Gules, a cross Argent fretty Azure.
Motto : In hoc signo, spes mea.
Thanks to Frank Martinoff for drawing our attention to Taaffe.
Thanks to Bernhard Peter for
documenting the arms.
Count Edward Charles Richard Taaffe of Dublin (1898-1967) was the only son of Henry/Heinrich, 12th Viscount Taaffe, but he never officially became the 13th Viscount Taaffe, as his father's Irish peerage was forfeited on March 28, 1919 (under the terms of the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917, for having borne arms against Britain, on the Austrian side, during World War I). Richard was the first of his family to be allowed to return to Ireland. Nevertheless, he always went by the name of Count Taaffe, as he could also claim the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire.
He discovered taaffeite (magnesiotaaffeite) as a cut stone in 1945. Taaffe allowed that discovery to be published by B.W. Anderson.
Genealogy :
- Born in Bohemia in 1898. Died in Dublin in 1967.
- Only son of :
- Henry, Count Taaffe (1872-1928) 12th Viscount Taaffe of Corran, Baron of Ballymote (County Sligo, peerage of Ireland: 1895-1919) who was born on May 22, 1872 and died in Vienna on July 25, 1928. His name had been removed from the roll of Peers of Ireland (by Order of the King in Council, dated 28 March 1919) because he was on the Austrian side in World War I.
- Magda, Countess Taaffe, née Maria Magda Fuchs, who married in Vienna on 1897-05-22 and died on 1918-01-03.
- Grandfather: Eduard Graf Taaffe (1833-1895) 11th Viscount Taaffe and Baron of Ballymote (peerage of Ireland) himself son of Charles Taaffe, 10th Viscount Taaffe. He became governor of Upper Austria in 1867. He was Prime Minister of Austria from 1868 to 1870 and from 1879 to 1893. Eduard had 3 daughters and only one son, Henry, who fathered the discoverer of taaffeite.
- ...
- Sir John Taaffe of Ballymote, 1st Viscount Taaffe of Corran (1628). He married Anne Dillon and died before Jan. 9, 1641/2.
- ...
- Sir Nicholas Taaffe (grandfather of Richard Taaffe, Sheriff of Dublin in 1295 and Sheriff of Co. Louth in 1315).
- The name Taaffe was originally the Irish spelling of the Welsh equivalent of David.
| Topher Taaffe | The Pleasures of Discovery | Gemology Project: Taaffeite |
