Irish genealogy is the study of individuals and families who originated on the island of
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.
Origins
Genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
was cultivated since at least the start of the early Irish historic era. Upon
inauguration
In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...
,
Bards and poets are believed to have recited the ancestry of an inaugurated king to emphasize 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 practice of annalistic records, annals being kept by monks to determine the yearly
chronology
Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...
of
feast days
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
(see
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over ti ...
).
Its cultivation reached a height during the Late Medieval Era with works such as ''
Leabhar Ua Maine'', ''
Senchus fer n-Alban'', ''
Book of Ballymote
The ''Book of Ballymote'' (, RIA MS 23 P 12, 275 foll.), was written in 1390 or 1391 in or near the town of Ballymote, now in County Sligo, but then in the tuath of Corann.
According to David Sellar who was the Lord Lyon King of Arms in ...
'', ''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
The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...
with ''
Leabhar na nGenealach
''Leabhar na nGenealach'' ("Book of Genealogies") 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 m ...
'', composed mainly between 1649 and 1650 in
Galway
Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
.
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.
Over time, genealogy was pursued for its own merits by the Gaelic learned classes. From , various families such as
Ó Cléirigh,
Mac Fhirbhisigh,
Ó Duibhgeannáin,
Mac Aodhagáin
Mac Aodhagáin ( English: ''Egan'' or ''Keegan''), is an Irish Gaelic clan of Brehons who were hereditary lawyers - firstly to the Ó Conchobhair Kings of Connacht, and later to the Burkes of Clanricarde.
The earliest surviving Irish law ma ...
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
Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
, with the recording of the family trees of
FitzGerald,
Butler,
Burke,
Plunkett, Nugent,
Bermingham and others.
Some clans, such as Mac Fhirbhisigh and Ó Duibhgeannáin were originally hereditary