The family coat of arms

Since my last blog entry, I've been up to my eyeballs with work, which is good, but it hasn't left me any time for writing, which is bad.

However, in my spare minutes I've been developing a serious interest in my family's geneaology. I've never known a huge amount it, but as a child, my grandad had a plaque with the Meehan family crest hanging on the wall. I knew Meehan was an Irish name, but this looked much more like an English coat of arms. I presumed it was just some cheesy knock off, put together in modern times and attributed to the name. However, I've been knocking around the net, and discovered that, amazingly, it's actually an authentic family coat of arms, granted by James the Third to the Meehan family for their bravery and sacrifice at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Here's the story of how that happened, taken from an american website devoted to the Meehan family history.

Christopher The O'Meighan had been a loyal subject of Charles II, who had restored the ancestral lands to this Chieftain in gratitude for the clan's service against Oliver Cromwell (who had executed Charles' father). For the period between the reacquisition of Ballagh and the death of Charles, Christopher and the remnants of Clan O'Meighan lived and worked at Ballagh.

Upon Charles II's death, James II, a Catholic, ascended to the throne. This was in 1687. Catholic Ireland was quite excited by this turn of fortune, as it appeared James wanted to reverse the many discriminatory practices against the native Catholic population. However, as optimistic as the Irish population was, the English establishment was as determined to protect their own - i.e. Protestant interests.

Therefore, William of Orange (a Dutch Prince who was married to James II's daughter Mary) was encouraged to prosecute a war against James and sieze the throne of the three kingdoms (England, Scotland, and Ireland) for himself. He recruited armies from the Continent, including French Huguenots, Danes, Dutch, Germans, and only a small number of English and Scots. (He distrusted these because the Stuarts - James II's ancestors - had legitimaeley ruled previously, and he was uncertain that some of these armies might turn on him.

A European army of 35,000 met an army of 25,000 Irish at the Boyne in 1690, and - as we know from history - William's European Army was victorious.

Christopher The O'Meighan lost his life in this critical battle, and the ancestral lands were again confiscated. Two of his sons, James and Charles (aged 15 and 13) continued fighting all the way through to the Treaty of Limerick, and then were transported to France.

In appreciation for the bravery and sacrifice of the Meehan family at the Boyne, King James III of England and Ireland bestowed the honor of a coat of arms for the Meehans. It is a shield divided by a chevron and three bucks. It was granted to James O'Meighan (Mehegan) for his family's part in the Battle of the Boyne.

I'm particularly chuffed to notice that not only is it a cool coat of arms, it also features a griffin - a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. I take this as a good omen, as I am writing a fantasy novel at the moment. I will have to include a griffin somewhere.