McInerney

The name McInerney is of noble Irish origin where it is found in the modern Irish form of Mac an Airchinnigh (pronounced ) and in the old and literary forms of Mac an Oirchinnigh and Mac an Oirchindig. The pronunciation of Mac an Oirchinnigh led the name to be sometimes anglicised as McEnherheny in Irish documents from the 16th–19th centuries. The name translates to 'son of the erenagh' in Irish ('erenagh' being airchinneach), literally meaning 'son of the Lord of church lands'. Airchinneach may in turn derive from the twin components of air ('noble') and ceann ('head'), therefore meaning a ‘noble-head’ or ‘Lord’, denoting its aristocratic status in medieval Ireland. The coat of arms is three red lions passant, and the motto is Veritas, meaning 'Truth'. In some places, the motto can be found as Vincit Veritas, meaning 'Truth Conquers', or 'Truth Prevails'. The erenagh was an important position in early medieval Ireland and originally was associated with hereditary ecclesiastical office among certain custodian families of monasteries and churches. Later, the office of erenagh passed into the hands of laymen. After the disorder of the Norse wars in the 10th and 11th centuries, the erenaghs were generally lay families who controlled the lands and therefore the economic base of the important churches and monasteries on behalf of the overlord clan. In turn, the erenagh received part of the rents from the land and normally held their own mensal estate which was generally hereditary and passed down among the principal family lineage (Irish, 'derbhfine') and occupied by the 'chief' of the erenagh family. The erenagh families held high social status and were often at odds with the ecclesiastical authorities over the ownership and management of church lands and were often in conflict with rival churches located in hostile clan lands. Some erenagh families maintained their influence over ecclesiastical property right down until the collapse of the Gaelic social system in the beginning of the 17th century. Because of the proliferation of lay erenagh families, there are many unrelated erenagh families throughout Ireland. The name McInerney is by far the most popular form of the Irish Mac an Airchinnigh and the most numerous as well. Indeed, by 1890 the surname McInerney was the seventh most popular in County Clare, though it seems that its popularity sank over time as many of the family emigrated from Clare during the course of the 20th century. Nonetheless, the name is well established in its historical homeland of Co Clare where it is still a well known local surname. The surname McInerney has retained a relatively close phonetic approximation of the original Irish surname Mac an Oirchinnigh, aka, Mac an Airchinnigh (son of the airchinneach) which has been anglicised in many different forms such as McEnerhynny, McInerhenny, McKinnerteny,Mckinnerney, Nerhinny, McEnearney, McEnerney, McNertny, and even Kinnerk. Another well known erenagh family is the present-day family of Nerney found in County Roscommon and who historically were the erenaghs of St Patrick's church in the Diocese of Elphin and at Tuam. Their forebears are occasionally mentioned in the Irish Annals during the Middle Ages (in AD1487 for example) and also among the native Irish who received Transplanter Certificates in the 1650s in the vicinity of Stokestown. Despite their ancient lineage, the Roscommon Nerneys appear not to have been as numerous as the McInerneys of County Clare who historically are an offshoot of the important Dál gCais line of the powerful McNamaras of eastern County Clare (historically known as Clann-Cuilein). The McInerney surname gave rise to a well known sept based in eastern Thomond, or Co Clare, where the name was first recorded in the early 14th century document 'Triumphs of Torlough' (Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh). In the 'Triumphs of Torlough' the McInerney sept is referred to on several occasions as being followers of the McNamaras and were present at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318 in which the English forces under De Clare were decisively defeated. The sept was an offshoot of the powerful McNamara clan and, tracing their descent to the 12th century Donnchadha Mac Con Mara (Donnough MacNamara) who was recorded as an airchinneach (erenagh) and from whom his son took the name Mac an Airchinnigh (ie.‘son of the airchinneach’). Some pedigrees indicate that this Donnchadha Mac Con Mara was the brother of Cu Mara beg, the Lord of Ui Caisin who was slain in 1151 and one of the early chiefs of the leading branch of the Mac Con Mara family. This would suggest that the McInerneys were an offshoot sept of the leading Mac Con Mara household of eastern Clare. It is possible that this Donnchadh Mac Con Mara was an airchinneach based at Killaloe or another religious establishment in East Clare. The sept held extensive lands in the townlands of Ballysallagh, Ballynacraggie and Dromoland (parish of Kilnasoolagh near present-day Newmarket-on-Fergus) and were recorded as being in possession of the tower houses of Ballynacraggie and Ballysallagh during the 16th and 17th centuries respectively. These lands seem to have been the traditional ‘mensal lands’ of the head of the McInerney sept as the leading members of the family were variously recorded as residing on these lands from the 1560s–1650s. According to papers the antiquarian R. W Twigge copied, the McInerneys built Dromoland Castle and Ballyconeely castle, of which the former has been rebuilt and was until recently the residence of the O'Brien Earl of Inchiquin, and the latter destroyed. R. W Twigge based his research off an 18th-century Irishman named William O’Lionain who wrote that Thomas, the son of Shane Mac Anerheny, erected Dromoland – probably between the 1450s–1550s. The Elizabethan Inquisition records (legal assessments of property transactions) of the late 16th century refer to a long-running land dispute between the two leading factions of the McInerneys. According to the Inquisition record of 1579: