IRISH CHIEFS OF THE NAME
Clann DubhGhaill/ Clan Doyle presents the following information
for the interest and information of all who have an Irish
The succession to Gaelic Irish (and Gaelicised Norman-Irish,
also known as the ‘Old English of Ireland’) chiefships of name
was restricted to the ‘derbhfine’ of the
individual family ...
and was not dependent on any ‘approving authority’ such as
existed and exists under English law.
The derbhfine of a family included those males of the chiefly line
stretching back to a common great-grandfather, and all were
eligible for election.
This did not bar a son of a current chief, but at least
as often the successions went to an uncle, cousin, or nephew of
(Thus the Irish clans selected their most able leader.)
The successor was usually
designated in the chief’s lifetime, and approved by the
That successor was called ‘the Tanist’ and Gaelic
succession was called ‘Tanistry’.
It confounded the English for it differed entirely from
their feudal system of
primogeniture (the English system whereby the first-born son
inherited leadership and ownership, even if he was hopelessly
This Irish system of
Tanistry operated from the beginning of time until the
Gaelic system of chiefships and inheritances was almost
completely overthrown following the Battle of Kinsale in 1602,
when the Irish and their Spanish allies were catastrophically
defeated by the English at the conclusion of the ‘Nine Years
(Following the Irish disaster at Kinsale, the English proceeded
to vigorously implement a programme of ‘ethnic cleansing’
through Gaelic Ireland.)
What was left of the Irish system of
Tanistry, was finished off totally by the end of the
Williamite War in
called the Jacobite War in Ireland
and, in Gaelic, Cogadh an Dá
- meaning ‘War
of the Two Kings’ - it was a conflict between Catholic King
James II and the Protestant English Parliament, who had invited
the Protestant Dutch prince, William of Orange, to replace James
II as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland.)
The Williamite victory in the war in Ireland had two long
first it ensured Catholic James II would not regain his thrones
in England, Ireland, and Scotland by military means;
plus it also ensured total British and Protestant
dominance over Ireland.
Until the 19th century, Ireland would be ruled by what
became known as the ‘Protestant Ascendancy’, the mostly English
Protestant ruling class.
The majority Irish Catholic community, as well as the
‘Ulster-Scots’ Presbyterian community, were systematically
excluded from power, which was based on land ownership.
For more than a century after the Jacobite war in
Ireland, Irish Catholics maintained a sentimental attachment to
the Jacobite cause, portraying James II and his Stuart Royal
House as the rightful monarchs who would have given a just
settlement to Ireland, including self-government, restoration of
confiscated lands, and tolerance for those who remained loyal to
their Catholic faith.
For more than 100 years, vast numbers of Irishmen
continued to leave Ireland each year to serve the Catholic
Stuart monarchs in exile;
they did so by joining one or other of the famous and
prestigious regiments of the elite Irish Brigade of the French
legions of young Irishmen became internationally famous as the
Until 1766 France and the Papacy remained committed to restoring
the Stuarts to their British Kingdoms, and Irish soldiers in the
French service fought in numerous campaigns and battles all over
Europe … the Irish ‘Wild Geese’
even fought as part of the Jacobite army in Scotland
against the English, during the Jacobite uprisings up to and
including the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
‘Courtesy Recognition’ of Irish Chiefs
There had been several hundred ‘chiefs of name’, to include the
royals: O Conor Don;
and O Brien.
With the destruction of the Gaelic system, history lost the
great great majority of hereditary chiefs and chieftains.
But with the coming of Irish freedom/ independence in
1922 (and partially before), some chiefs began to come forward,
‘proclaim’ and again use their historic Gaelic titles.
Finally in 1944 the successor Irish government (based
then and now on English Common Law) authorised a form of recognition of the old
titles/ chiefships, which was referred to as ‘Courtesy
This system operated until 2003, but was illegal in the first
place ... which was finally recognised by the Irish government,
and the ‘courtesy recognition’ business then stopped altogether.
It had been abused with one totally false person being
certified as a chief, and there were perhaps a few others whose
claims were not studied too carefully.
In short, the system operating within the Office of Chief
Herald was a mess, and this has brought great embarrassment on
the Irish government and to many people who acted on its advice.
But it was considered ‘the approving authority’ for
claims to a chiefship of name, and indeed its approval was taken
as absolute proof of legitimacy – and entitled the person to
automatic admission to the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and
Chieftains (founded in 1990 in order to promote the interests of
its members and Irish culture in general).
Arms of The Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland
So, with the Office of Chief Herald no longer being ‘the’
approving authority from 2003, many naturally (though in
ignorance) turned to the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs as the
‘new’ approving authority.
Irish Standing Council of Chiefs and
Chieftains with President Mary Robinson, October 1991
Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains
However, the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains has
no approving authority over successions to Chiefships.
It never did, never should, and never will.
All it has is approval authority over its own admissions.
And, since 1999, it has admitted no one ... even though
there have been applications from at least four or five chiefs
who have proclaimed based on their proofs and genealogical
short, the Council has walked away from any responsibility to
anyone attempting to be admitted, etc.
It appears to not want any accountability even for its
own admissions, and a few people have reported that they haven’t
even had the courtesy of reply to their submissions.
The reputation of the Council has fallen significantly and the
only thing it appears to do is to offer an annual prize for an
essay on a Gaelic subject.
It maintains no website and, as said, seemingly gives out
Composed of less than twenty ‘chiefs of name’, most do
not live in Ireland and it is unclear how often they even meet
Nonetheless, there are indeed some very very qualified
individuals who are still members.
But, all in all, the organisation has been invisible in
terms of taking any position on a number of subjects, and has
not responded to any of the attacks on its members which certain
people have carried out.
Clans of Ireland Ltd
An organisation that does exist, and is public, and has a
website, is Clans of
Ireland Ltd. which is based in Dublin. This organisation was
started in 1989 with the help of the Irish government and has
done good work in helping ‘clans’ organise (that is people with
a common surname).
They have encouraged groupings, and clan rallys in
Ireland, and the election of ‘honourary’ chiefs.
‘Honourary’ because those elected would not be of the
Derbhfine line, and
would therefore not be hereditaries as on the Standing Council
of Irish Chiefs.
(Though certainly an honourary would step aside, if a
true hereditary descent were to be proved in a family.)
It is not a responsibility of Clans of Ireland Ltd to publish a
list of hereditaries versus honouraries.
Clans of Ireland Ltd
Chiefs of the Name Currently Proclaimed
Arms of Liam Trant McCarthy,
The MacCarthy Mor
There is no point in considering which chiefships or titles were
previously approved by the Office of Chief Herald from 1944
until 1999, or those which are currently members of the Standing
Council of Irish Chiefs.
That is all irrelevant now.
It really was then.
The following are those chiefships/ titles which the Clan Doyle
believes are currently extant and legitimate:-
The O Brien, Prince of Thomond
The O’Byrne, Lord of Gabhal Raghnaill
The O Cahan, Prince of Fir-na-Craebh
The O Callaghan, Lord of Clonmeen
The O Carroll of Ely
The MacCarthy Mor, Prince of
O Conor Don, Prince of Connaught
MacDermott, Prince of Coolavin
The O Dogherty of Inishowen
O Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnell
The MacDonnell of the Glens
O Donoghue of the Glens, Prince of Glenfesk
The O Donovan
of Clan Cathail
MacGillicuddy-of-the-Reeks, Lord of Doonebo
The O Grady of Kilballyowen
The O Kelly of Gallagh and Tycooly
The O Long of Garrenelongy
The O Morchoe
The O Neill Mor, Prince of Tyrone
The O Neill of Clanaboy, Prince of Clanaboy
The MacMurrough Kavanagh, Prince of Leinster
O Ruairc of Breifne
The MacSweeney Doe
The O Toole
Joyce of Joyce Country (a Norman-Irish chief, unfortunately the
only Norman-Irish to date)
Other Legitimate Chiefs
We also believe the following are most probably legitimate, but
it should also be noted that some of the following were
‘recognised’ by primogeniture (English law) when in fact all successions should be
by Tanistry (Irish
Brehon law), and thus if recognised by English
each family should also have had a
before final confirmation:
The O Dowd
The O Gara
The O Hara
The O Higgins of Ballynary
The O Meehan
ADDITIONALLY: as a
Viking descended people, the Doyle Clan objected and objects
that the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains
actually excludes all those who do not have Gaelic surnames.
This excludes a very very high percentage of ‘Irish’
people, of original Viking, Norman-Irish, or of whatever other
background, whose family histories show adoption of the Gaelic
system and ‘gaelicisation’ to include succession of chiefships.
And even the King of England recognised the ‘old English
of Ireland’ (Norman-Irish) as ‘more Irish than the Irish
themselves’ – families such as Barrett, Barry, Burke, Costello,
Cusack, FitzGerald, FitzSimons,
Roche, Savage of the Ards, etc. etc.
It is our view that the Standing Council should live up
to the ‘Irish’ in its title and admit ALL Irish chiefs of name,
and captains-of-their-nations, or change its name to ‘Standing
Council of Gaelic Chiefs’.
Irish titles and inheritances are back (finally, some would
say), back to where they always were and should have stayed:
in the possession of the individual families ... to
settle their successions (or as was also the Irish practice, to
fight it out among rival claimants).
The key today is that the government of the
Ireland is out of the ‘recognition’ business, over which it
never had any authority in the first place.
And, the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs - even if it
ceases to be ‘invisible’ - is not, and never will be, an
There is only one approving authority:
of the individual family.
Yes, it is a shame that so many bloodline descents have been
lost over the centuries due to the destruction of records by the
invaders, emigrations, and loss of ‘Irish identify’ as fostered
by the imposed government of the British.
But it is comforting to see that so many Irish families
have taken to the clan movement, and many are indeed searching
for their surviving chiefly lines, with a view to having a
hereditary chief once again!
Kings and Clan Chiefs
The use of the word 'The' as a prefix to a
surname, to indicate that the user is the head or chief of a
sept comprising the bearers of that name, is a comparatively
To understand this, one must glance back to the early
mediaeval period when Ireland was administered by one legal
system viz. Brehon Law … Brehon being a word formed from the
Irish ‘breitheamhan’, the genitive of ‘breitheamh’, meaning
lawgiver or judge. That
profession was of great importance and was usually the
prerogative of certain Irish families, such as the MacClancys
for the O'Brien dynasty, and the well-known O'Dorans of Leinster.
Brehon Law differed in some essentials
from the feudal system which obtained in western Europe.
A class system, with
degrees of status strictly laid down, was basic to it, but the
idea of nobility as deriving from royal prerogative was
absent … and so
was the concept of
There were more than a hundred petty
'kingdoms' in the country, that is to say their rulers were
termed ‘Rí’, the Irish word for ‘king’.
They were in most cases no more than chiefs who were
subject to overlords, to whom they paid tribute in the form of
cattle, corn etc, and, in most cases, these local ‘kings’ were
also liable to supply a certain number of armed fighting men to
assist the overlord when he was engaged in warfare with some
other, usually neighbouring, ‘Rí’.
The titular position of ‘Árd-Rí’
(High-King) was, generally speaking, more or less nominal.
The 'kings' of the northern half of
Ireland (‘Leath Cuinn’) recognised the hegemony of the O'Neill
overlord who was based on Tara, and those ‘kings’ of the
southern half of Ireland (‘Leath Mogha’) recognized the ‘Rí’ who
happened to be in power at Cashel.
Hill of Tara
When one refers to an O'Neill or a
MacCarthy in this connection it is necessary to remember
surnames of the hereditary type did not come into being until
the tenth century, and not widely until later.
Thus the collective term
‘Uí Néill’ denotes descendants of an ancestor named Niall.
A good example of how things worked in
those far-off days is to consider the King of Connacht
(Connaught), O Conor Don, who at one time was paramount as ‘Árd-Rí’
of that province. The
four provincial chiefs ranking as 'royal lords' under the O
Conor Don, giving the modern form of their names, were:
O Mulrennan, O Finaghty, O Flanagan and MacGeraghty.
Lesser chiefs associated
with O Conor Don had traditional functions in his service.
That these were of
importance is clear from the inclusion of O Kelly (steward of
the jewels), O Malley (naval commander), MacDermot (army
commander) and O Mulconry (chief poet).
‘Niall of the Nine Hostages’ and Ruler of Tara
The term ‘Árd-Rí’ does not appear in those
early Brehon law tracts which specify three grades of king:
(i) of the local ‘tuath’
or tribal kingdom; (ii)
of a larger territory and overlord of the local ‘tuaths’;
and (iii) king of a
province. Although the
genealogists trace the high-kingship back to ‘Niall na naoi
ngiallach’ (referred to in English as
Niall of the Nine Hostages)
in the fifth century, it did not become an actuality until much
later, and even such successful high-kings as Brian Boru (killed
by Doyle-Vikings at Clontarf in 1014 AD), who stands 45th in
their list, were far from exercising the undisputed authority
associated with most monarchs in France and England.
The effective kingship
or principal overlordship was that of the ‘righte’ of what were
called the ‘Cúig Cúigi’, i.e. five fifths or provinces,
Connacht, Leinster, Meath, Munster, and Ulster (to use the
modern names) … which, in fact, later
due to the rise of Oriel and the further division of Ulster into
As might be expected, with so many
semi-independent kings or chieftains, sporadic warfare was
frequent and it sometimes occurred within the ‘tuath’ or
mini-state itself. (Avoid
using the word 'tribe' to translate ‘tuath’, as it has
connotations foreign to its use in this connection.)
In cases of that kind,
fighting usually arose from the existence of rival claimants to
succession after the death of the head of the group concerned.
One of the main
differences between the Brehon system and the feudal system was
the non-existence of the principle of
primogeniture in the
former. The heir could
be any one of the males comprised in the ‘deirbhfhine’, i.e. the
descendants of a deceased chief to the fourth generation.
The method of election
by which the heir or ‘t[EJG1]áiniste’ was chosen in the lifetime
of the chief, was later introduced, but even so such disputes
were by no means eliminated. There
were complicated rules which governed succession to the
leadership in the various grades of social status.
All were meticulously
laid down in Brehon Law.
These minor wars had little effect on the
cultural development of Ireland over a period of five or six
hundred years before the coming of the Cambro-Normans in 1169
AD. Poetry, art and
genealogy flourished … and missionary expeditions helped to keep
Christianity alive in other parts of Europe where it had been
largely eliminated by the Goths and other barbarian marauders.
Even the frequent incursions of the
Norsemen (Doyle-Vikings), which caused much destruction –
especially to monastic buildings and treasures – had no affect
the social system of Gaelic Ireland.
The Vikings, however,
were responsible for one innovation in a community which was
the establishment of the first towns in Ireland … and they
founded several; notably
Dublin, Wicklow, Arklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick.
Viking ransack of an Irish monastery
The introduction of this Viking element in
the population of Ireland - not throughout the country, but in
isolated coastal settlements - did little to unite the Irish
kingdoms in opposition to it.
at the famous battle of Clontarf (1014 AD), while the Irish
forces under Brian Boru finally ended any hope the Vikings had
of dominating Ireland, it should also be remembered that some
Irish septs actually fought alongside the Vikings, against their
own ‘Árd-Rí’ (Brian Boru).
Boru (‘Boroimhe’ - of the tributes) was the first man of any
lineage other than O Neill or O Conor to become High-King, and
this position was obtained by force.
His race, the ‘Dál
Cais’, were originally a comparatively small population group
located in Thomond (‘Tuadh Mhumhain’, in the north of the
province of Munster), mainly the present County of Clare.
Up to 1169 AD, while predatory expeditions
had from time to time been made by Irish raiders in Wales and
even England (there is even evidence of Irish colonies being
established in North Wales), Ireland had seldom – if ever – been
subjected to incursions by English forces.
It was an Irish king, Dermot MacMurrough of Leinster,
who was responsible for what was indeed a turning point in the
history of Ireland, when he sought and obtained the aid of the
Norman King Henry II of England.
MacMurrough travelled to England and to Normandy looking
for Henry II, for the purpose of requesting military assistance
to support his own struggle for the retention of the Irish
kingdom of Leinster.
Henry’s assistance to MacMurrough resulted in the
invasion of Ireland, under Richard de Clare (Earl of Pembroke,
known as ‘Strongbow’) … the subsequent permanent settlement of
Normans in Ireland followed.
These twelfth century invaders, it should
be remembered, were French-speaking Cambro-Normans from Wales.
Their coming heralded the first significant change in the
composition of the aristocracy in Ireland.
King Henry II of England
and Normandy, with the imprimatur of Pope Adrian IV (the only
Englishman ever to become Pope), assumed the title of ‘Lord of
Ireland’ … and many of the Irish ‘kings’, regarding it as no
more than a formality, acquiesced in this but then continued to
rule their own territories as they had done previously.
The high-kingship, however, was at an end:
the last of their line
was Ruaidhri Ó Conchobhair (Rory O Connor) who died in 1189 AD.
The Norman element thus introduced became possessed of
vast landed estates in various parts of Ireland - less in Ulster
than elsewhere – but, by a gradual process,
they became part of the Irish
nation (though of course the modern concept of
‘nationality’ was then as yet unthought of).
This process of the
local Normans becoming ‘Irish’ was threefold.
Some became completely
integrated, giving rise to the well-known phrase 'Hiberniores
Hibernis ipsis' (more Irish than the Irish themselves).
These Normans formed
septs on the Gaelic-Irish pattern, headed by a chief.
Thus, the head of the
Norman family of Wall, in County Limerick, was known as ‘An
Fáltach’ (The Wall), and the head of the Condons was known as
‘An Condúnach’ (The Condon).
Other Norman families in this category were, inter
alios, the Mandevilles, who became ‘MacQuillan’;
the Archdeacons, ‘Cody’;
‘Corish’; and the
Nangles, ‘Costello’. With
the destruction of the Gaelic order by the English during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they suffered the same
fate as the indigenous Gaelic septs.
Other great Norman families which did not go so far as to adopt
the Brehon system nevertheless became essentially ‘Irish’ and
were unaffected by the Statutes of Kilkenny (1367 AD), which
vainly sought to prevent the descendants of the Norman invaders
from dressing and riding in the Irish fashion, or playing Irish
games, or marrying Irish women, or speaking the Irish language.
Naming the most notable
of the Hiberno-Norman families, such as Barry, Dillon, de Lacy,
Plunkett, Power, Prendergast and Roche would inevitably result
in omitting some of equal importance, but it is generally agreed
that FitzGerald, Butler and Burke were the most important.
heraldic arms of
FitzGerald, Duke of Leinster
There were two main branches of the
FitzGeralds, the heads of both bore titles of nobility (Earls of
Desmond and of Kildare), which were conferred on them by the
King of England as Lord of Ireland.
In 1582, the Desmond branch of the FitzGeralds were
responsible for a major revolt against the extension of English
power in Ireland … which resulted in defeat, and in the
devastation of much of the province of Munster.
Apart from the earldom,
there were two other hereditary titles borne by the FitzGeralds
of Kerry and Limerick, conferred in the fourteenth century, not
by the King of England but by his representative in Ireland,
which are unique and are still extent and fully recognized; the
Knight of Kerry and the Knight of Glin.
The FitzGeralds of
Desmond (‘Deas Mhumhain’, South Munster) eventually conformed
and were prominent in the aristocracy of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. The
Kildare branch found no difficulty in acknowledging the English
sovereign's overlordship. One
of them, Garret FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, became the
viceroy of King Henry VIII (the first English sovereign to be
styled ‘King’, rather than ‘Lord’, of Ireland).
Garret became so powerful in that capacity, he was
deemed to be a threat to royal supremacy in Ireland.
Summoned to London, he
languished in captivity till his death … and his son, known as
‘Silken Thomas’, then renounced his allegiance to the English
King, and went into rebellion.
In 1537, ‘Silken Thomas’ (aka Thomas FitzGerald, 10th
Earl of Kildare) was eventually executed in London, with no
less than five of his uncles. The
family, however, was not thus entirely annihilated and later
regained their position as one of the leading noble families of
Ireland … and, having become Dukes of Leinster, they occupied
their mansion at Carton in County Kildare until quite recent
‘Silken Thomas’ attacks
A third category are typified by the
Butlers of Ormond (County Kilkenny and east Tipperary) whose
titles (finally Marquis of Ormond) were equally the creation of
an English monarch. While they made no attempt to become
integrated, they perforce became Irish in many ways - in
speaking the Irish language for example:
one of them acted as
interpreter at the Parliament of 1541 AD, which was attended by
the Irish-speaking chiefs as well as the English faction.
For the most part, the
Butlers regarded themselves as representing that section of the
population having historical ties with England but distinct from
the English people. To
give a fair picture of them, it should be added that a number of
individual Butlers are to be found in accounts of pro-Catholic
activities and in the ranks of the Irish 'Wild Geese' fighting
in Irish regiments of the major European Catholic powers.
Duke of Ormonde
At this point it would be appropriate to
refer to those prominent immigrant families who had no
connection with the Cambro- or Anglo-Normans and did not come to
Ireland till the sixteenth century;
such as the Bagenals,
Edgeworths, Fleetwoods, Goldsmiths, Gwynns, Sigersons, and
Springs, just to mention a few of them.
Perhaps the most
remarkable of these were the Browne family.
(Not the Brownes of
Camus, County Limerick, of whom were the famous Maximilian
Ulysses Browne and other prominent 'Wild Geese', nor to those
who in Connacht/ Connaught who got the title Oranmore, nor again
the Brownes who were one of the 'Tribes of Galway'. )
The Browne family referred to for the moment are the
Brownes of Kerry, Earls of Kenmare. They started as intrusive
foreigners, but following intermarriage with the O'Sullivans,
MacCarthys and other great Gaelic families of the area, they
became before long uncompromising Catholics and suffered in
their turn as such, though by reason of unusual circumstances
related in The Kenmare Manuscripts regained and retained their
vast estates in Counties Kerry and Limerick up to present times.
They, however, were
never prominent in the political arena.
Unlike the Brownes of Kerry, most of this class
conformed to the English Protestant Church at the Reformation,
and constituted a not inconsiderable element in the Anglo-Irish
gentry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This category were, in
the seventeenth century, termed the ‘New-English’ to distinguish
them from the descendants of earlier invaders and settlers who
had become ‘hibernicised’ (adopted Irish culture, dress, sports,
language, and had inter-married with the Gaelic Irish) and
espoused the Catholic cause in the wars of Cromwell and William
of Orange. These were
termed the ‘Old-English’.
When considering the great Gaelic-Irish families, take the
province of Connacht (Connaught) as an example of the lordships
of a province which had to a considerable extent fallen under
the domination of Cambro-Norman invaders in the earlier period …
these, however, had become ‘hibernicised’.
Typical of the less
important of these were the Nangles (de Angulo) who adopted the
name ‘MacOisdealbhaigh’ (modern Costello), incidentally the
first non-Gaelic surname to use the Gaelic prefix ‘Mac’.
At that time, the
province of Connacht (Connaught) included the modern County of
Clare (Thomond), now in Munster, and much of Breifni (County
Cavan, usually reckoned to be in the province of Ulster).
constituting these Lordships were, according to the ‘Anála Locha
Cé’: Ó Ceallaigh (O
Kelly) of Uí Maine; Ó
Conchobhair (O Conor) in its three branches - Don (‘donn’,
brown) Roe (‘ruadh’, red) and Sligo;
MacDiarmada (MacDermot) of Moylurg;
Ó Ruairc (O Rourke) of
Breifni; Ó hEaghra (O
Hara) of Leyney; Ó Dubhda
(O Dowd) of Tireragh; Ó
Flaithbheartaigh (O Flaherty) of Connemara;
and Ó Briain (O Brien) of
Thomond … together with the three powerful branches of the de
Burghs (Burke) - MacWilliam Iochtar, MacWilliam Uachtar and the
Earl of Clanrickard, whose family were not so much ‘hibernicised’,
as the other Burkes of the province of Connacht (Connaught).
In presenting a picture of the Chiefs old ancient Ireland,
briefly consider one of those old Gaelic families as an
illustration, and for that purpose the O'Briens of Thomond would
be suitable because they were to some extent of divided
lineal descendants of Brian Boru were hostile to the early
invaders: Donal O'Brien,
King of Munster, with his Dalcassian followers, was a leading
figure in the successful battles against the Norman leader ‘Strongbow’
in l174 AD, and against the Norman-English Prince John in 1185
AD. They retained the
designation, ‘King of Thomond’ (‘Tuadh Mhumhain’, north
Munster), and often used ‘King of all Munster’ until 1543 AD,
when Morrough O Brien surrendered his 'captaincy and
principality' to the English King Henry VIII who, in accordance
with the principle of 'surrender and re-grant', created him Earl
Turlough Lynagh O'Neill and the other Irish kerne kneel to Sir
Henry Sidney, Lord-Deputy, in submission 1575 … as part of the
‘surrender and re-grant’ process. In the background
Sidney seems to be embracing O'Neill as a noble friend.
Note that O'Neill wears a native version of English costume and
sports an English haircut, though his entourage still wears
distinctive Irish costume.
It may be noted that, in the deeds
conferring titles on Irish Chiefs who accepted the English
principle of ‘surrender and re-grant’, the Irish recipient was
almost always referred to as 'chief of his name' or 'captain of
Murrough O Brien also conformed to the new
Protestant English Church, accepting King Henry VIII instead of
the Pope as head of the Church.
The main branch of the O Briens were thereafter no
longer champions of the Irish cause but, unlike many others
similarly circumstanced, they did not become absentee landlords,
but remained in County Clare, with the lesser title of Baron
Inchiquin, to end as landlords of the better type.
The junior O Brien branches, however,
produced men who were notable as Irish patriots. Two were on the
Supreme Council of the Confederation of Kilkenny (l642) and one
of the most renowned regiments in the Irish army of Catholic
King James II against William of Orange was ‘Clare's Dragoons’ -
Clare being Daniel O'Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare.
Officer of Régime de
Clare, Irish Brigade of France, 1767
Régime de Clare (Clare's
This regiment later became famous on the
Continent and the O Briens in it, together with those who fought
in the service of France at Fontenoy and elsewhere, can be
counted among the more prominent of the exiles who constituted
the Irish 'Wild Geese'.
The flight of the Wild Geese began in
earnest with the episode known as the 'Flight of the Earls' when
Hugh O Neill (Earl of Tyrone) and Hugh Roe O Donnell (Earl of
Tyrconnell) took ship with 99 other leading Ulster Gaels, going
first to Flanders and then to Rome … where the two great chiefs
died. However, they
left sons who, while remaining exiles, kept in touch with their
own country … and their descendants were prominent in the ‘Wild
Geese’ Irish regiments of the Spanish Empire.
From the beginning of the seventeenth
century, the history of Ireland has been overshadowed by its
religious or rather its denominational aspect.
Up to that time, Ulster
had been the most thoroughly ‘Irish’ part of Ireland, less
affected than any other province by subversive English
incursions. The O
Neills and O Donnells had maintained their real independence
(even though they did accept titles of nobility from the English
crown). Then, in spite
of a remarkable victory over the English at the battle of the
Yellow Ford in 1596, they were defeated six years later at
Kinsale … which was the last and conclusive battle of that
campaign (a long and bloody campaign which came to be known as
the ‘Nine Years War’).
The catastrophic defeat of the Irish and
their Spanish allies at Kinsale, resulted in the aforementioned
'Flight of the Earls'
… and what followed became known as the ‘Plantation of
confiscation of the O Neill and O Donnell estates, and the
settlement thereon of Lowland Presbyterian Scottish as well as
Protestant English settlers.
This 'plantation' differed from the others inflicted on
Ireland, in that not only the landowning class was wiped out but
the smaller occupiers of land were forced to move from their
holdings to patches of unprofitable mountain and boggy land.
Forty years after the destruction of the
old Gaelic order in Ulster came the ‘Cromwellian
Transplantation’ to province of Connacht (Connaught) and to
County Clare, which resulted in the confiscation of the estates
of great numbers of Catholic landowners and their settlement in
smaller holdings on poor land in the West of Ireland … or, in
many cases, their exile to continental Europe, or worse, their
transportation as slaves to the West Indies.
Though it was found impracticable to carry our the ‘Cromwellian
Transplantation’ with the full severity originally intended, it
did amount to a national upheaval … and in those cases where the
victims did not voluntarily find their way to exile in France
and other European countries, it inevitably resulted in a
reduction of their social status in Ireland (or slavery on
English sugar farms in the West Indies).
This policy had first
been attempted in the previous century with the Plantation of
Laois and Offaly, then re-named Queen's County and King's County
in commemoration of Queen Mary I and her Spanish husband,
Philip. Though it caused
much temporary disturbance it had little permanent effect on the
majority of the inhabitants; and two chiefs concerned, O More
and O Conor Faly never submitted, but the latter died, and the O
Mores went to County Kerry where they sank to minor importance.
The third war in Ireland of the seventeenth century was fought
between Catholic King James II and William of Orange … for the
crown of England, and nominally of Ireland too.
heroic exploits, after James II had fled to France following his
defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, secured the just
Treaty of Limerick.
Limerick was long called the 'city of the
broken treaty' because the terms of the Treaty of Limerick were
not kept by England … and because the enactment of the very
severe anti-Catholic ‘Penal Laws’ soon after, completed the
Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, and his Irish army (together
with thousands of their women and children) became yet another
major contingent of the 'Wild Geese', when they left Ireland for
France, to become an Irish army-in-exile.
In the early years of the English
Civil War, a French traveller in England remarked that the
Irish 'are better soldiers abroad than at home'.
Between 1585 and
1818, over half a million Irish were lured from their
homeland by promises of glory, money and honour in a
constant emigration romantically styled 'The Flight of the
Wild Geese'. Throughout
this period, the Irish Brigades in France and Spain
participated in conflicts ranging from the wars of the
Spanish and the Austrian Successions through to the
The overall position is concisely presented by Stephen Gwynn in
his History of Ireland (p. 327) where he says,
“what happened in the seventeenth century was not merely
the transfer of property from certain persons to others, nor
even the penalising of one religion which was that of the vast
majority, and endowing that of a minority at the general
expense. It was the
destruction of a ruling class in a country which was still
aristocratic; it was depriving Ireland of its natural leaders -
that is, of those leaders whom Ireland willingly recognized”.
Literally hundreds of
thousands of Irish men went to Europe, mainly to France and
Spain, in the century and a half that followed after the
Cromwellian war in Ireland, and this continued until the French
Revolution; plus there
were many Irish of high social rank who became officers of
distinction in the armies of Russia and Austria.
von LACY, a famous Irish-Austrian Field Marshall
With regard to the present members of the Standing Council of
Irish Chiefs and Chieftains:
the question of these titles, or rather designations, has
been discussed in one of the introductory articles of ‘Burke's
Irish Family Records’ (1976), where it was explained that those
who had in the past been recognised by the Chief Herald of
Ireland* were descended by the
English system of
primogeniture from the last formally inaugurated Irish Chief.
Up until 2003, any hereditary Chief or Chieftain of a Gaelic
Irish Surname recognised as such by the Chief Herald of Ireland,
and published in Clár na
dTaoiseach (the Irish Government Gazette), could be admitted
to membership of The Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and
Chieftains, provided that proof of hereditary origin was vetted
by the Chief Herald and that the Name was approved at an Annual
General Meeting of the Standing Council.
In 2003, following a scandal caused by formal recognition of a
fraudulent ‘Chief’, the Chief Herald of Ireland was directed by
the Government of Ireland to cease providing courtesy
recognition to Irish
Chiefs of the Name, and consequently the Standing Council of
Irish Chiefs and Chieftains has admitted no new members since
The Office of the
Chief Herald of Ireland, formerly known as the Genealogical
Office, and before that known as the Office of Arms, was founded
in 1552 AD. It
became, during the period of ‘the Union’ (the political
‘amalgamation of England, Ireland, and Scotland during
1800-1921), a British Government Office, and so during the long
years of English rule in Ireland it did not recognise Irish
chiefs, except in one case: in
1900 The O Connor Don was granted supporters to his heraldic
shield, and at the coronation of Edward VII he was officially
appointed to carry the standard of Ireland during the ceremonies
on that occasion.
Before the final submergence of the Brehon
system there were, needless to say, many more recognised Irish
Chiefs than those listed by the Office of the Chief Herald in
2003 when ‘curtesy recognitions’ ceased … some of those ‘lost’
Irish Chiefs have substantiated their claim in recent times.
Sixteenth century sources, such as the
State Papers and the Fiants, show that, apart from the ‘hibernicised’
Norman families already mentioned, the heads of the following
families were there referred to as chiefs:
MacArtan (now MacCartan);
O Beirne; O
Boyle (no connection with the English name Boyle, borne by the
Earl of Cork); O
Brennan; O Byrne;
O Cahan (Kane);
O Carroll; MacCarthy Mór;
O Connell; O
Connolly; O Conor
Faly; O Conor Roe;
O Conor Sligo; O
Daly; O Dempsey;
O Devlin; O
O Dowd; O
Doyle; O Driscoll;
O Dunn; O
Dwyer; O Farrell; O
Flaherty; O Folane;
O Gara; MacGeoghegan;
O Hanlon; O
Hara; O Heyne;
MacKenna; O Kennedy;
O Loughlin; O
Melaghlin; O Molloy;
O More; O
Mulryan (Ryan); O
O Nolan; O
Phelan; O Reilly;
O Sheridan; O
Sullivan Beare; and
O Sullivan Mór.
The first modern Irish ‘clans’ (family
name societies) were established in the latter half of the
Today such groups are organised in Ireland, the USA,
Australia and mainland Europe.
In 1989, Rory O'Connor, the elected
Chieftain of the ‘O'Connor Kerry Clan’, set out to bring about a
revival in the organisation of the Irish Clans.
To this end, he wrote to newspapers, cultural
organisations, and individuals across Ireland encouraging people
to begin to organise themselves in clan associations. He was
successful in requesting and obtaining support from Mr. Martin
Dully, then Chairman of Bord Fáilte (Irish Tourist Board) as
well as the Irish Minister for Tourism at the time.
Since 1989, there has been a great upsurge
of interest in the old Irish chieftainries and clans.
Many 'Clan Societies' have now been formed and some of
these have revived the practice of appointing Chieftains.
This has been actively
encouraged by the Irish Government.