Erenachs, erenachships and church landholding in Gaelic Fermanagh, 1270-1609

Abstract

This article sets out to fill in neglected gaps in our scholarly knowledge of the system of erenach and church landholding in Gaelic Ulster (1270-1609). In contrast to previous studies which have concentrated on the legal status of coarbs and erenachs, this study analyses at macro level the functioning of erenachships as economic units, and at a micro level the system as it operated in the medieval lordship of Fermanagh. The result has been to demonstrate that the enfranchisement of nativas septs as erenach septs on church-lands took place as a result of the twelfth-century Reform (1101-72). In the case of Fermanagh, outside of the initial transfer of lands from the monasteries to the erenach septs, most of the church-lands were acquired piecemeal over the course of centuries. Many of the erenach septs were furthermore of outside origin, but became accepted as nativus septs through longterm settlement. Introduction In 1640 Tadhg O Rodaigh, a descendant of the coarb of Fenagh, won a legal battle in the House of Commons in London against the bishop of Ardagh, claiming wrongful dispossession on the part of the Church of Ireland of his family's hereditary lands at the beginning of the seventeenth century. However, the Irish Parliament was determined not to proceed with redress, owing to vested interests within the same body and the likely implications for the Plantation of Ulster. 1 Even before the Plantation of Ulster, the nature of Gaelic ecclesiastical landholding had both fascinated and been the subject of legal analysis on the part of English officials such as Sir John Davies, Attorney General ( 1 5691626), and George Montgomery, one-time bishop of Derry, Raphoe and * Author's e-mail: ciaran.oscea@ucd.ie doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.201 1.1 12.04 1 John Logan, 'Tadhg O'Roddy and the two surveys of County Leitrim', Breifne 4 (1971), 318-34: 322-3; Irish Parliament, House of Lords, Journals of the House of Lords of the kingdom of Ireland (8 vols, Dublin, 1783-1800), vol. 1, 172, 174, 176; see also the poem 'Maith thrath do thoigheacht a Thaidhg' by Ferghal Muinhnioch O Duibheannain, celebrating Tadhg O Rodaigh's success in England. Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ms. H.6.15 ( = 1419), 303-4. My thanks to Seosamh Mac Muiri of Trinity College Dublin for pointing out the existence of this poem. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 112C, 271-300 © 2011 Royal Irish Academy This content downloaded from 207.46.13.180 on Thu, 08 Sep 2016 06:23:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms