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Ann McNamara & Siobhán O’Sullivan interviewed the late Tom Fahy in 2008. Here we reprint a copy of this conversation with Tom who was born in Feighquin but later moved to Ballyhannon.

Tom was born in 1913 at Feighquin in a house just below the village on the Sixmilebridge road which his father built in 1909. His father was a local postman and Tom remembers him saying that his first week’s wages was 5 shillings and the mode of transport for a postman at the time was walking. There were 9 in his family and Tom recalls that when he was fourteen years of age and living in Quin Village, there were very few teenagers living there, only two Corbett girls and one of them emigrated to the United States. Most of the people were old and their sons and daughters were middle aged.

Tom O’Brien, Tom Fahy, Charlie Scanlon in McInerney’s Pub 1930s. Paddy & Nora McInerney behind the bar.

He remembers fondly the fair days in Quin which lasted all day. The Hassett’s, who owned the pub and fair grounds, collected the tolls and the sheep fair was held on the 7th of July and the main horse and foal fair was on November 1st.The children had a day off school to attend the fair. Tom, when asked about his school days in Quin, recalls them as not the happiest days of his life. Jim Clune was the Master and a Ms. Degidon was in charge of the girl’s side of the school and discipline was very strict at the time. He didn’t have far to go to school as it was located just below Malachy’s pub on the right hand side beside Muriel O’Neill’s house.

Tom speaks of T.B. and Diptheria epidemics which affected many families in the parish when he was growing up. As a postman he recalls there was a woman in the locality who baked a couple of loafs of bread for her family in the morning, and she had died by evening of Diptheria. Another young girl had attended a dance in Quin and was dead the following morning – also from Diptheria. He remembers his own sister Nonie contracting it aged 14 and was admitted to hospital. His father borrowed a horse and trap from Hassett’s pub in the village and was getting ready to go to the hospital to collect her when the telegram came to say she had died. Tom is of the opinion that the injections they gave her, may have weakened her heart – ‘the cure was worse than the disease’. In 1925, his eldest sister Maisie aged 21, died of T.B. He thinks that if she hadn’t been moved to hospital that perhaps the whole family would have got it and died.

He recalls a forge opposite Malachy Hassett’s pub owned by blacksmith Paddy Moroney. There were 8 public houses: Malachys, Matt Clunes where Abbey Stores was, Maria Reddans where the Monks Well was, Nonie Bow Clunes where the village Innis, Kate Hennessys where the Post Office now is, (she was a returned Yank) Mc Inerney’s Abbey Tavern, Lynche’s Pub where Marlborough’s house is and Jane Hennessy had a pub where the Chambers and O Hallorans now live.

There were 4 butchers, Dan Clune was a pork one and his shop was where the Community Centre now stands, Denny and Jim Hassett had a butcher shop where Malach’y Bar is now, Jim Clune had one where The Village Inn is now and a Denny Hallinan had a butcher’s opposite Pauline O’ Hallorans.

Mc Grath’s had the Post Office and it was located where the Henchys lived on the corner going out the Tulla road. Thomas Crowe was a shoemaker and James Hourigan, a tailor. There were 4 carpenters in Quin, Pat Clune beside the Village Inn, James Clune where Mike Clune now lives, Johnny Clune and Michael Murray lived near the entrance to St. Finghin’s Graveyard.

Tom reminisces that during the second world war, times were difficult. He was working in Shannon building the runway and the work was very hard. People had Ration Books and families got 2lbs of flour to last them for a week. If they got flour, they didn’t get a loaf of bread. Families who had many children fared out better as each child got rations ensuring adequate supplies.

Tom came to live in Ballyhannon in 1952. He recalls going on cuaird to local houses and all the neighbours would visit. They arrived at 9 and would stay until after 12 if the craic was good. Murtagh’s house in Ballyhannon was a great house to visit. There were 13 in family and they could all sing and dance. People told stories, sang songs and if a visitor could play music, there would be a special welcome for them. People had great fun on cuaird at Christmas. The Conroys of Ayleacotty were great composers, he said. When asked if the women went on cuaird he replied, ‘not at all, as they had to stay home and look after the children and do the baking for the following day’. He recalls a Martin Kennedy, the Bard of Violet Hill Broadford, composing old songs and one was called “The Parish and People of Quin”.

Tom sang songs in Ballykilty Manor every weekend for 25 years. He recollects Pat and Johnny Reynolds who were very good singers, dancers and storytellers, also visiting Ballykilty, ‘Pat Reynolds had great songs and stories as he was living amongst the people who composed them’. Tom was involved in setting up the pitch and putt course at Ballykilty and enjoyed the pastime very much.

Patsy Mc Inerney was the Blacksmith at Ardsollus and was an uncle to the Mc Inerney woman who had the shop at Ardsollus. He recalls a Dun Coady who was a herdsman for the Studderts, landlords at Ballyhannon House. Maria Reddan was a publican where the Monk’s Well is now located, and she was an aunt of Amby Power’s wife Catherine Reddan who was a Kerry woman. Amby captained the Clare All-Ireland Team of 1914. She had the use of a field from the Studderts of Ballyhannon, beside the entrance to Ballykilty Manor and had a cow grazing there. Dun Coady would drive the cow into the village to the back of her pub twice daily and milk the cow for her. She rewarded him with a pint of her best stout and he then drove the cow back to her field. Pakie Halloran of Ballyhannon was the land steward at Ballyhannon and he looked after the place well, Tom said.

Tom recalls Maria Reddan, who had a guest house and pub in Quin. When people visited Quin Abbey, they often stayed at her pub and stabled their pony at her premises. She has a cow who was ill and ‘thrown down’ and the local vet gave no hope of recovery. One Easter Saturday, Corny Ryan who was working for Morgan Fahy, asked Maria for the loan of her donkey to put manure out on his drills. A Friar was visiting her restaurant and when leaving, she helped him tackle his horse. She told him how ill the cow was and the Friar said prayers over her.  He asked had she any other animal, and she told him of the donkey. Two hours later the cow was better. When Monday morning came, there was a knock at Maria’s door very early in the morning and on opening it, Corny Ryan was there and she said to him, ‘bad Cess to you, is it drink you’re looking for this early?’ He was very upset and said, ‘as if it isn’t bad enough your cow to be dying, but I have very sad news for you. When I went out this morning your donkey was stone cold dead’. Maria said it was okay as the Friar saved the cow but the donkey had to die instead and if she hadn’t another animal – the cow would have died’.

Tom remembers well in 1939 an American journalist visited the village working for ‘Life’ magazine and took many photos of the locals – including one taken at Mc Inerney’s Abbey Tavern pub after Sunday Mass.

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!