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The Chief of the Name, or in older English usage Captain of his Nation, is the recognised head of a family or
clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...
(''fine'' in Irish and
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
). The term has sometimes been used as a title in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
and
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.


In Ireland

In
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...
times, the position of Chief of the Name was more important to some Irish leaders than English titles. There are instances where Norman lords of the time like FitzGerald, took to using the Gaelic style of "The" or "Mór" (great) to indicate that the individual was the primary person of his family in Ireland. Chiefs were elected from their clan's " Derbfine", a group of cousins who were all at least the great-grandsons of former chiefs. In the
Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...
the
Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label= Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
was established in 1542, and many of the former autonomous clan chiefs were assimilated under the English legal system via the policy of surrender and regrant. At the same time mentions were made in official records of locally-powerful landlords described as "chief of his nation", i.e. head of a family, whether assimilated or not. Attempts were made by the English to make each "chief" responsible for the good behaviour of the rest of his family and followers. The Gaelic practice was for such a man to sign himself by the family surname only. A new practice arose where the English version of the surname was in many instances prefixed by "The", and so for example the head of the ''Mac Aonghusa'' clan in
County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...
would sign as "Mac Aonghusa" in Irish, and as "The
Magennis Magennis ( ga, Mac Aonghusa), also spelled Maguiness, Maginnis, Magenis, McGinnis, or McGuinness, is an Irish surname, meaning the "son of Angus", which in eastern Ulster was commonly pronounced in Irish as ''Mac Aonghusa''. A prominent branch o ...
" in English. The downfall of the Gaelic order in the early 17th century led to a decline of the power of the chiefs. Plantation efforts, the wars of
Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
and King James, meant that by the end of the 17th century, many of the Chiefships of the Name were living outside Ireland, reduced to poverty, or lost forever. Thereafter, those former kings or chiefs who had been assimilated under the English legal system passed their titles down by primogeniture, whereas the usual Irish practice in the Middle Ages was to elect a chief from a group of close cousins known as a derbfine. Some chiefs did not assimilate under the English legal system, but relied on the system of succession provided for under Irish Brehon Law. The lineages of assimilated chiefs were usually recorded by the Herald's Office in
Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the s ...
, set up in 1552, not least because many clans in the 16th and 17th centuries had been persuaded to enter the English-law system under the policy of surrender and regrant. Other manuscript genealogies were preserved and published in the 18th century by Charles O'Conor and Sylvester O'Halloran. The Irish nationalist and republican movements that developed after 1850 often harked back emotively to the former chiefs' losses, but without ever suggesting that they be reinstated.


1922–2003

The
Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...
, founded in 1922, gave no special recognition to the concept, but in 1938, the then
Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...
, Éamon de Valera, at the inauguration of Dr. Douglas Hyde as the first
President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...
, welcomed the incoming President with these words: "In you we greet the successor of our rightful princes and in your accession to office we hail the closing of the breach that has existed since the undoing of our nation at Kinsale". In 1948 the government suggested that there should be a "Council" of chiefs, accredited by the Herald, for emotive reasons. In Irish and English law a title is a possession, classed as an " incorporeal hereditament", but the 1937 Irish Constitution forbids the conferring of titles of nobility by the state, as well as the acceptance of titles of nobility or honour without the prior permission of the government. Therefore, the Council was also a means of allowing them to use their titles, but only as honorifics and without any political function. In 1943 the
Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...
(Irish Prime Minister) agreed with Edward McLysaght, then Chief Herald of Ireland, that the titles would be known as "designations" made by the Herald's Office to avoid the constitutional ban. McLysaght deplored that anyone could perfectly legally describe themselves as "chief of the name" (such as
The O'Rahilly , birth_date = , birth_place = Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland , death_date = , death_place = Dublin, Ireland , resting_place = Glasnevin Cemetery , nationality = Irish - British subject , ...
) without having any written proof of descent, if nobody else claimed the very same title. Effectively a dual system ran from 1948 to 2003, where the government recognised the chiefs as such, but not their other titles. In such a case, for example, The McDermot, Prince of Coolavin would only be known as "The McDermot" to the Chief Herald, but would be addressed also as "Prince of Coolavin" by his fellow chiefs. Until 2003, an Irish "Chief of the Name" was a person recognised by the Chief Herald of Ireland as the most senior known male descendant of the last inaugurated or de facto chief of that name in power in Gaelic Ireland at or before the end of the 16th century. The practice was discontinued in 2003 owing to the "MacCarthy Mór" fraud (below).


Abandonment: the MacCarthy Mór scandal

After genealogical errors in the 1990s saw Terence Francis MacCarthy and other impostors receive recognition, the
Irish government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...
decided in July 2003 to abandon this practice. This was partly because of concern that there was no proper legal basis for it. As this concern was backed by an opinion of the
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, in 2003 the Genealogical Office discontinued the practice of recognising Chiefs. This decision was a cause for concern among the recognised chiefs. Some modern Irish
clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...
organisations have elected honorary chieftains, where no Chief of the Name is known or yet to be proven. There have been some articles advocating the adoption of a modification of the Scottish 'Ad Hoc Derbhfine' approach to the election of new chiefs where the descents from the last chief have been lost to history or not verifiable. Some re-formed Irish clans are affiliated with the ''Finte na hÉireann'' or Clans of Ireland, an organisation established in 1989 to maintain a register of affiliated Irish clans.


Present Irish law

As the law has reverted to the pre-1943 situation, anyone can call himself a Chief of the Name without any historical basis for such a claim. A 2009 example is the Clan Cian web page (see below), which includes: "''Clan Cian is Headed by the recognized Ard Tiarna. F.J. O'Carroll, of Eile O'Carroll, Chief of Name''".


Gaelic Irish titles

In 1896, Jorge O'Neill of Portugal submitted his genealogy to the Somerset Herald in London. Five years later, Sir Henry Farnham Burke, KCVO, CB, FSA, Somerset Herald stated in 1900 that "the only Pedigree at present on record in either of the Offices of Arms showing a lineal male descent from the House of O'Neill, Monarchs of Ireland, Kings of Ulster, and Princes of Tyrone and Claneboy, is the one registered in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lady Victoria, in favor of His Excellency Jorge O'Neill of Lisbon". He then recognised him as the Representative of the House of O'Neill and as the Representative of the Earldom created in 1542 for his kinsman Conn Baccagh O'Neill. All of this was granted under Letters Patent issued by the English College of Heralds. Later, the Ulster and Norroy King of Arms granted him the undifferenced arms as the head of the House of O'Neill. Upon that Letters Patent, Pope Leo XIII, the King of Spain, and the King of Portugal recognised Jorge O'Neill as the Prince of Clanaboy, Tyrone, Ulster, as the Count of Tyrone, and the Head of the Royal House of O'Neill and all of its septs.The O'Neills of Ulster, Volume III. page 349-356 The grandson of Jorge and present Prince of Clanaboy, Hugo, has not pressed his senior claim to the entire House of O'Neill out of respect for his O'Neill chief cousins and their own histories.


In Scotland

In general, the same pattern holds true of the clan chiefs in Scotland as for chiefs in Ireland. Titles may vary, but a chief of a clan is still the recognised leader within a Scottish clan. A difference is that in Scotland clan chiefs can be either male or female whereas in Ireland the clan chiefs are invariably male. In Scotland it is the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs; in Ireland it is the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains ( ga, Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh Éireann). In Scotland there exists an 'Ad Hoc Derbhfine' approach to the selection of a new chiefly family when it has been determined that no verifiable descent from a former chief exists. Some have advocated that a similar approach be used in Ireland where chiefships have been lost to history.


See also

* Donal II O'Donovan, a notable historical case *
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* Irish name


References


Further reading

* ''Burkes Peerage'': See Irish and Scottish Chiefs; Peerages; and Titles * Ellis, Peter Berresford, ''Erin's Blood Royal: The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland''. Palgrave. Revised edition, 2002. * Kingdom of Desmond Association 'Irish Chiefly Succession: "Ad Hoc Derbhfine Guildlines"' on Clan MacCarthy Foundation website and in AWEN, Journal of the Noble Society of Celts, 2014. * Murphy, Sean J (2004) ''Twilight of the Chiefs: The Mac Carthy Mór Hoax''. Bethesda, Maryland:
Academica Press Academica Press is a scholarly and trade publisher of non-fiction, particularly research in the social sciences, humanities, education, law, public policy, international relations, and other disciplines. Founded by Robert Redfern-West and managed ...
. . * MacLysaght, Edward (1996) ''More Irish Families''. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Academic Press. . * Nicholls, K.W. ''Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages'' Dublin, Lilliput Press, 2003. . * ''Vanishing Kingdoms – The Irish Chiefs and Their Families'', by Walter J. P. Curley (former US Ambassador to Ireland), with foreword by Charles Lysaght, published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2004. & . (Chapter on O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, page 59). * Nash, Professor C., ''Of Irish Descent'', chapter 4. New York, Syracuse University Press, 2008.


External links


Clans of Ireland
From More Irish Families by Edward MacLysaght, First Chief Herald of Ireland
List of Scottish Chiefs and ClansSean Murphy's website on the subjectArticle on Irish Chiefs on the Burke's Peerage & Gentry website


{{DEFAULTSORT:Chief Of The Name Social history of Ireland Social history of Scotland Ancient Irish dynasties Gaelic nobility of Ireland