Thomas McINTYRE
Mr McIntyre wrote a dissertation for the Heraldry Society on the arms of McIntyre of Glencoe and the inspiration for his arms is those of the Chief of the Clan McIntyre. These feature an eagle displayed in the 1st and 4th quarters, a lymphad in the 2nd and a hand grasping a cross-crosslet fitchée in the 3rd. The arrangement is purposely intended to allude to the chiefly line, yet be sufficiently different so as to avoid an implication of any direct relationship to that family. The charges also have personal significance since McIntyre served in the US Navy and has spent his professional career as an attorney in the US Department of Justice. The crest is also modelled on that of the Chief of the Clan McIntyre, who uses a hand grasping a dirk. It is differenced by the addition of an arm in armour with an ermine cuff and having the dirk penetrate a snowball. By tradition, the snowball is one part of the semi-annual rent by which the Chiefs held their ancestral territories. The snowball appears on the Chief’s arms as a plate on the breast of the eagle and a cadet branch of the Clan also uses a snowball impaled on a dirk as its crest. The crest is further differenced by having the hand issuing from a circlet of thistles and trefoils. the latter being an allusion to Mr McIntyre’s grandfather who was born in Ireland.