Reaching to the Crescent Moon

Reaching The Crescent Moon Pride of the Irish Race


As I was growing up, we followed many of the Sept-Irish traditions. A yearly meeting, where an older male was elected to lead the clan. On a table my aunt had displayed the Hines coat of arms, which was a Sept-to display the coat of arms and a long rolled chart of ancesters. I knew that we had this history, but I had no idea that we were royal irish, even when the old relatives bragged that our coat of arms meant that.

My relatives had admired my painting and drawing ability and insisted it came from the Celts. They openly asked me to give them paintings and drawings. Many of them were artists as well and said it was part of the royal genes. They told the tale of my grandparents coming to NYC in 1900. We were a very pure bloodline and the NYC relatives would come upstate for the yearly clan meeting.

I had no idea how serious they were, until I found the Hines websites in 2001. I was shocked to see that we had castles, we had royal relatives posting on forums. Then, with the power of the internet, they have been posting the war and monastary history of the Hines. I then decided to hypenate my name back to Hines, since part of the Sept is to display the name. We ordered coat of arms and T shirts and enjoy telling people, we are royal Irish. Many Americans have simialr stories, they trace back and find out they were related to royalty, which used to be taboo, you were suppossed to forget where you came from in America. Many African slaves were royal family and their modern relatives search out what tribes they came from.

The Irish claim to be a race, not to be Anglos. Today, irish art and music emerges and the castles are being visited by tourists. Our goal is to someday go to Hines Castle. I have been to Ireland before and plan to take my kids there. If you have relatives who were royalty, why should you forget that? Some American ideas about forgetting Europe, Spainish or African cultural roots are wrong!

There are too many stories of poor Irish, melting pot Irish. People get the impression that the Irish were all struggling, all poor, a beer boozers, all Catholic. The Hines are land owners, rulers, wealthy, educated, artistic, painters, dancers and many are Protestants. My relatives told me that around 1700, the Hines became very irrate with Catholics, because of the mystic nonsense of charging people money to go to heaven. The Hines clan has a religious split-many are Protestants and became British residents.

The coat of arms has 3 crescant moons on it. The Hines had exemplary military skills and their own armies. I am very proud of this, the Irish were never afraid to fight or die. They were also very against a return to the ancient religion, because, some sorceery was evil. Not all Druidism was good, the real stories of sorcery involved curses as well as spells.

They were at one time part of the Crusades, witch hunts, so I emphasize that many witch hunts were also clan feuds. The Sept was that a heirarchy of brightest and fittest rules, so clan would fight inside clans. The family leader was elected, similar to dogs having an alpha dog, so no wonder Anglo Saxons called the Irish, the dog race. I am just telling the history as it is, without the mystical Celtic-Pagan-Wicca modern sugar coating.

The mysticism carries on. My daughter was born on March 17, which we view as mystical. I enjoy painting images from Celtic lore, the crescent shaped celtic symbols emphasize that this was an artistic "race" of people. It is actually called a race since the history is different than the Anglos. The history of the Celts back to Adam has been recorded by monks, some from the Hynes monastary.

Medieval Irish monks recorded genealogies back to the beginning of time, recorded in The Annals of the Four Masters and other works, from Adam, the first man; to Milesius of Spain, progenitor of the Irish race; to Fiachrach Folt-Leathan, ancestor of the Hynes' tribe; to the legendary Guaire Aidhne the Hospitable, King of Connaught; down to Eidhin, from who the O'Heynes (Ó hEidhin) were named.


From Adam: the First Man

From Milesius: Father of the Irish Race


From Fiachra: Founder of the Tribe


From Guaire: King of Connaught


From Eidhin: Progenitor of the O'Heynes


To Today: Hynes Hall of Fame


As I visit websites, I link my art websites and find Irish people enjoy my images, which are actually, authentic, images of my being an artist of Irish royalty lineage. You wonder how much of it is genetic memory, since we often all have memories of mystical fairy images and feel the moor when we see fields of land.