Armorial Bearings
Composition
The design comprises a complete Achievement of Arms, ie shield, crest with helmet and mantling, supporters, motto and badge. The shield indicates the topography and constitution of the District, the crest its scenic and touristic importance, the supporters its historic association with the O’Neills., the motto its ancient name and the badge is a derivative of the shield.
Description
The shield has a background of green in which a reversed ‘pall’ or Y-shaped figure in white, represents the confluence of the Drumragh and Camowen Rivers to form the Strule. The rural areas around Omagh are suggested by two gold bulls’ heads, each enclosed within a garland of ears of wheat resembling the letter ‘O’ to represent mixed farming. Each garland has ten ears, so the total of twenty corresponds to the number of wards constituting the new District. The shield is completed by a stylised gold three-towered castle, the stronghold of the O’Neills, which also indicates the history of Omagh as a fortress and garrison town since the mid-fifteenth century.
Above the shield is the closed helmet proper to civic arms, with its crest-wreath and decorative mantling or tournament cloak in the basic colours of the shield, green and white. Upon the helm is the crest. In front of a hill representing the hills, especially the Sperrin Mountains, stand three pine trees alluding to one of the District’s main amenities, the Gortin Glen Forest Park. These are enclosed within a circlet of white stars from the American flag alluding to the Ulster-American Folk Park in the District, which commemorates the Mellon family and the close links between the Irish and American peoples.
The supporters combine the red lion, sword and severed hand which are prominent in the heraldry of the O’Neills of Tyrone. The lions have a distinctive collar of gold ‘Os’ for Omagh and O’Neill.
The badge is a separate emblem, not placed on a shield, and used in various ways when the complete arms would be unsuitable. One of its principle functions is as the only part of the Council’s armorial bearings which may be displayed as an identificatory ‘Omagh’ emblem by local organisations. Necessarily simple, the badge takes the river motif and green background (for the rural areas) and the gold castle (for Omagh) from the shield, set within a gold circle giving the letter ‘O’.
The motto is the ancient Irish form of Omagh – Oigh Maigh.
