Talk:Scott Medal

While sources say the medal shows the arms of the four provinces, the only pictures I found online suggest otherwise:

• Peter O'Reilly's 1926 medal from this irishmedals.ie page clearly shows the arms of Galway City and of Dublin City instead of those of Connacht and of Leinster. Munster is fine; Ulster is shown only by the Red Hand, without the Greek cross underneath.
• From policehistory.com there are several thumbnails;
  • this example (probably before Peter O'Reilly's medal, since lacking the New York City arms in the centre) seems to have the same Galway and Dublin arms
  • this example is harder to make out but the left panel at least still looks more like a Galway ship than a Connacht dimidiation.

jnestorius^(talk) 23:58, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

The source would appear to be Francis Joseph Bigger, whose 1912 article "The Arms and Flags of Ireland" rejects the received arms of both Connacht (in his [erroneous] view an ugly British imposition unknown in Connacht) and Leinster (because those conflict with the arms of Ireland — which he gives a green field, rejecting Saint Patrick's Blue as a "fake colour"). Thus Bigger co-opts the Galway and Dublin municipal arms, which he interprets as Gaelic.^[1]

Besides the Scott Medal, I have seen a few other scattered instances of Bigger's variant provincial arms:

• Rug in the Royal Dublin Society Council Chamber, designed by Lucius O'Callaghan and made in 1928 by the Dun Emer Guild.^[2]
• 1964 carpet commissioned from Donegal Carpets by New Ireland Assurance^[3]
• "The Arms of Ireland and Her Four Provinces", embroidery in Orange Hall Lodge, North Toronto (with gold-harp-on-green for Ireland in the centre).^[4]

jnestorius^(talk) 21:17, 31 December 2021 (UTC) [Saothar na hÉireann URL added jnestorius^(talk) 10:34, 24 October 2025 (UTC)]