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Irish genealogy is the study of individuals and families who originated on the island of Ireland.
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Genealogy was cultivated since at least the start of the early Irish historic era. Upon inauguration, Bards and poets are believed to have recited the ancestry of an inaugurated king to emphasise his hereditary right to rule. With the transition to written culture, oral history was preserved in the monastic settlements. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín believed that Gaelic genealogies came to be written down with or soon after the practise of annalistic records, annals been kept by monks to determine the yearly chronology of feast days (see Irish annals).[ citation needed ]
Its cultivation reached a height during the Late Medieval Era with works such as Leabhar Ua Maine , Senchus fer n-Alban , Book of Ballymote , De Shíl Chonairi Móir, Book of Leinster , Leabhar Cloinne Maoil Ruanaidh and the Ó Cléirigh Book of Genealogies . This tradition of scholarship reached its zenith with Leabhar na nGenealach , composed mainly between 1649–1650 in Galway.[ citation needed ]
Genealogy had at first served a purely serious purpose in determining the legal rights of related individuals to land and goods. Under Fenechas, ownership of land was determined by Agnatic succession, female ownership being severely limited.[ citation needed ]
Over time, genealogy was pursued for its own merits by the Gaelic learned classes. From c. 1100, various families such as Ó Cléirigh, Mac Fhirbhisigh, Ó Duibhgeannáin, Mac Aodhagáin and Mac an Bhaird became professional historians. They were often employed by ruling families, the most important of whom included Ó Conchobhair, Ó Neill, Ó Domhnaill, Ó Cellaigh, Mac Murchadha Caomhánach, Mac Carthaigh, Ó Briain, Ó Mael Sechlainn, Mac Giolla Padraig. It also became pervasive among the Anglo-Irish, with the recording of the family trees of FitzGerald, Butler, Burke, Plunkett, Nugent, Bermingham and others.[ citation needed ]
Some clans, such as Mac Fhirbhisigh and Ó Duibhgeannáin were originally hereditary ecclesiastical families, while others (Ó Cléirigh, Mac an Bhaird, Ó Domhnallain) were dispossessed royalty who were forced to find another profession (see also Irish medical families).
The transmission of this body of lore (Irish : seanchas) has resulted in detailed knowledge on the origins and history of many of the tribes and families of Ireland. An anglicised tradition has continued since the 17th-century, translating many of the scripts into English. The practise of genealogy continues to be of importance among the Irish and its diaspora. Historians (such as Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and Nollaig Ó Muraíle) consider the Irish genealogical tradition to have the largest national corpus in Europe.[ citation needed ]
Over the course of several centuries, an evolving genealogical dogma created by the bardic viewed all Irish as descendants of Míl Espáine. This ignored variant traditions, including those recorded in their own works. The reasons behind the doctrine's adoption is rooted in the policies of dynastic and political propaganda.[ citation needed ]
The doctrine dates from the 10th–12th centuries, as demonstrated in the works of Eochaid ua Flainn (936–1004); Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056); Tanaide (d. c. 1075); and Gilla Cómáin mac Gilla Samthainde (fl. 1072). Many of their compositions were incorporated into the compendium Lebor Gabála Érenn.[ citation needed ]
It was enhanced and embedded in the tradition by successive generations of historians such as Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin (d. 1372), Gilla Íosa MacFhirbhisigh (fl. 1390–1418) and Flann Mac Aodhagáin (fl. 1640). By 1600 it was refined to the point that certain Anglo-Irish families were given spurious Gaelic ancestors and origin legends, such was their immersion in Gaelic culture.
The first Irish historian who questioned the reliability of such accounts was Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (d. 1671), whose massive Leabhar na nGenealach included disparate and variant recensions. Unlike Geoffrey Keating Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, he did not attempt to synthesise the material into a unified whole, instead recording and transmitting it unaltered. However, historians as late as such as Eugene O'Curry (1794–1862) and John O'Donovan (1806–1861) sometimes accepted the doctrine and a nationalistic interpretation of Irish history uncritically. During the 20th century the doctrine was reinterpreted by the work of historians such as Eoin MacNeill, T. F. O'Rahilly, Francis John Byrne, Kathleen Hughes (historian), and Kenneth Nicholls.[ citation needed ]
See also O'Rahilly's historical model, Genetic history of Europe, Genetic history of the British Isles.
The following are manuscripts consisting of genealogies in whole or part.
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Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh, also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius was an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist. He was one of the last traditionally trained Irish Gaelic scholars, and was a member of the Clan MacFhirbhisigh, a leading family of northern Connacht. His best-known work is the Leabhar na nGenealach, which was published in 2004 as The Great Book of Irish Genealogies, by Éamonn de Búrca, more than 300 years after it had been written.
MacFirbis, also known as Forbes, was the surname of a family of Irish hereditary historians based for much of their known history at Lecan, Tireragh. They claimed descent from Dathí (d.418?/428?), said to be one of the last pagan Kings of Connacht, and were thus one of the many families who sprang from the Uí Fiachrach dynasty. The progenitors of the MacFirbis family descend from Amhailgadh, whose brothers included Fiachra Ealg and Eocha Breac.
The Yellow Book of Lecan, or TCD MS 1318, is a late medieval Irish manuscript. It contains much of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, besides other material. It is held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin.
Nollaig Ó Muraíle is an Irish scholar. He published an acclaimed edition of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's Leabhar na nGenealach in 2004. He was admitted to the Royal Irish Academy in 2009.
Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin was an Irish Gaelic poet.
Leabhar na nGenealach is a massive genealogical collection written mainly in the years 1649 to 1650, at the college-house of St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway, by Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh. He continued to add material until at least 1666, five years before he was murdered in 1671. The original 17th century manuscript was bequeathed to University College Dublin (UCD), by Dublin solicitor Arthur Cox in 1929, and can be consulted in UCD Library Special Collections. The manuscript can be viewed online at Irish Script on Screen, which is available in English, and in Irish. Leabhar na nGenealach, was reprinted, and published in a five volume edition in Dublin in 2004 as The Great Book of Irish Genealogies.
Cuimre na nGenealach is an abridgment of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's Leabhar na nGenealach, written at his home in Lecan in Tír Fhíacrach Múaidhe, County Sligo in the spring and summer of 1666.
Leabhar Cloinne Maoil Ruanaidh, or the Book of Mac Dermot, is the title given by Nollaig Ó Muraíle to "a collection of genealogies sometimes referred to as 'The Book of Mac Dermot' ..." which now forms the fourth and most significant part - 'd' - of RIA MS 539 [D i 3].
Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh was an Irish historian and genealogist, known in English as Peregrine O'Clery.
Leabhar Ua Maine is an Irish genealogical compilation, created c. 1392–94.
Maghnus Ua Conchobair, Prince of Connacht, died 1181.
Gilla Isa Mac Fir Bisigh was an Irish historian, poet, mathematician and astronomer.
Dubda mac Connmhach, Eponym and Ancestor of the Clan Ó Dubhda of north Connacht, fl. 9th–10th century.
Ruaidhrí Mear Ua Dubhda was King of Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe.
Donnchadh Ó Dubhda was King of Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe.
Caomhán mac Connmhach, Eponym and Ancestor of the Clan Ó Caomháin of north Connacht, fl. 9th-10th century. The surname is variously anglicised as Keevan, Kevane, Keeveen, Keevans, Keaven, Keavan, Cavan.
Connmhach mac Duinn Cothaid, King of Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe, died 787.
The Uí Fiachrach were a royal dynasty who originated in, and whose descendants later ruled, the coicead or fifth of Connacht at different times from the mid-first millennium onwards. They claimed descent from Fiachrae, an older half-brother of Niall Noigiallach or Niall of the Nine Hostages. Fiachrae and his two full brothers, Brion and Ailill, were the collective ancestors of the Connachta dynasty that eventually became the new name of the province. Their mother was Mongfind.
Ó Cobhthaigh is a Gaelic-Irish surname. It is now generally Anglicised Cofer, Coffer, Copher, Coffey, Caughey, Coffee, Coffie, Coughey, Cauffey, Cauffy, Cauffie, Coffy, Coughay, Coffay, Coffeye and many more.
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