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Hely Dutton was commissioned to compile a Statistical Survey of the County of Clare by the ‘Dublin Society’ (later permitted to add Royal to their name) in 1808. He appears not to have been the most tolerant of other peoples way of living and he certainly didn’t hide this in his report from Clare:

“To shew that a deplorable laxity of morals prevails, I need only refer my readers to the section on roads; they will there see a specimen of those of the higher ranks; and for a sample of those in the middling and lower ranks I must send them to Ennis on a Sunday morning; there they will see shops open, goods hanging at the doors for sale, standings in the streets, timber for sale leaning against the sessions-house, in short every appearance of business as there was on the previous market day; and many neighbouring ladies defer their shopping until that day, after paying their devotions to heaven, totally regardless of the fourth commandment. Had I not frequently seen magistrates sharing in this monstrous abuse of the sabbath, I could not have thought there was one in the town; it surely would be a meritorious act of the Lord Chancellor to supersede the abetters of such gross impiety.

The children, even infants, in this town are particularly wicked, and the ears (not of the clergy, magistrates, or church-wardens) are constantly grated by the most shocking and novel cursing and swearing.

A curious custom prevails in a part of this county; when a beast is slaughtered, the smith claims, and in some instances receives the head of the beast; formerly it was more general, but some have sense enough to refuse such a sacrifice to Vulca; probably the custom originated in a renumeration for the use of his sledge and his sinewy arm in knocking down the beast; however it may have been introduced, it is or was practiced lately in the Western isles, for Dr. Johnson in his Tour, page 183, informs us, that the smith has the head, the piper the udder, (how appropriate!) the weaver and others so many pieces, that a small share falls to the laird.

In many places gentlemen are called by the country people by their Christian names, without any of those additions, which modern pride expects from inferiors; on the road to Skarriff, I enquired from a poor woman, who lived in a gentleman’s house within view; she said, “Charley;” pray who is Charley? “Arrah don’t you know Charley? Why you must be a stranger in the country, or you’d know Charley O’Callaghan,” meaning Mr O’Callaghan of St. Catherine’s.

I saw hounds hunting near Spansel-hill on the 19th of August, and all the corn standing!

In no part of Ireland is hospitality more practised than in this county. I should be most ungrateful indeed, if I did not feel and acknowledge it; I wish I could say so much for my mare; for, whilst I have had every attention paid to my comfort in the parlour, she poor creature had often after a long journey been obliged to go to bed without her supper of oats: I am totally at a loss to account for this, which is by no means peculiar to this county; it may be found in Galway and elsewhere. You will be the more welcome the more wine you drink, yet six-pence worth of oats will be denied to your horse. I would advise no person to travel without a servant, and a sharp fellow too. If your horse is turned to grass at night, in all probability he will be sent to the deer-park, the calf-park, or stone-paddock, places proverbially bare; not one house in ten has either oats or straw in summer, and frequently but little hay.

A strange custom prevails in this county, and indeed in most parts of Ireland, (a remnant of feudal times;) if a poor man has business to transact with a gentleman, instead of coming up to the door, and sending in a servant with his message, he loiters about the door, and the stables, or frequently waits to catch his honor on the road from his house; thus losing his time at perhaps a very busy season. Frequently poor people, and sometimes wealthy ones, that come to pay their rent, are treated in this manner. I have often thought, that gentlemen seemed to take a pride in seeing and shewing so many dependents about their doors; if not, why not dispatch them immediately?

The men are now scarcely ever barefooted, except they are working in bogs, or other wet places, and the women not so much as formerly; they usually walk to market barefooted, but, when they come near the town, always wash there feet, put on their shoes and stockings, and adjust their dress like their superiors.

Very great use is made of mules and asses, for carrying baskets, and small loads, such as poor people usually load them with: for such persons, as are not able to keep a horse, they are a great convenience. It is astonishing, what a load some of these little animals (asses) will carry, frequently above 24 stone, much more than their own weight; and often a large stone is added up to the load, to balance one of the baskets: these kinds of loads are called up-loads. Though these kinds of loads are useful to poor people, it is ridiculous to see them so much used by those, who could very well afford to buy a cart, which with a moderate sized horse would very easily draw 128 stone, or 16 cwt.: but the cart must be got from Dublin; from the Implement manufactory on the Northwall; for a cart made in the country, not being constructed on any principle, would not carry half the weigh with the same ease to the horse.

It is very much the custom to make sacks for corn of a most unwieldy length, and frequently to load their small horses so heavily as to injure and sometimes break their backs; they have the further inconvenience of being difficult to move; none but the strongest men their to attempt it, and even these are often injured in their backs; but all – powerful custom reconciles them to it, and the example of their betters confirms it.

The Irish peasantry have often been accused, by their polite and travelled neighbours, and by absentees, of almost every nice incident to human nature. If this even was the case, could it be wondered at for a moment, if the extreme ignorance, in which they are reared, were considered? The poor people themselves are so sensible of this, that every man, that can possibly spare the money, gives his children such education, bad as it is, as he can procure for such a trifle as is usually paid at country schools. Can it be surprising, after reading the list of Irish classics, which I have before detailed, that they should believe in fairies, hobgoblins, witches, Will o’ the wisp, ghosts, and a multitude of legendary tales, which old women are fond of relating? It is rather astonishing they are so free from vice.

Many pagan rites still remain; and the poor ignorant native little thinks, when he is dancing round his bonfire, or dressing his May-bush, that he is using the same ceremonies the worshippers of Baal did.

In this county, as elsewhere, it is much the custom to put children to nurse with some healthy cottager; fine ladies don’t like either the trouble, or to spoil their shapes as this unnatural custom does not take place so much in England, it may help to account for the superior prolificacy of our Irish ladies. A great inconvenience attends this custom; the nurse and indeed her whole family think you are obliged to assist them, whilst they live; in fact there is no shaking them off: they in general endeavour to avoid taking any money as payment for nursing, but they contrive by collops, (grazing cattle,) wool, corn, potatoes, &c. &c. to get thrice more than a liberal allowance in money would amount to; and indeed many of the better kind of people would rather pay three times the amount in this unsatisfactory way, than in cash. It must at the same time be admitted, that the poor man’s family generally retain a great affection for the child during life.

 Wakes, quite different from what are so called in England, still continue to be the disgrace of the country. As it would be thought a great mark of disrespect not to attend at the house where the corpse lies, every person makes it a point, especially women, to shew themselves; and when they first enter the house, they set up the most hideous but dry-eyed yell, called the Irish cry; this, however, lasts but a short time. The night is usually spent in singing, not mournful dirges, but merry songs, and in amusing themselves with different small plays, dancing, drinking, and often fighting, &c.

Hurling matches or goals I have mentioned before. Chairs are meetings at night in some whiskey-house, where they dance, drink, fight, and frequently settle the politics of the county, &c. These two last kinds of meetings are ruinous to the young people of both sexes: it is nothing uncommon for servants of both sexes to stay out all night; the general custom of leaving outside doors open at night gives great facility to this breach of trust. It is by no means unusual for the gentleman of the house to lock himself up carefully in his bedchamber, and leave the key in both street and back-door; frequently there is no lock to either. Surely they cannot blame young people for taking advantage of so very reprehensible a neglect; in many cases, that indolence, which pervades the whole county, is the cause of it.

 It is the custom of the women of this county, in common with I believe every other in Ireland, to walk at some distance behind their husbands. Paddy, let him be ever so fond of his rib, would think it a mark of disrespect, if she walked by his side.”

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!