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Margaret Dickson

Margaret Frances Dickson was an American tourist who visited Clare in 1841 and sent her reports for publication to the Dublin University Magazine (whose readership was mainly the Protestant ascendency class).

This report provides a very descriptive insight into how a funeral would have been conducted; the conditions in which the locals survived; the clothing worn at the time in Quin.

“After taking leave of our kind hosts at Dromoland, we started for Ennis, and on our way stopped at Quin Abbey and spent some time in exploring the ruins, than which nothing can be more beautiful or picturesque. There were the dim shadowy aisles – the broken gothic windows, tapestried with ivy, through which the light fell on ruined altars and ancient dilapidated tombstones, the heaps of mouldering bones and shattered skulls, the graves beneath our feet of generations long passed away; all these images of the nothingness of man could not fail to impress the mind with the seriousness. I was suddenly startled by a tall figure in blue, with a white nun-like drapery over the head, gliding round the sharp angle of a cloister, sinking in a kneeling posture on one of the tombstones and remaining there as fixed and motionless as the marble beneath.

The figure was soon followed by others; peasants in long blue or scarlet mantles, white caps or kerchiefs tied over their heads, came pouring into the abbey; they belonged to a village funeral scattered about the aisles, or kneeling motionless in silent prayer on the tombstones, their long cloaks falling in graceful drapery around them, was exquisitely picturesque.

2 views from the entrance to the alter when the friary was over-grown with ivy

 

The custom at funerals among the Irish, of each going to weep and pray over the grave of “their own” is a very touching one. We stood watching the groups as they entered the aisles, every face wearing a solemn expression; and saw them separate each to her own dear spot, where, after making the sign of the cross, knelt in prayer.

We climbed up a sort of altar or monument, over which was a large gothic window curtained with ivy. Looking through the window, we saw beneath us two figures, one dressed in a scarlet mantle, with a white cloth thrown over her head, who were seated together, bent over a grave.

The two voices joined in the wail, which now rose wildly in the loud violence of sorrow, now subsided into a low murmuring chant, re-echoing, and at last dying away among the distant cloisters.

We were struck by the apparent absence of sorrow in the funeral procession. The countenances round the hearse were solemn but there were no tears, none of the signs of grief usual on such occasions. This was explained afterwards. The departed was a young girl of eighteen, who died of fever; three days previously, her father had been buried in the abbey and a fortnight before that her sister had died of the same complaint. The whole family had it. The wretched mother, widowed and bereaved of her children, had but just risen from her sick bed with five fatherless ones to provide for, and in expectation of the birth of a sixth in a few weeks.

The view from the abbey from the place where we rejoined the carriage was beautiful and the scene from within its enclosure full of interest, even at that distance. The sober grey colouring of the old ruins with their rich and graceful draperies of dark ivy, contrasted finely with the bright and varied hues of the groups gathered under the walls and seated in picturesque attitudes amongst the moss-covered graves. The blue mantles and snow white head gear of the women with here and there a bright scarlet or crimson cloak, a brown staff dress or blue check apron and red shawl, formed a very national and interesting variety of colouring. On a rising ground behind, stood a group of men in their grey frieze coats; this fortunate woman escaped to safety. Mrs Hopditch young girl’s coffin, lying waiting to be removed into the narrow receptacle out of which the men were digging and throwing up the earth.”

 

Extracts from ‘Letters from the coast of Clare by Margaret Frances Dickson’ – Dublin University Magazine 1841

What did the Anglo Normans ever do for us?

We are well aware of the impact of the Anglo-Norman invasion on our history, the undermining of Gaelic society and the replacement of our native structures. Poor old Diarmuid MacMurrough takes a lot of blame for all of this, despite the fact that Henry II in England had already sought and had been given approval by Pope Adrian to invade and civilise us. Henry was just waiting to finish his war in France before sorting us out!

Anyway, in they came, conquered, settled, married and eventually becoming more Irish than even ourselves, ‘níos gaelaí ná na Gaeil féin’! But besides building towns and castles, robbing our women (and probably taking our jobs!), what did the Anglo-Normans do for us – if anything?

Well, for one, they gave us a whole new suite of names, both forename and surname, to choose from.

The Norman influence on Irish surnames

Following the invasion of 1169, a large number of Anglo-French first and last names entered into Ireland. Many, such as Power, Browne, Fleming, Joyce, Burke, Barry, Costello, Nagle, Nugent, D’arcy, Roche and Walsh/Welsh/Wallace, are nowadays considered Irish and are commonly found in Clare. So, too, are those with the Fitz prefix such as Fitzmaurice, Fitzgerald, Fitzgibbon and Fitzpatrick which most people would regard as Irish as the shamrock. Fitz, meaning ‘son of’, can be considered the Norman version of Mac (it derives from the Latin/French ‘fils de’, meaning ‘son of’). Burke came from de Burgh, Roche from de Roiste, Power from de Paor.

In 1366, a law was passed that “Every Englishman do use the English language, and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of naming used by the Irish.” This was introduced to dissuade the settlers from adopting Celtic prefixes or forms of surname. It didn’t have much affect as many settler families added Mac or ‘O’ and Norman names evolved into an Irish form (eg McHenry, McArthur).

In 1465 a law was passed enacting “that every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the County of Dublin, Myeth, Vriell, and Kildare … shall take to him an English Surname of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke, Kinsale; or colour, as white, blacke, browne; or arte or science, as smith or carpenter; or office, as cooke, butler ….”

Many of the trades of the early medieval period such as Archer, Butler, Cooper, Carpenter, Draper, Skinner, Tanner found their way into our surnames. Other introductions from this period came from the mercenary soldiers who accompanied the Norman invasion: Walsh (meaning Welsh), Joyce and Fleming (from Flemish mercenaries) are examples.

Incidentally, the Normans usually took their surnames from the place of their family origins. So, D’arcy originates in Arcy in Normandy. De Clare originates in Clare in Suffolk where the Anglo-Norman family were based. While De indicated their place of origin, Le was used to describe them, eg Le Poer meant ‘a poor person’.

De Burgh – Burke – from a placename in Suffolk, France

Le Botilier – Butler – Occupation bottle steward

De Barra – Barry – from an estate in Wales

Le Waleys – Walsh – the Welshmen

De Angulo – Costello/Nangle – from Nangle Pembrokeshire

What of their influence on forenames?

 Many of the Normans forenames introduced here were of a biblical or European saintly origin.

 In 1922, Reverend Patrick Woulfe wrote extensively on the topic of Irish name origins as follows:

In the same manner Norman and English names became current in Irish families during the thirteenth and subsequent centuries. These have now almost completely supplanted the old Gaelic names. The names borne by the Normans and by them introduced into Ireland, were of three kinds :

 (1) names of Scandinavian origin which their ancestors had carried with them to Normandy ;

(2) names of Germanic origin which the Frankish conquerors had brought across the Rhine and which had ousted the old Celtic and Latin names from France ; and

(3) Biblical names and Latin and Greek names of saints,, which the Normans began to adopt about the beginning of the eleventh century.

Together with these came in a few Celtic names from Brittany, a small number of Anglo-Saxon names, some Danish and Norse names from England, and one or two British or Welsh names. These were nearly all very rare and most of them soon died out. Of the Anglo-Saxon names, only two, Edmund and Edward, survived. Alfred has been revived in recent times. At the period of the Invasion, Frankish names were by far the most popular among the Normans, but Biblical and saintly names were coming rapidly into favour.

The following is a list, in order of frequency, of the more common names borne by the early Anglo- Norman invaders, the Biblical and saintly names of Latin and Greek origin being printed in italics :

William, Robert, Richard, John, Walter, Roger, Ralph, Adam, Hugh, Henry, Thomas, Nicholas, Gilbert, Geoffrey, Elias, Peter (Piers), Osbert, Reginald, Jordan, Simon, Alan, Stephen, Philip, David, Arnold, Alexander, Laurence, Baldwin, Herbert, Martin, Maurice, Godfrey, Andrew, Alfred, James, Samson, Turstein, Warin, Ailward, Daniel, Edward, Gregory, Bernard, Benedict, Hamon, Matthias, Michael, Gerard, Gervase, Lambert, Wilkin, Patrick, Edmund, Edwin, Hubert, Ivor, Joseph, Oliver, Mark.

 The following in alphabetical order were rare :

 Abraham, Adelard, Ailmer, Antony, Augustine, Brian, Clement, Constantine, Estmund, Eustace, Everard, Gocelin, Isaac, Leonard, Luke, Matthew, Miles, Milo, Odo, Osbern, Osmund, Pagan, Ponce, Randulf, Redmund, Rodulf, Silvester, Turold, Ulf, Vincent.

 The following names only came in, or at least became popular, at a later period :

Bartholomew, Christopher, Francis, Gerald, George, Paul, Roland, Theobald.

 Women’s names among the Normans were nearly all of the Biblical or saintly class:

 Agnes, Alice, Amelina, Anastasia, Annabella, Catherine, Cecily, Christina, Dorothy, Egidia, Eleanor, Evelyn, Frances, Honora, Isabella, Johanna, Matilda, Margaret, Susanna.

 The name Mary does not seem to have come into use in Ireland before the end of the16th century. Brigid only began to be used about the same period.

 

Extracted from ‘Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall’, Patrick Woulfe 1922

Out with the old, in with the new

The Anglo-Normans also brought with them new animal species such as the rabbit and fallow deer, new foods such as wheat, orchard fruits, mutton and farming practices such as hay-making. They introduced us to continental European religious saints and practices of the Roman Church. European religious orders soon followed such as the Franciscans, Augustinians, Cistercians, Dominicans etc. These replaced the structures of the native Irish Christian Church.

Up to then, the Irish natives did not adopt the name of saints as they considered this to be placing themselves on a par with the saint. Such naming convention was reserved for those of higher status in the monasteries. This was circumvented by use of the prefix Maol or Giolla meaning follower or servant. The Normans changed all of that and it was now acceptable to be called Peter, James, Michael, John, Mary, Brigid or Margaret.

Very few of us to this day do not have either a forename or surname that is not of Norman origin. Eventually, arising from the Gaelic Revival in the late 19th century, new Irish language versions of these forenames appeared such as Séan, Seamus, Peadar, Máire, Bríd, Mícheál, Cathal and many more appeared.

The Irish Church did not condemn the practice of slave-trading by the Irish until the invasion by the Anglo-Normans and the encroachment of the Roman Church. The story of Patrick (Patricius, son of a Roman administrator), which was introduced here after the Norman conquest, presents the native Irish as uncivilised pagan slavers who needed to be brought to heel. So the Normans inadvertently gave us our native saint and a forename for a good chunk of our population for generations following.

Out with the new, in with the old

Children are rarely given these European saint names today. Authentic Gaelic forenames are much more popular. We are nevertheless, unlikely to see the demise of the Anglo-Normans surnames that were introduced here. But all of us Mikes, Jimmies, Johnnys, Paddys, Kittys, Cathys, Maggies and Bridies can thank the Normans for what they brought us!