1st and 4th or, a chief indented azure; 2nd and 3rd gules three
covered cups or. out of a ducal coronet or a plume of five
ostrich feathers argent, therefrom issuant a falcon rising of
the last. utler is a name to be found in every walk of life in
Ireland. The name is true of England. In the absence of a
reliable pedigree, or at least a well established tradition, the
origin of individual Butlers in Ireland to-day cannot be
suggested with confidence. The history of the Ormond Butlers,
however, is very well authenticated - indeed for more than seven
centuries their history is the history of Anglo-Irish relations
- from 1171 when Theobald Fitzwalter accompanied Henry II to
Ireland, till our own time when the ancestral castle of Kilkenny
was abandoned as the seat of the family and the voluminous
Ormond manuscript collection was taken over by the National
Library of Ireland, where it forms an invaluable source for
Irish as well as for Butler family history. The surname Butler,
as far as Ireland is concerned, date