth noting, for example, that no one seems to be sure whether those are really castles on the arms, or if they're supposed to be a portion of the old city wall, or even if there really three castles or simply one being reproduced three times.  And what about the flames?  (The words of the old Billy Joel song come to mind: "We didn't start the fire.")  So, by all means, go read what he has to say.  But ....

I would note that Dublin's coat of arms is a pretty simple one considering it's for a city; such things can be quite complex, and some entirely horrendous.  Dublin's, on the other hand - Azure three triply-towered castles argent, the towers enflamed proper - are simple and immediately identifiable as what they are, in color or in monochrome.  Do I think they need to be changed, or updated, or modernized?  No, no I don't.

Plus, you can find them everywhere about the city, from buildings to bike racks, to lamp posts and trash bins, and city trucks to manhole covers.  The following are some of them that I was able to photograph during our stay in Dublin in 2002.  I think that some of them are great examples of what can be done to "modernize" or make a logo out of a classic coat of arms without the need to actually change them for a logo (with all of the accompanying design fees!).  See if you agree.

Heraldry in the News

A recent article in the Trinity News gives an identification of the various coats of arms on Trinity College’s Campanile (a freestanding bell tower) which is placed so prominently in the main square of the College in Dublin, Ireland. Each of the coats of arms is identified and their blazons given. The article can be found on-line at: http://www.trinitynews.ie/index.php/opinion/editorial/669-old-trinity-the-campaniles-arms-identified

There are some nice photos of the Campanile throughout the seasons at the Ian Russell Art website at http://www.iarchitectures.com/campanile.html

We had the opportunity of staying at Trinity College during the International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences held in Dublin in 2002,* and I can attest to the beauty of the structure. Go by and see it if you are ever in the area. (Be warned, however; the “hallowed cobblestones” there can be murder on your feet. The wearing of very sturdy shoes is recommended.)

* We stayed in the buildings known as “Botany Bay”, which made us the envy of our medievalist friends as we were thus directly across the square from where they keep the Book of Kells, but all I could hear at the time, and since, upon thinking of the words “Botany Bay” is the voice of Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan going “Botany Bay? Botany Bay! Captain, we must get out of here!!”

Do They Really Need a New Logo?

The post for May 4, 2009, over at the Cheshire Heraldry Web Journal (http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/weblog/) is a great one about the adoption of a new logo by Stirling Castle, and its cost. That posting got me to thinking about the times over the last several years where one organization or another, even some who already had perfectly good coats of arms that they have been using for years to "brand" themselves to the public, pay sometimes ridiculously large amounts of money to some commercial design firm to develop for them a "new," "more contemporary," or "more relevant" logo, with which they often replace their "old", "outdated" coat of arms.

In the example of Stirling Castle, it seems to me that if they really wanted, as they said, to "convey a sense of depth, experience, royal authority, richness and intimacy" of the Castle, they could have used the coat of arms here, which appear on a tapestry right there in the Castle.

I have to wonder, though, if part of the problem doesn’t lie in the fact that many people seem to think that a coat of arms is just like a trademark, in that it absolutely, positively must be drawn exactly the same way every time it appears, no matter what. Because that is clearly not the case, as a minimal amount of study would serve to demonstrate. Take, for example, the coat of arms of the City of Dublin, Ireland. The arms appear in a very traditional fashion on a bicycle rack; in pretty traditional fashion on many of the city’s street lamps, both colored and monochrome (most in silver, but some in gold paint); in a simplified but still fairly traditional version on waste receptacles placed about the city; in a modern, logo style on city-owned services sites and vehicles (again, both colored in blue and white or monochromatic in black and white); and finally in an extremely stylized fashion on metal services access covers on the sidewalk.

And yet, each version, traditional and modernized, is the same coat of arms that the city has used for who knows how many years. (The arms were officially granted in 1607, but elements of it appear in the city seal as early as the 13th Century.) No need to pay some design firm thousands or even hundreds of dollars/Euros/pounds sterling for a new design. Just update the depiction of the coat of arms you already own! (And then take the money you’ve saved and give it back to the taxpayers from whom it came. See? Heraldry can be of positive benefit, even in our modern times.)