Shamrock Acres Lynch's

Ireland has had a terrible economic history, but my family’s coat of arms is filled with meaning and history. In the past century or so the Irish history is filled with sorrow and torment as war tore the country apart and then a famine of the main produce caused one in four people to die. Even in all this torment, families have managed to survive and move to richer countries. This is what my family ancestors did to provide their descendents with a better life. From them I inherited a beautiful coat of arms, not to complex but filled with a lot of meanings.

There are always problems after war that effects how a country will survive. Ireland went to war with England to separate itself from England, and eventually England gave up most of Ireland. Unfortunately do to the fact the England never did anything important with Ireland. The people had nothing of their own; they had been receiving everything from England, "Its British colonizers sucked it for its farm produce but did little else to promote its economy," (Ardagh 68). With this major problem, Ireland had to start from scratch to rebuild the country. One of Ireland’s greatest problems was that its entire economy in the past was aimed at agricultural needs and farming. When the technology revolution occurred, Ireland was not prepared for such new ideas. Along with not being prepared governmentally the government leaders thought that if they kept the economy the same the country would be fine, but the world was turning to technology and farming was going to cheaper areas.

In the last 30 to 40 years the economy made major strides to the modern world, (Ardagh 68). Ireland added telephone service to the cities, Ireland went from a non-digital land to a somewhat modern place. Ireland still racks as one of the third poorest countries in the world. In the 1960’s foreign countries began looking to Ireland and other countries to set up their business, they were looking to other countries for cheap land and low cost labor to run the factories and businesses. Some of the criteria used to pick the countries was low taxes, people who spoke English, the people who are not prone to work strikes, and the people are generally well educated (Ardagh 74). These foreign countries made up 35%-40% of the Irish work force, which also made up 90,000 jobs, (Ardagh 74).

This foreign business also made many other problems; the first problem was that Irish business did not compete against the foreign countries, therefore, making them selves weak. The second problem was that when the foreign countries left Ireland they left Ireland with low quality jobs. Some people believed the problem was that the countries had no allegiance to Ireland. The third problem is that when the companies left there was no other work to be done, and that led to whole towns just vanishing with no one left.

The final problem Ireland had was that it is said that the better educated people of Ireland left to find better jobs in other countries. There are very few well-known businesses from Ireland but the 3 largest Irish entrepreneurs are Tony O`Reilly, Tony Ryan, and Michael Smurfit.

Tony O`Reilly worked with H.J. Heinz and soon became its president and chief executive in Pittsburgh; he was the highest paid American manager. He also owned an independent Newspaper in Ireland.

Tony Ryan ran a purely Irish firm in Shannon called Guinness Peat Aviation; the largest aircraft leasing company and Ireland’s biggest privately owned service firm. He was hit hard by world recession and had to make heavy cutbacks.

Michael Smurfit has made a fortune in the humdrum world of packaging, a family own business, is the largest private company, and the only one to be listed in the worlds top 1000 companies. Of 39000 people employed only 2000 are in Ireland, (Ardagh 80). That is the economic history of Ireland.

Most American families have some type of coat of arms. Just look up the family name in a history book or on the Internet to find it. Coats of arms first showed up in medieval times, they were used to tell the knights apart because of the heavy armor the people were unidentifiable, (Britannica 388-389). People kept them as a sample of the family, in Britain and other European countries. In England there is a College of Arms, that is where most coat of arms in England are stored. It also kept records of genealogy; it was set up in 1484 by Richard III, and was later moved to London, (British 53). They are commonly seen on stores signs and business entrances.

There are many parts that makeup a person’s coat of arms. The different parts are mantling, helmet, supporters, shield design, shield colors, print designs, banners/motto, and crest, (World 194-196). First shield colors, the most common shield colors are silver/white- (argent), gold or blue- (azure), red- (gules), black- (sable), green- (vert), and purple- (purpure), (World 194-196). The colors were used for easy identification, in England, Ireland, and Scotland they used different metals instead of colors, possibly laid on top of furs providing maximum contrast.

Second, there are the print designs; they are mostly used to separate the different sections of the shield, decoratively. Third there is the banners/motto that usually have the family’s name or sayings that describe the family.

Fourth, there are the shield designs; they are made with different lines and patterns added on the shield. The different choices are barry, bendy, paly, chevron, chequy, cozenge, fusil, barry-bendy, paly-bendy, gyronay, compony, and barry per pale, (World 194-196). Finally there is the crest, they give another description of which the family was and was more of a symbol (ex. Good luck, health, etc.). Those are the main parts of a person’s coat of arms, the other parts, mantling, helmet, and supporters, go on the outside of the crest and are not normally shown. I have seen many different designs for my family’s coat of arms, but the general design has a shield with a chevron, and three trefoils/shamrocks. The meaning of the chevron is protection; the trefoils mean trinity "They who love justice shall endure."

The other symbols not commonly shown are the motto and the crest, the motto is Semper fidelis= (always faithful), and the crest is a lynx that is a symbol of vigilance, courage and love of freedom, (Lynch), or in some books passant, and cowardly, (Lynch family 4-6). Those are the parts of my family’s coat of arms.

Ireland may have had many terrible economical events, but I will almost always find my coat of arms interesting and full of meaning. Analyst’s have been wondering for years whether Irelands economic troubles would while most agree on the same thing, "Many experts, however regard the present state mechanisms too complex and clumsy for a country this size," (Ardagh 73). That is what experts think of Ireland economically. From my Irish families coat of arms I have found that it says that my family is faithful, courageous, and lovers of freedom and justice. That is what my coat of arms basically stands for. From the sadness of Irelands economic troubles to our great America, that is where my family came and my coat of arms comes from a long history.