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This article is within the scope of WikiProject Belfast, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to the City of Belfast, Northern Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.BelfastWikipedia:WikiProject BelfastTemplate:WikiProject BelfastBelfast-related
This article should not be speedy deleted as being recently created, having no relevant page history and duplicating an existing English Wikipedia topic, because the duplicated page doesn't cover the issue in depth. --Universalis (talk) 18:25, 18 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It is deeply regrettable that the recent editorial decisions made by Zacwill regarding the Coat of Arms of Belfast Wikipedia article have resulted in the marginalisation of the blazon—a foundational element of heraldic scholarship and civic identity. The relegation of the blazon to a mere footnote reflects a profound misunderstanding of both the function and significance of armorial language within the context of municipal heraldry.
Blazoning is not an ancillary detail nor a decorative curiosity; it is the precise, technical description that gives legal and symbolic legitimacy to the coat of arms. In heraldic terms, the blazon is the authoritative register of the arms—it is what distinguishes them uniquely and unambiguously among all others. To obscure this from the main body of the article is not only a disservice to the subject, but also an erosion of the encyclopedic standards to which Wikipedia purports to adhere.
Furthermore, by resisting any attempts to restore the blazon to its rightful place in the main text, the editor disregards the conventions observed in virtually all serious treatments of heraldry, whether academic, institutional, or encyclopedic. Comparable articles on civic arms across the United Kingdom and Ireland, including those of cities such as Edinburgh and London, invariably present the blazon as a central feature—often prominently and with due contextual interpretation.
This editorial choice undermines the article’s scholarly integrity, deprives readers of a crucial interpretive tool, and inadvertently promotes a superficial understanding of Belfast’s heraldic tradition. Such an approach stands in contradiction to the principles of informative neutrality and completeness that underpin Wikipedia’s mission. A revision is not only appropriate, but imperative, to restore both the accuracy and dignity of this article’s representation of Belfast’s civic arms.
