As a result of several queries on this newsgroup, I made an appointment in
the Irish Genealogical Office to view records relating to the grant of arms
to President Clinton dated 15 June 1995. While permission was refused to
view the file containing details of how the armorial design was arrived at
(usual appeal to be lodged), I was able to view a reduced colour photograph
of the grant of arms, and made out the following blazon as best I could:

Or a lion rampant gules charged with three bars argent holding in the dexter
paw a branch of olive proper between in the dexter chief and sinister base a
cross crosslet fitchée sable and in the sinister chief and dexter base a
shamrock slipped vert, with the Crest an anchor erect azure on the stock the
letters SPES argent, Mantled gules doubled argent and with the motto An leon
do bheir an chraobh.

The lion rampant gules is a feature of arms of Cassidy, the President's
maternal line, while the crosses crosslet fitchée are a feature of Clinton
family arms, although the President of course was born Blythe and assumed
the surname of his stepfather Roger Clinton. The shamrock no doubt denotes
Ireland, and the branch of olive would refer to the President's involvement
in the ongoing Peace Process.  Anybody any ideas about the three bars
argent? I would translate the Gaelic motto as 'The lion holds the branch'.
The text of the grant is in both Gaelic and English, and includes no summary
pedigree, merely referring to the fact that President Clinton's 'lineage
includes certain forebears of Irish stock'.

As indicated earlier, the grant was rather low key and is not well known,
and this may have been related to media controversy over the unsupported
claim that the President's Cassidy ancestors had been traced to Roslea,
County Fermanagh. In fact, the several Irish elements of the President's
ancestry were never properly investigated, and the present writer's file on
the subject remains open. Finally, the document is also decorated with small
shields containing the arms of the Genealogical Office and of Chief Herald
Donal Begley, the grant being the last made before his unexpected early
retirement.

Sean Murphy
Centre for Irish Genealogical and Local Studies