Dear clansmen and women!I I have an old cutting from a magazine called 'Ireland's Own' which did a series on surnames. The article for the McCann name was by a D.O.Hairt. It reads:- The McCann shield has a gold/yellow fretwork on a blue background. The central band or fess is in white with a wild boar in red. The salmon over the crest is depicted in natural colours. The Latin motto "Crescit sub pondere virtus' means "Virtue thrives under oppression". This idea may be symbolically interpreted from the shield. Blue, the colour representing loyalty and truth, and the colour of the Virgin Mary -"font of all virtue", shines clearly through the binding fretwork which represents "oppression". The fess occupies the central and most important part of the shield and the wild boar was the symbol of a fearless warrior and is very widely used in Irish & Scottish heraldry. The use of the fish (salmon) in the coat of arms was borrowed from the early Christian church in which a fish was often used as one of the symbols of Christ. Of course, the salmon has a special meaning in Irish Mythology- that of learning from the story of Finn MacCumhaill and the salmon of knowledge. It can also be mentioned that the McCanns were the Lords of Clanbrassil a district on the shores of Lough Neagh which would make the salmon even more appropriate as an emblem. Rgds Tony McCann