RCSI’s College Arms share a couple of popular St. Patrick symbols. Can you spot them?
RCSI College Armorial Bearings
The Shamrock
‘The Supporters are Irish elks, with chaplets of shamrock around their necks'
The shamrock has been used as a symbol over the ages, and is attributed to Saint Patrick in his attempt to describe the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. It later became one of the symbols to represent Ireland itself.
The Snake
‘The Crest (has) an eagle, preying on a serpent, which was an emblem of disease’.
The snake has long held associations with disease, death and evil. However, in the legend of Patrick, when he banishes snakes from Ireland he is presumably banishing evil in the form of paganism rather than disease.
RCSI College Arms
Our current College Arms date to 1907, but RCSI’s heraldry has evolved over time. JDH Widdess, medical historian and past RCSI Librarian and Professor of Biology, traced the symbolic influences such as the surgeon’s lancet stemming from the Arms of London Barber Surgeon (1451) and the motto ‘Consilio Manuque’ from the Arms of College de St Cosme (1615).
College Arms of RCSI since 1907
The first armorial bearings devised by College in 1784 looked quite different to today's iteration. It showed the harp to represent Ireland but no shamrock, and had lions rather than Irish elk. The snake has always been a feature. These arms were used until, as Widdess put it, it was “realised that no legal right to bear them existed. Only a heraldic authority has power to grant the use of arms, and it is also his function to design them”. Thus, the current design and the right to bear the arms officially date to 1907.