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On August 18th, as part of Heritage Week, the Quin Heritage Group hosted an engaging talk on the historic Creevagh Beg Fort on Power’s land. Presented by Michael Houlihan, the event attracted history enthusiasts and locals eager to learn about the rich heritage of the area.

The talk provided a deep dive into the significance of Creevagh Beg and its surrounding stone forts, highlighting their construction methods, historical context, and archaeological findings that date back thousands of years. Michael shared fascinating insights into the various types of structures found in Clare, including crannogs, earthen forts, and the unique drystone construction methods employed in the region.

Attendees heard of the lifestyle of the communities that once thrived around these forts, including their agricultural practices and the vital role of cattle farming. Ann MacNamara spoke about the intriguing folklore surrounding fairy forts, enriching the narrative of these ancient sites.

The event celebrated the architectural marvels of the past and fostered a sense of community among attendees, sparking conversations about preserving and promoting our local heritage.

Michael discussed the archaeological significance of Creevagh Beg and other stone forts in Clare, highlighting their historical context from the Upper Palaeolithic period to the medieval era. The key points of his talk are as follows:

Progression of  Earlier Clare Habitations through different types:

  • Caves– Butchered bear patella found in the Alice andGwendoline Cave in 1903 pushed our history back to 12500 years ago (Upper Palaeolithic). 14 of 259 Clare caves show occupation at some time.
  • Post holes on Mooghaun Hill indicate the presence of round huts of wattle and timber, from the Neolithic into the Late Bronze age. One hut site stands in Ballymarkahan near fort.
  • Crannogs in East Clare lakes were present from the Bronze Age to early medieval times (eg Knocknalappa Lake). There are 39 crannogs in 20 locations across the county.
  • Forts – Both earthen and stone structures. Predominant in the Iron Age/ Early Christian period. Possibly 1,400 remain in Clare.
  • Peel Towers– Anglo-Norman technology quickly adopted by the Gaelic Irish. Clann Cuileán/the MacNamaras raised ~ 80 towers.
  • Tudor/Cromwellian builds (Lemanagh) and the ‘Big Houses’.
  • Vernacular homes.

Proliferation of Archaeology (Westropp, 1909):-

‘Of forts Doora, Clooney, Tulla and Kilnoe had some fifty each; Quin had over eighty. There are nearly fifty Dolmens and at least twenty-five peel-towers, showing how important a centre  of population the plain must have been from early time down to and past the Norman Conquest.’

Stone forts are known as cashels, cahers, lioses, raths, dúns etc. Busiest in the late medieval in a Gaelic (not Anglo-Norman) area. 600AD to 900AD seemed to have been the main building period.

Quin Stone Forts

Construction:  Dry stone construction methods began in the Neolithic e.g. The Céide Fields in Mayo. There are over 900 stone forts in Clare. Quin forts are described as ‘Dispersed individual farmsteads’. (No ‘towns’ in the area).

Stone Forts were typically:

  • Clustered around a high status fort, with circular wall having a single opening, generally facing South/South East or towards the main fort.
  • Secured gate at the entrance, sometimes but not often with a hut for sentry.
  • Some had short causeways.
  • Walls were up to 12 feet high and four feet thick.
  • Many had an inner floor higher than the surrounding field.
  • Unlike Earthen forts, cashels generally had no fosse or ditch. Where you had double ramparts, the inner one was the strongest.
  • Dwellings were back from the walls and were of wooden construction and thatched.

Creevagh Beg has a souterrain for storage and shelter. Its outer wall has a diameter of about 100 metres. Relied on the community and not just the occupiers for defense due to its size. 

Finds: Some iron pieces found in Cahercalla and a few bronze pieces elsewhere.

Creevagh Beg forts known as Caherbane (bán– white) and Caherumine (méan-middle )

Cattle were the mainstay of the family, with an average of 20 animals per unit. Light tillage was practiced, usually in a small field beside the fort. Sheep and pigs were also retained for wool and home consumption.

Notable structures of the era nearby (from Westropp):

– ‘Two cahers south of Ballmarkahan Castle

– In the crags to the north-east of Ballymarkahan, partly in Knappogue and partly in Ballymarkahan, is a remarkable oblong stone fort.

– Ballymarkahan: The foundation of a little circular hut-ring lies near the more southern caher in this field; the northern caher is barely traceable.

– 100 feet to the north of these is a fine and perfect rath. The garth is not raised, nor has it a fosse; but it consists of a steep ring of earth and stones 7 to 8 feet high, planted with hawthorns.

– Creevagh: Across the river is a remarkable double fort. The fort on the summit is a circular ring-wall; the faces are nearly destroyed; but enough remains among the heaps of filling (15 to over 20 feet wide, and 3 or 4 feet high) to show that it was from 12 to 16 feet thick.

– The next reach has lintels, the outer only 3 feet 6 inches long, and is nearly filled; the sides incline, and it runs southward. The wall is 21 feet thick, and 15 feet beyond it is another fort of earth on the slope of the hill.

– Creevaghbeg: there is another caher, thickly planted with hawthorns, near the great fort. It has a wall greatly dilapidated, nearly circular outside, evidently 12 feet thick.

– A caher lies at a short distance down a gentle slope to the south-east. It was a massive fort, 87 to 90 feet across the garth, and 114 feet over all. The wall is 12 feet thick, and 8 feet high.
– There are three forts close together on the border of the townland near Dangan and Cahercalla. The southern is a caher. The wall is nearly uniform, 12 feet thick, with two facings of excellent masonry set with great skill to the curve.

– Cragataska This townland, with Cahercalla, lies north of the Creevaghs. It has the foundations of a caher, evidently the “Cahercragataska” mentioned in 1729. The wall was 12 feet thick, and the garth 102 feet wide, with curved enclosures inside.

– Cahercalla is the most famous for being the MacNamara triple-walled stone ringfort and homestead.’

References:
– Types of the Ringforts and Similar Structures remaining in Eastern Clare (Quin, Tulla and Bodyke), Thomas Johnson Westropp M.A., 1909.
– The Irish Ringfort, Matthew Stout, 1997.

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!