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The White Rod, White Wand, Rod of Inauguration, or Wand of Sovereignty, in the Irish language variously called the slat na ríghe (rod of kingship) and slat tighearnais (rod of lordship), was the primary symbol of a Gaels king or lord's legitimate authority and the principal prop used in his inauguration ceremony.O'Donovan, pp. 425 ff; FitzPatrick 2004, p. 58 First documented in the 12th century Life of Máedóc of Ferns, but assumed to have been used long before then,FitzPatrick 2004, p. 58 and passim it is last documented in Ireland in the early 17th century. In Scotland the rod was used into the 13th century for the inauguration of its last Gaelic-speaking kings,Alexander III of Scotland was the last, for whom and which see Bannerman 1989. and for the Norse-Gaelic Lords of the Isles into the 15th.Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles is recorded being so inaugurated in the Book of Clanranald, ed. & tr. Cameron, pp. 160–1.[1]
While the reception of the rod was in origin a Gaelic cultural feature, following the Viking and Norman invasion of Ireland some foreign families became significantly Gaelicisation. A notable example were the great Hiberno-Norman De Burgh magnates styled Mac William Íochtar, who had become completely Gaelicised, ruled over their followers as Irish clan chiefs, and received the White Rod.FitzPatrick 2004, p. 214 and passim
Even after the collapse of all other institutions of Gaelic Ireland, the Chief Poet of a district, who presided well into 18th-century Munster over the district's Cúirt, a poetic court similar to the Welsh Eisteddfod,Daniel Corkery (1926), The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century, pages 95-125. would receive a Staff of Office (), which would later be handed down to his successor.Daniel Corkery (1926), The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century, page 270.
A note to the pedigree of the O'Mahonys at Lambeth, written by Sir George Carew, circa 1600/3:
While describing how Hugh Roe O'Donnell was inaugurated on 3 May 1592, Timothy T. O'Donnell has written:
The Heritable Usher of the White Rod is the only example of an office of the Crown becoming incorporated as a company. The Walker Trust Act, 1877, incorporated the office into the Walker Trustees, entitling the trustees to charge dues from anyone receiving an honour from the Crown. In 1908 the Society of Knights Bachelor was formed to contest this right, but a Court of Session case the following year confirmed the right of the Walker Trustees to charge recipients of honours. However, the Society of Knights Bachelor won an appeal to the House of Lords in 1911.
The Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, as ex officio chair of the Walker Trustees, is the Heritable Usher of the White Rod, but the role carries no duties.
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