A couple of quick points on Irish heraldry:

1) The office of Ulster King of Arms was, from it's inception, always independent of the English College of Arms in exactly the same way that Lyon has always been independent of the College of Arms.

2) When McLysaght wrote of "Sept arms" he was referring to the Irish practice of granting arms based on those of the head of distinct Gaelic houses. In this regard the practice is broadly similar to the Scottish practice of basing the de novo arms of clanfolk on those of the clan chief. McLysaght, a Gaelic scholar, preferred the word 'Sept', meaning family, as opposed to 'Clan', which means children, when collectively describing a group of people with the same, or similar, surname. He could have, as easily, used the phrase "tribal arms" in the same context.