Presentation on Magh Adhair by Michael Houlihan

Magh Adhair Inauguration site

Magh Adhair is an ancient tumulus said to be the sepulchre of Adhar. In medieval times it was the Inauguration Mound of the Dalcassian O’ Briens. The inauguration ceremonies were presided over by the local MacNamara clan. The formal inauguration most likely began at the high status ring fort of the MacNamaras and moved in procession to the nearby mound.The possible processional route as suggested above, from the fort at Cahercalla to the Magh Adhair inauguration mound.There are still some standing stones marking the route.

The name “Magh Adhair,” might be translated as “Adair’s Plain.” as found in the 14^th c. Leabhar (Mór) Leacain. It creates a connection with the first-century warrior Adair, who may be buried here. He was the brother of the Firbolg warrior, Aengus of Aran.

The newly constituted tuath of Dalcassian O’ Briens were attempting to give themselves a pedigree by attaching their important ceremonies to the mythical Adhar. Brian Boru who would go on to be ÁrdRí, Ireland’s High King was inaugurated King of Thomond at Magh Adhair in 978 and reigned until his death in 1014. He would defeat the Vikings at Clontarf, Dublin only to die on the battlefield.

Key Features:

Location – Magh Adhair ‘The plain of Adhair
The mound
Tthe fosse
The cairn,
The foot bridge
The raised gallery
The bullaun stone,
‘Hell River’
The standing stone.
McNamara trivallate fort at Cahercalla, in the near distance.

Cahercalla Ariel still

Cermonial Standing Stone Cahercalla

The west side of the mound

The main inauguration tumulus from the road

Ariel view of Magh Adhair

North side of the mound

Hell River and mound

The cairn beside the mound

The earthen causeway leading the mound

The bullaun stone

The south side of the mound

View of the fosse surrounding the Inauguration mound.

We rely on Clare historian TJ Westropp for information on the Dalcassian inauguration ritual at Magh Adhair. His account, based on research at similar inauguration sites, mentions a palisade leading to the top of the mound. It describes how a gateway in the mound ramp was guarded during the ceremony by three chiefs, while a fourth was given the honour of taking the sacred white wand, the slat na rige, up to the candidate waiting atop the mound. This “rod of kingship” was cut from a sacred tree, called the bile.

The following references to Magh Adhair occur in the Annals of the Four Masters:-

A.D. 981. Maelseachlainn, the son of Domhnall plundered Dal gCais and prostrated the bile (tribal tree) of Magh Adhair, having dug it with its roots out of the ground.

A.D. 1051. The Tree (bile) of Magh Adhair was prostrated by Hugh O’Conor.

The work called the Caithreim Thoirdhealbhaigh or Wars of Torlogh, has the following references to Magh Adhair:-

A.D. 1242. ‘After Donogh Cairbeach O’Brien had exchanged this mortal life for the happiness of angels with the victory of Unction and Penance, a Chieftain of (from) every tribe, a leader of every people, and a commander from every sept assembled around his son Conor at Moy-Eyre (Eire, Ire) to inaugurate him King in the place of his good father. It was the noble pillar of numerous hosts Sioda (Sheedy Mac Namara) who first proclaimed him (Chief or King of his people) and the rest of the Chiefs expressed their consent immediately after.’

The Ua Briain inauguration ceremonies continued at Magh Adhair until the sixteenth century. However, the glory days of Brian Boroimhe and his ancestors were over. The O’ Brien’s found themselves up against a new and formidable foe in the Anglo-Normans, including the de Clare’s in Thomond, from the twelfth century onwards.

During Christmas 1394 Brian O’ Brien, Prince of Thomond, with other Irish leaders was obliged to swear fealty to Richard II at Dublin Castle.

In March 1395 in the fields of the great ceremonial centre of Magh Adhair, the place where he had received his power according to Irish custom, O’Brien, in the presence of Thomas Earl of Nottingham, restated his pledge. The ruler and ‘other Irishmen who came to the said Lord Thomas from a wooded place distant about two staves, where many armed Irishmen were gathered together’ gave their allegiance to the English crown.

This slow diminishment of power would eventually lead to Murchadh Carrach Ó Briain in a legal act of ‘surrender and regrant’ yielding his realm of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1543 and instead accepting the titles English granted titles of Baron Inchiquin and Earl of Thomond.

Magh Adhair in the heart of Dalcassian territory

Magh Adhair photographed in 1898 by TJ Westropp

The Dalcassian colours said to have been carried at the Battle of Clontarf

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 19^th 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!

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