It was on our ‘to do’ list for months, and the application form took a few minutes, but there was always orders to work on, so we only got around to it last month. We are delighted to be associated with the Crafts council of Ireland, and look forward to working with them.

Our cufflinks are handmade, with genuine old Irish coins which are set into cufflinks. We ship our cufflinks worldwide every day and we love hearing from customers, so if you have a question of query, just click the contact us section. Again thank you for stopping by our website, its really appreciated.

The Irish Coin Cufflinks team

We made a special set of our Irish Threepence cufflinks, so if you are looking to purchase our cufflinks as a gift, remember to let the receiptent know they are in good company with their cufflinks !

Photo of the Irish Cufflinks we made below.

Ireland Rugby Cufflinks

We have also priced the cufflinks well and they are available for €29 plus P&P and are available to order online at www.irishcoincufflinks.com

The Cufflinks come in a silver Cufflink presentation box.

Irish Cufflinks

I didn’t until someone recently told me and I researched further on the subject. Here is what I learned.

In 1926 the government of the newly founded Irish Free State formed a coinage committee to plan for a new Irish coinage. The chairman of the committee was the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

The government decision had already been taken to issue a sterling currency rather than to establish an independent Irish currency.

It was determined that people associated with “the present time” should not be incorporated on any designs, no doubt due to the deep divisions carved by the Irish Civil War. It was later decided that anything with religious or cultural connotations should be avoided because this might have led to coins becoming relics or medals. At the time, and for centuries previously, agriculture was essential to the economy of Ireland and this theme was decided upon for the coins, which used designs featuring animals and birds.

After some deliberation the committee decided that the Irish harp would be used as the national symbol on the coinage as it had been since the 1530’s.

cufflinks for men

A competition was organised and a number of well known sculptors and coin designers were invited to submit patterns for the coinage to the committee. A prize was to be awarded to the winning artist.

The design chosen for the common obverse was of a 16 string Irish harp modelled on the ‘Brian Boru’ harp in Trinity College Dublin. The legend Saorstat Eireann (Irish Free State, in Irish) surrounds, and the date is divided either side of the harp.

Yeats set out - that it should be “beautiful, intelligible and appropriate in meaning for the people of the country and foreigners

Also, added are the 10 cent Euro cufflinks, made using 10cent euro coins and gold plated cufflinks which are matched perfectly. The coins feature a map of Europe and the Irish harp.

cufflinks

Note we stock the Irish 5p.

Something old, new borrowed and blue

The full wording of this popular bridal attire rhyme, which dates back to the Victorian times is ’something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in your shoe’.

Something old refers to wearing something that represents a link with the bride’s family and her old life.

Usually, the bride wears a piece of family jewelry or maybe her mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress.

Wearing something new represents good fortune and success in the bride’s new life.

The bride’s wedding dress is usually chosen, if purchased new, but it can be any other new item of the bride’s wedding attire.

Wearing something borrowed, which has already been worn by a happy bride at her wedding, is meant to bring good luck to the marriage.

Something borrowed could be an item of bridal clothing, a handkerchief or an item of jewellery.

Wearing something blue dates back to biblical times when the colour blue was considered to represent purity and fidelity.

Over time this has evolved from wearing blue clothing to wearing a blue band around the bottom of the bride’s dress and to modern times where the bride wears a blue or blue-trimmed garter.

And a silver sixpence in your shoe

Placing a silver sixpence in the bride’s left shoe is a symbol of wealth. This is not just to bring the bride financial wealth but also a wealth of happiness and joy throughout her married life.

in the past, an Irish 5 pence coin could be worn in place of the sixpence in the shoe.

At Irish Coin Cufflinks, we make the cufflinks using the Irish 5p coin.

Irish Wedding Cufflinks

Early history (8000 BC – 400 AD)
 
Ireland during the Ice Age.Main articles: Prehistoric Ireland and Early history of Ireland
What little is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from a few references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. The earliest inhabitants of Ireland, people of a mid-Stone Age, or Mesolithic, culture, arrived sometime after 8000 BC, when the climate had become more hospitable following the retreat of the polar icecaps. About 4000 BC agriculture was introduced from the South West continent, leading to the establishment of a high Neolithic culture, characterized by the appearance of pottery, polished stone tools, rectangular wooden houses and communal megalithic tombs, some of which are huge stone monuments like the Passage Tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, many of them astronomically aligned (most notably, Newgrange). Four main types of megalithic tomb have been identified: Portal Tombs, Court Tombs, Passage Tombs and Wedge Tombs. In Leinster and Munster individual adult males were buried in small stone structures, called cists, under earthen mounds and were accompanied by distinctive decorated pottery. This culture apparently prospered, and the island became more densely populated. Towards the end of the Neolithic new types of monuments developed, such as circular embanked enclosures and timber, stone and post and pit circles.

The Bronze Age properly began once copper was alloyed with tin to produce true bronze artifacts; this took place around 2000 BC, when some Ballybeg flat axes and associated metalwork was produced. The period preceding this, in which Lough Ravel and most Ballybeg axes were produced, and is known as the Copper Age or Chalcolithic, commenced about 2500 BC. This period also saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments, weapons and tools. There was a movement away from the construction of communal megalithic tombs to the burial of the dead in small stone cists or simple pits, which could be situated in cemeteries or in circular earth or stone built burial mounds known respectively as barrows and cairns. As the period progressed inhumation burial gave way to cremation and by the Middle Bronze Age cremations were often placed beneath large burial urns.

 
Newgrange, built c3200 BC, is an Irish passage tomb located at Brú na Bóinne.The Iron Age in Ireland began about 600 BC. By the historic period (AD 431 onwards) the main over-kingdoms of In Tuisceart, Airgialla, Ulaid, Mide, Laigin, Mumhain, Cóiced Ol nEchmacht began to emerge (see Kingdoms of ancient Ireland). Within these kingdoms a rich culture flourished. The society of these kingdoms was dominated by an upper class, consisting of aristocratic warriors and learned people, possibly including druids.

Linguists realised from the 17th century onwards that the language spoken by these people, the Goidelic languages, was a branch of the Celtic languages. This was originally explained as a result of invasions by Celts from the continent. However, research during the 20th century indicated otherwise, and in the later years of the century the conclusion drawn was that culture developed gradually and continuously, and that the introduction of Celtic language and elements of Celtic culture was a result of cultural exchange with Celtic groups on South West continental Europe from the neolithic to the Bronze Age.[1] [2] Little archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants in Ireland.

The hypothesis that the native Late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed Celtic influences has since been supported by some recent genetic research.[4]

The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland’s geography and tribes. Ireland was never formally a part of the Roman Empire but Roman influence was often projected well beyond formal borders. Tacitus writes that an exiled Irish prince was with Agricola in Britain and would return to seize power in Ireland. Juvenal tells us that Roman “arms had been taken beyond the shores of Ireland”. In recent years, some experts have hypothesized that Roman-sponsored Gaelic forces (or perhaps even Roman regulars) mounted some kind of invasion around 100,[5] but the exact relationship between Rome and the dynasties and peoples of Hibernia remains unclear.

Apart from needing  wedding Cufflinks on your wedding day, you’ll also need a blessing and here at Irish Coin Cufflinks we have supplied some information for your wedding day. From wedding cufflinks to wedding blessings.

Weddings are a time of well wishing and the bestowing upon the wedded couple, many blessings of all sorts. Every culture in the world has its own bevy of wedding blessings, but none are more favored than the Irish wedding blessing.

The Irish wedding blessing is becoming more and more a staple in weddings around the world, because they contain humor and heartfelt wishes expressed in beautiful language which appeals to most peoples’ ears, be they Irish or not. And for the most part, no matter how often they are used……..and they are long lived already, almost immortalized in history’s annals……..the Irish wedding blessing never seems to grow tiresome, but rather more desirable with the passage of time.

And there is a good reason for this: the meaning in a traditional Irish wedding blessing is so heartfelt, so elegant, and so sentimental; that it is often included in a wedding simply because it is so beautiful. Take a look around the room after an Irish wedding blessing has been given and you will find more than one person teary-eyed and moved by the blessing.

Here is an example of a traditional Irish wedding blessing: “May you both live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.” Or this example: “May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies, and quick to make friends.”

There are numerous places to find good examples of an Irish wedding blessing, and one of the best places to look is the internet.

www.Irishcoincufflinks.com

For your wedding.

Irish Marriage Blessing
May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortunes
and rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
from this day forward.

 
An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.