The office was constituted on 1 April 1943 as successor to the Ulster King of Arms, established during the Tudor period of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1552.

[11] At the request of the Irish government grants of arms were made to US presidents John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Bill Clinton in 1995.

The associated policy of surrender and regrant involved a change to succession to a title by primogeniture, and not by tanistry where a group of male cousins of a chief were eligible to succeed by election.

[citation needed] Many other clan chiefs were never given formal titles or knighthoods from the Kingdom of Ireland, but were issued with arms and usually registered their genealogies with the heralds in Dublin, and became a significant part of the landed gentry.

[citation needed] After the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the subsequent Flight of the Earls, some dozens of the old Gaelic aristocracy scattered throughout Catholic Europe.

[16] Due reportedly to uncertainty concerning the legal validity of grants of arms in Ireland, the post of Chief Herald remained vacant from September 2003 until August 2005.

The Genealogy and Heraldry Bill 2006[20] was introduced into Seanad Éireann to reform the Office and provide a firm legal basis for grants and confirmations of arms.

This bill was withdrawn on 12 December 2006 with the consent of the sponsoring senator and was referred to the board of the National Library for consideration by John O'Donoghue, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.

[21] In September 2007 a notice was added to the National Library website noting the suspension of grants of arms until the legal situation was clarified.

Following the receipt of legal advice, the Board of the National Library was "satisfied that it can exercise the heraldic powers conferred on it by the 1997 Act", and grants are again being made.

An applicant will be expected to provide genealogical information including birth, marriage and death certificates back to an ancestor that bore arms.