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A gold harp with a straight forepillar and silver strings.
Also known as: Cláirseach, Irish State harp, Gaelic harp emblem, Gold harp on blue
Ireland is the only country whose national emblem is a musical instrument, and the state's harp faces left while the Guinness trademark harp — registered earlier — faces right. The direction is the legal distinction between the two.
Denotes Ireland as its state emblem: a gold harp with silver strings on a blue field, used on the presidential standard, coinage and official documents.
Contexts: Public information
Faces left in the state's version; the Guinness trademark harp, registered in 1876 before Irish independence, faces right, and the state adopted the mirrored orientation because the trademark was already held.
Contexts: Public information
Is modelled on the Trinity College Harp, a surviving medieval Gaelic harp of the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Contexts: Public information
A harp with a curved neck, a straight forepillar and a soundbox, drawn in gold with silver strings, on a blue ground.