History of MyTribe

ua flaithbhertaigh

In the history of My Tribe, in the tradition of the ollahms that used to recite the great oral traditions, I have accepted many of the ancient stories, and they appear in the story as fact. That is the nature of the story of history. While I am calling "my tribe" the O'Flaherty clan, this is really a history of many clans, bundled around the O'Flaherty name. Those that study gender know well the patrinomial nature of history, we follow the history of the male names. Thus it is the nature of the beast, even though it is through women that the beast is tamed.

My tribal history says that our patrimony originated in Scythia about the time of the Greek Empires. The Scythians are the peoples that drove the Dorian and Ionic Greeks toward the Aegean Sea.

A Scythian leader named Mile (Milesius) led an expedition of vessels out of the Mediterranean, and his tribe passed through Spain, up the Atlantic coasts of Europe and into Ireland. A descendant of this Milesius founded the tribe Ui Briuin which was considered in its time an aristocratic (brehon) equal with the other dominant tribes, the O'Neill, the O'Fiachra and others.

The Ui Briuin dominated the northwest portion of Ireland, Connaught, around Galway Bay, in the 8th century. "In or about 700 the Ui Briuin were settled in Duma Shelca, near Carn Fraoich in Co. Roscommon." Here they divided into three groups: Ui Briuin Ai, Ui Briuin Seola, and Ui Briuin Breifne. These peoples would witness the arrival of St. Patrick, the spreading of Christian thought, and hear of the wonders of the world from Brendan the Navigator.

The Ui Briuin Seola, also known as "Ui Briuin in Deiscirt" (Southern Ui Briuin), were settled to the east of Lough Corrib, probably as early as the middle of the eighth century. The dominant group amongst them in the later period were the O'Flahertys, who became contenders for the Kingship of Connacht in the eleventh century, and dominated the area about the mouth of the Corrib in the twelth century." (IBN)

The hero of the Viking wars, the High King of Ireland (Ard Ri) Brian Boru, had for his father a Cennatig (Kennedy) and his mother was a daughter of Urchada, lord of the Ua Briuin Seola.

The O'Flaherty get their name from Flaithbertaig Mac Ermin (Flaherty, son of Evin). a Prince of Connaught and descendant of Urchada. Flaithbhertaig (or Flaithbertach) was a popular name in Ireland in the 10th century a.d. Today it is translated into "bright leader."

The clan, whose alliance with Brian Boru's Munster tribes had earned it the name, "Muinter Murchada" during these pre-Norman times, had emerged from the Viking terror of the previous two centuries, and was becoming known for two seemingly contradictory traits, its warlike prowess and its amiable mansions. As the O'Flaherty played the Munster Irish and the emerging O"Connor dynasty against each other, they were often caught in the clan wars of the 10th-12th centuries. During these times the O'Flaherty gained reputation for their seamanship and the leaders of the Tribe were the hereditary admirals of the Connaught fleets, controlling the Lakes Corrib and Mask, and the trading mecca in Galway Bay.

The first O'Flaherty, known in the Irish as ua flaithbhertaig, is mentioned in the annals of Ireland in the year 1034. Muireadhach Ua Flaithbheartach, Lord of Ui-Briuin-Seola, is known as a descendant of the Muinter Murchada and the Ui Briuin clans.

Muireadhach O'Flaherty ruled his clan as a high chief (or "low king") and claimed his royal blood through many an Irish hero. He united many of the descendants of the the Ui Briuin tribes in the area east of Loch Corrib near the western coast of Ireland.

These O'Flaherty tribes were nominally subjunct to the tribe of Sil Murray, the O'Connors, but they were also fiercely independent. These were feudal years, Barons all over Europe were carving out local empires. The O'Flaherty tribes who dominated the area around Galway Bay served as the Admirals in the forces of the O'Connor dynasty during the 11th and 12th centuries. In the year 1092, Flaherty O'Flaherty briefly siezed the Kingdom of Connaught from Ruadri O'Connor, and proclaimed himself King, and is listed in some texts as Ard Ri of Ireland. However, discovering the better part of valor, he chose not to hold the throne, eventually conferring the Kingship on Muirchertach O'Connor. Flaherty O'Flaherty died in battle, slain by the MacLochlainn tribe in the year 1098.

In Il69 an Irish chief in Leinster, Dermott MacMurrough, offered his daughter to a Norman named "Strongbow" as inducement to come to Ireland and to bring revenge on MacMurrough's ememies. MacMurrough had been ostracized by his people, and he wanted revenge.

Known in England as Pembroke, Strongbow was a restless, violent warrior under the thumb of England's Henry II, and he wasn't making much booty in impoverished Wales. MacMurrough, Strongbow, and an army of Normans brought their chain mail, archers and armor across the Irish Channel, against the bare chests of the Irish Warriors.

The Irish in Ulster, Munster and Leinster succumbed to the Norman invaders. O'Connor made a separate treaty for the Connaught Irish, recognizing English rule, in return for holding Connaught free of Normans.

This did not last. Connaught was the last of the four Irish territories to fall.

The Ard Ri at the time, Roderick O'Connor in Connaught, summoned his councils and called the other clans into action as described in a poem of the time:

"All at once O'Connor,

The proud King of Connaught

called with him O'Flaherty,

MacDermott and MacGeraghty....

....towards Trim they set out marching,

to demolish the castle." (REH)

But the castles, chain mail, the armor, and the other advantages the Normans held in the Science of War proved too much for the Tribal Irish. O'Connor and O'Flaherty, MacDermott and MacGeraghty fell victims to the whims of war. The Normans under Strongbow, Hugh de Lacy, Hubert de Burgh and their armored knights conquered Ireland and claimed it for the Norman (Angevin) Empire.

Because O'Connor had won some brief concessions from the Normans while they plundered Ulster, Leinster and Munster. The O'Flaherty baronies in Clare on Galway Bay were temporarily left in peace. This ended in 1225 when the Normans broke all treaties with the Connaught Irish and the O'Flaherty clans were pushed across the Galway River into the Connamara regions. A Norman group, led by the De Burgo family claimed the fertile lands east of Galway Bay.

For a map of O'Flaherty territory, click here.

The Galway river, and the linking lakes Corrib and Mask, eventually became the boundaries that separated the Norman territories in Connaught held by the Burkes, and the Gaelic areas in Western (Iar) Connaught held by the O'Flaherty. Inside an area boundaried to the north by the O'Malley's: to the east the by lakes; the south, Galway Bay; to the west, the Atlantic Ocean the O'Flaherty tribe established their country. This region was portioned into Moycullen, Connemara, and the half barony of Ross, but lumped into one name, Iar-Connaught.

The land was not suitable for extensive farming, yet the O'Flaherties survived, and maintained their Gaelic heritage against the onslaught of fate.

In this territory of Iar-Connaught rose the family's most illustrious Renaissance characters, including the Pirate Queen, Grace O'Malley, Murrough of the Axes, and Donnel of the Wars. Here also were all the intrigues of the Medievil world, castles, conquests, faith and betrayal.

So dominant in the area of Iar-Connaught were the O'Flaherty clans, they were viewed as tacitly a separate nation. When England's Sir John Perrot initiated "the Composition of Connaught" (1585), he referred to the territory as "O'FFLAHARTYES CONTREY" (O'Flaherty's country).

The O'Flaherty's were to hold their country for 400 years ruling with only occasional obeisance to the English King, presenting an impregnable frontier to the Norman Lords and their client city of Galway. In those centuries the O'Flaherty adapted much from the Normans, building castles, churches, towns, and growing rich on the commerce of the day. The Parish of Enach Dun survived by the grace of God and the wealth of the O'Flaherty, who should be credited also with helping to preserve the essence of the Gaelic-Celtic-Irish heritage to the point that when the Irish chief Murrough O'Flaherty died in 1626 it was written that he still practiced the ancient Brehon ways, despite the political domination of the Norman-English.

The writings of the famous historian, Roderick O'Flaherty, indicate he was a pre-eminent Irish scholar of his day. Roderick's tract on Iar-Connaught is still a valuable source for Irish studies, and his book Ogygia was considered the primary history of Ireland in the 17th Century.

In the 17th Century occurred the singular most notorious event in O'Flaherty history: "the massacre at Shrule." At Shrule, a town in Connaught, dozens of English Protestants were killed in the revolt against the English in 1641. This event, and similar events around Ireland, helped lionize Britain's revenge on the island. Most historians agree, in retrospect, the events were exagerated and propagandized by the British Puritans to mobilize their armies against Ireland. Edmond O'Flaherty, a colonel in the Irish army, and the Viscount Mayo, were among those blamed for alleged atrocities in the Galway area. Both were executed by the conquering army in 1653.

The course of family history cuts through many hard rocks. Intrigue, treachery and greed mingle with faith, loyalty and hope in all family histories.

Their is no defense for the slaughter of naked innocents. Unfortunate with the advances of civilization, Church, State, Education, lies the Science of War. The ravages inflicted upon the O'Flaherty tribes by the brutal Binghams and their armies between 1585 and 1641 had inflicted a cruel lesson on the O'Flaherty and the serfs who served them, who believed the English Protestants to be the disciples of the Devil and the natural enemies of their tribe's laws, their church, and their race.

The resentment of 60 years of English treachery, treaty breaking, and oppression boiled over in the first desparate months of the Irish rebellion of 1641.

The Irish rebellion of 1641 ended with a Puritan conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, whose atrocities in Ireland stain the history of the Reformation.