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Know your Townland – Cloonaherna/Cluain Eithirne

This townland is on the eastern edge of the parish of Quin. If you have walked the path to Cullaun Lake or to the ruins of Cullaun House from the Dangan to Kilkishen road, you have passed through Cloonaherna. It is almost entirely forested and now devoid of population. From a population of 76 in 1841, the number of residents decreased to zero in the following 80 years. The ones that clung on were those employed by the adjoining big house as labourers, coachmen, domestics etc. Records are difficult to find for the people who lived here. Surnames found include Doogan, Howard, Neville, Nash which are not commonly found elsewhere in the parish.

While the English version of the placename has remained largely the same since first recorded as part of the inquisitions, the original Irish and its meaning appears to be not yet settled!

National Monuments

CL035-102— Enclosure

Description: On a very gentle SW-facing slope, located partially within rough pasture, natural woodland and rock outcrop to NW, planted native woodland to NE and the remainder is situated within what appears to be an area of recently planted native woodland. Depicted as an oval area (c. 42m NE-SW; c. 35m NW-SE) on the OS 25-inch map and the 1921 edition of the OS 6-inch map. The enclosing elements can be traced where there are the remains of a collapsed wall (int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.45m; Wth at top 1.7m; overall Wth 3.5m) SW-W-NW. The collapsed drystone wall continues NW-N-NE, having a later field wall on top, as depicted on the OS 25-inch map. The enclosing elements are obscured by dense briars NE-SW where the enclosure and most of the interior appears to have been planted with trees in relatively recent times. Most of this area is engulfed in briars with trees growing up through these. The monument has been truncated by a townland boundary (long-axis NE-SW) across the WNW-sector.

CL035-099—Ringfort/Enclosure

Description: On a low rise, in native woodland, c. 27m to SSW of a modern dwelling. Depicted on the 1921 edition of the OS 6-inch map and the OS 25-inch map as an oval enclosure (c. 20m N-S; c. 24m E-W) defined by a single enclosing element. Archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping immediately to the N in advance of the building of a new dwelling (Finn 1999; 2000, 15; Licence no. 99E0153) produced no archaeological material. At that stage the monument was described as being in a poor state of preservation with trees growing across the entire area. The monument was described by Discovery Programme staff (2006, SMR file) as a cashel (int. diam. 29m E-W; 26m N-S) with a well preserved wall (Wth 2.2m; H 1.8m) at E located on a gentle W-facing slope immediately above a steep slope.

References:  Finn, D. 1999 Archaeological monitoring of groundworks at Cloonaherna, Cragganowen, Co. Clare. Licence no. 99E0153. Unpublished report, National Monuments Section, Heritage and Planning Division, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin. Finn, D. 2000 Cloonaherna. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1999: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 15 (No. 49). Bray. Wordwell.

CL036—100—Enclosure

Description: On an elevated area, in the plot of a bungalow and abutting woodland to ENE. Depicted on the 25-inch OS map and the 1921 edition of the OS 6-inch map as a circular enclosure (c. 26m NE-SW; 25m NW-SE) defined by a single enclosing element. A field boundary is depicted on the top of the enclosing elements NE-SE. A bungalow occupies the area of the monument, off-centre to SW and the remainder of the monument interior is located within the rear garden. A garden shed is located in the E sector of the interior. An arc (C 25m) of collapsed drystone wall (int. H 0.5m; ext. H 0.45m; Wth at top 0.7m; overall Wth 2.5m) follows the line of the enclosing elements NE-E-SE and forms a boundary between the garden and the native woodland. The boundary is distinctively curvilinear at this point and in contrast it is linear at either side where it continues to form the remainder of the rear boundary. A lot of modern debris is banked up along the inside and top of the field boundary and a lot of vegetation and modern debris is located on the exterior. For this reason, it is not feasible to measure the enclosing elements which appear to be a collapsed stone wall which exists NE-E-SE. There is no trace of this monument in the house plot, except where the remains of the enclosing elements are located below the existing field boundary NE-E-SE.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney, Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 20 March 2018

Quin Petty Court Session – sample case

June 28th 1876

Defendant: Bridget Nash

Complainant: Ann Halloran, Gurteen

Complaint: For allowing her two cows to wander onto public road at Gurteen on the 21st June 1876

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!