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On May 13th 1818, Carrick on Suir’s local paper ‘The Carrick’s Morning Post’ carried a death notice:

‘DIED. On the l0th instant, sincerely lamented by a numerous circle of literary acquaintances, Mr. Patrick Lynch in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He has given ample proofs, by many useful and erudite publications, of his being excellently skilled in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and he certainly was the best Critical Irish Scholar of the age, and as such his Correspondence was counted by the Gaelic Society of Scotland. His great pleasure was, gratuitously, to assist every learned undertaking, and as such his loss will be deplored and severely felt by Gentlemen engaged in the different branches of literature, and by none more than those of the Record Commission in the Castle Yard.’

Lynch was a native son of Quin. Highly erudite, he had a huge love of learning, particularly classical languages. (I gCuinche, Co. an Chláir, mar a raibh feirm ag a mhuintir, a rugadh é Lá Fhéile Pádraig 1754. D’fhreastail sé ar scoil cháiliúil Dhonncha Uí Mhathúna (Donncha an Chairn) in Inis Díomáin agus d’fhoghlaim ann Gréigis, Laidin agus Eabhrais agus, is dóigh, gramadach an Bhéarla agus na Gaeilge). As a Roman Catholic his education was in the Hedge Schools, where his principal mentor was Donough O’Mahony. O’Mahony spoke no English, but taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew through the medium of Irish. Such was the desire for learning by the local Quin populace that there were eight Hedge Schools in the general area over time. (The remains of one school can still be seen in Ballyglass townland in nearby Doora). See Siobhán O’ Sullivan’s articleon this site -‘17th century Hedge Schools in Co. Clare’,https://ebw.pms.mybluehost.me/17th-century-hedge-schools-in-co-clare/). The Quin poet Tomás Ó Miochán, referred to the hedge master O’ Mahony as “the Star of Ennistymon.”

Lynch began work in 1778 in Cashel, County Tipperary and later in Carrick-on- Suir, only to have to abandon his teaching for five years when he was needed back on the family farm in Quin. As well as a teacher, he was also a writer of both history and language tutors. In 1815 he went to Dublin as a schoolmaster and in time became secretary to the Gaelic Society, founded for the preservation and study of the Irish language. He had a great love of Irish and published a grammar on Irish usage. Ever the scholar, Lynch produced works on mathematics and astronomy while also writing a new work on Saint Patrick.

As a fluent and skilful Irish speaker he helped with a translation of Geoffrey Keating’s History of Ireland (Foras Feasa ar Éirinn] and teamed up with Edward Bunting in collating some of his Ancient Irish Music journals. He was employed in the Records of Ireland Office, Dublin Castle until his death in 1818.He is buried in Dublin.

Dúirt P.J. Dowling, fear a bhí ina údar ar na scoileanna scairte: ‘Lynch’s career by itself is a monumental proof of the high standard of knowledge attained by the Irish schoolmaster of his day’

Two hundred years later, Patrick Lynch has largely fallen out of local memory. Nevertheless he clearly was a scholar of repute in his day.

MH  07/06/2024.

References/Sources:

http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/l/Lynch_P1/life.htm

Séamus Ó Casaide, ‘Patrick Lynch, secretary to the Gaelic society of Dublin’, Waterford Arch. Soc. Jn., xv (1912), 47–61;

Séamus Ó Casaide, ‘List of works projected or published by Patrick Lynch’, Waterford Arch. Soc. Jn., xv (1912), 107–20;

  1. J. Dowling, ‘Patrick Lynch, schoolmaster 1754–1818’, Studies, xx (1931), 461–72; IBL, xxii (1934), 50

Robert Welch, A history of verse translation from the Irish 1789–1897 (1988), 320

 

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!