Welcome. This introduction, to the early history of a group of related families, describes migration to Ireland from northern Europe.

After writing the main subject matter, I read the latest findings, gleaned from ‘The Origins of the Irish’ by J.P. Mallory, first printed in 2015, updated 2017, reprinted 2018. From this, Peter Woodman’s published review in 2015, for Quaternary Science Reviews, the following analysis - that it was perhaps 10,500 BC that “some hunters crossed the sea to become Irelanders during the Upper Palaeolithic period.” Mallory adds, “Ireland has experienced three palaeogenetic phases: (1) from southwest Europe (2) an influx from the Near East (3) and the last from distant steppelands of the Ukraine and southern Russia, altogether constituting 80% of the population belonging to the male haplogroup R1b. This male group being from Iberia and southern France after the last ice-age. As for the language, Mallory suggests the Celtic languages originated from the earliest farming communities in southwest Europe.

It is generally accepted that at the beginning of human dispersal, out of Africa, by the northern route, began 150,000 year ago. Matches between the DNA of today’s humans and fossil remains tell us ‘H’ sapiens evolved from African soil 70,000 years ago. The movement from Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia began 50,000 years ago… thereafter, movement began into Europe named the Northern Eurasia people, 12,000 years ago. This dispersal of ‘Cro-Magnon interbred with Neanderthals 9,000 years ago… migrations of the Mesolithic to Neolithic the start of the Holocene period. Western Hunter-Gatherers introduced to Europe were replaced by European Farmers in the Bronze Age. These people were typically highly tanned with light blue eye pigmentation 6,000 years ago. There is every likelihood that some of these people moving towards Ireland were from the Spanish Peninsular and would have been dark, swarthy, dusky-skinned, hence maybe described in Gaelic as Ciar (Kiar).

This group, or tribe, of wandering people (hunter gatherers), found themselves confronted by beaches and cliffs and a series of stony, muddy pools, ponds and lakes and in between these unfordable places, areas capable of giving access, to this new land ahead; this was a time before the sea swept in. They were in fact travelling over what was to become the Gaelic sea - water separating Ireland from Gaul. We can only imagine what it was like for those families, to either wander aimlessly or forced by circumstances out of their control, to look for a new land to inhabit over land giving way to the sea. In Boate and Molineux’s Natural History of Ireland accounts are given of the great Irish elk or Moose deer with horns measuring ten to twelve feet on both sides.

By this time the ice sheet had melted and the land before them appeared bare, soon to take on a clothing of vegetation - an age maybe called Palaeolithic (The Old Stone Age) which led to the Mesolithic Era (New Stone Age) 4500 BC and then Neolithic 2500 BC. Later periods, of pre-recorded history, given the name The Bronze Age 300 BC. Some of the northern tribes of Celts, made the journey, stayed and settled to become some of the first Irish people; to build communities, make earthenware pots, cook over open fires, and develop the land.

Gradually over time the land they settled-in became worked, the vegetation cared for, and the roaming herds of deer hunted. These people were called by historians northern Celts and the period named the Iron Age. They lived in pole houses, clothed themselves in hair and hide, wondered about the after-life and gave homage to gods. They were a complex of interacting cultures, sub-cultures and class – adopting a life-style, customs, religion and attitudes of the Celts, their language and cultural differences, the raiders later from Denmark and Norway also deserve a mention for they too changed the societies where they landed and later put down roots to contributed their habits and social mores.

Over the following millennium man developed the land necessary to, afford defence, provide security and grow food. These groups of huts enclosed behind a palisade were a common feature along the coastal hills and cliffs; lower-lying ground were still bogs with numerous streams, as the land slowly drained.

Gradually people populated Ireland, choosing leaders who controlled the group’s behaviour with the help of soothsayers who later became the Brehons. They worshipped water and springs, two of their essentials, believed in an after- life and imagined stories of good and bad natural events, believing in gods who needed to receive offerings and sacrifices.

Over time isolated families grouped and gathered together to form communities as much to help each other and share community tasks: collecting wood, building, stalking, gathering nuts, fruit, seed and leaf, cooking and fetching water. These were the Ciarraige Cuirche or Chuirch, a Pictish tribe located in south-west Ireland referred to in history as Ciar’s people, son of Medb and Ferus.

My maternal H5a and paternal Haplogroup H-P96 is believed to be one of the first settlers from Gaul gradually moved into the heart of Ireland. The Celts were of the Caucasian race – which included ancient and modern Europeans. Those who made their way to Ireland were part of the northern half of the race.

These family groups, moving where food and water found, organized communities giving the group permanence. They put down roots and built more permanent dwellings. Living in pole houses with thatch and turf, in family groups using: stone, antler, horn, wood, flint and bone tools: clothed in animal skins, collecting shells and pebbles. The tool-makers of the Neolithic period, a people who began the Bronze Age, which in turn became the Iron as other smelting ores became workable. The Iron Age is given as between c750 and AD 43 about the same time the Romans landed in Britain.

By the time the Romans landed the Celts were established sufficiently to have a major settlement in Dublin which became the northern Celtic capital. A tribal people with a Celtic language, adept at smelting minerals, using-iron, preparing land for crops and containing animals inside stone walls. The northern Celtic race stretched throughout Ireland, Wales, and land to the west of the central belt of England… northwards… into Scotland. It was a time when Saint Patrick entered Ireland from England.

According to John O’Hart, Irish Pedigrees, “Celtic is the same as Gaelic language, for Celt is strictly the same as Gael, and the Greek Keltai and Galatai, and the Latin Galli, are all one (See Liddell’s History of Rome, pp5. According to Ptolemy’s Map of Ancient Ireland, the Brigantes inhabited the territories of Leinster and Munster, now forming the counties of Wexford, Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Carlow, and Queens, p7.

John O’Hart’s Irish Pedigrees Part II, p 84/5 ‘The Stem of the Irish Nation’. The House of “Ir” 1. From Milesius of Spain. The Stem of O’Farrell Family. Conor Mac Nessa, King of Ireland, retired into Connaught, where he was received by Maud, the queen of that province, they had three sons Conman, Kiar or Ciar, and Corc.

Kiar or Ciar the ancestor of the people called “Ciariaidhe,” after whom the five territories they possessed took the name of Kerry: the chiefs of which styled kings and chiefs until their submission to the Crown of England, eventually to come about in 1185 when King John subdues the Anglo-Norman rebels. Of this sept the O’Connor’s “Kerry” was the leading family part of the Eugenian race, tribe or Treibh, clan. Ciarrai, nf4, Kerry: Ciar, dark haired or complexion, swarthy. Collins Dictionary.

In the very early days every soothsayer or poet was also a Brehon or judge and it is believed that the laws were written in verse to make the laws easier to remember.

The ancient tribes of Ireland spoke a Celtic tongue. They could not write but remembered and celebrated happenings, were able to express themselves, understand seasonal and weather changes, and briefly, time. They relied upon the Brehons, a person who had to go through a regular, well-defined course of study or training. A man who had been through this could set up as a Brehon or a judge proper, a consulting lawyer, an advocate or a law-agent. A Brehon also qualified as a shanachie or historian and the profession was sometimes held by a family. A Brehon sat close to the chief at the high table and would on a daily basis tell the assembled something about the day, the weather, growing conditions and possible troubles ahead and how they would work out. This so called wise man very much controlled how the people would react at any given moment or event.

The 4th century Ogam notches were communication signs - still today not understood. The arrival of missionaries from abroad who understood Latin, and other languages, began to pass on their faith through their past indoctrinations their books and spoken word which suggests they knew enough northern Celtic to do so. It is also quite plausible to expect the inhabitants to also understand some Gaullism. It would take at least a generation, until 500AD, for these missionaries to be fully understood. However, watching their chiefs behaviour towards the missionary gave an indication how believable his teachings were – gave the missionary credibility, obedience without true understanding by the commoners.

The O’Ciarrovan (Norwegian Conmac Kirwan), O’Ciaragan (Kerrigan) were descended from Fiobrann son of Eachdach, of the house of I.R: The Stem of the O’Farrell family. Part II, Irish Pedigrees, by John O’Hart, page 84-87. Stem of O’Conor (Kerry) page 92, son of Maud named Kiar. Families descended from IR: Carney, Kerney, Kiernan, Keary, Kerry. Chapter III, page 99. It took until the end of the first millennium before the letter K used in writing and longer still for it to be used to identify place names during map making and finally when printing first popularized maps. The fractured society took time to become accustomed and conversant, with the increase of the written word.

A further reference is made on page 228, IV – Cork and Kerry. Cork (in Latin “Coreagia,” and also “Coracium”) received its name from Core (No. 89, p65) a prince of the Eugenian race, who was king of Munster, in the 5^th century; Kerry (in Latin “Kerrigia”) its name taken from Ciar, son of Fergus Mac Roy, by Meava or Maud, the celebrated Queen of Connaught, a short time before the Christian era.

The family Ciar, in the first century, populated a large territory in Munster, called Ciar Rioghact, signifying Ciar’s Kingdom; hence, the word, County Kerry, page 228. The spelling of the name varies: Ciariaidhe, Ciaraidhe, anglicized as Kelly, part of the O’Connor tribe or clan. Ciar was of the Ciarraighe tribe, Loch-na Nairneadha. Ciarraige of Ui Mhaine (Hy Many) descended from Maine Mór in the 5^th century from Kelly or Keegan. Part of the Heremon. Airbre or Cairbrens of Carbery.

Saint Ciar or Cera served the O’Ciardha clan not only as the daughter of the chief but as a canonized saint. A nunnery was built to cater for women having thirteen postulants within the religious house. This was about the time Columbanus acting for the pope overseeing the dispute between the Irish and European Churches over the dating of Easter which was not settled until the Synod of Whitby in 664 (Story of Ireland by Neil Hegarty). By 750AD the Book of Kells completed.

The Scholar of Aegus. The Church (nunnery) of Saint Cera or Ciar situated in the ancient Muscraidhe Thire given as Cill Cheire, (Church of Keary). It is important to remember that writing and book keeping was an imported gift by Christian monks spreading the Lord’s word from Rome, and leading religious houses. They could not understand Gaelic so that words conformed to the Roman alphabet. This became accepted by the Irish who later borrowed the ‘K’ to include in their alphabet. The English Collins Dictionary has two pages only of words beginning with K: in the Gaeilge Collins Irish Dictionary just two words (karate and kebab) this demonstrates how rare K used in everyday speech except for proper nouns.

In Kerry, the following have been the Irish chiefs and clans: - O’Connor, king or prince of Tara, descended from Kiar, of the Irian race already mentioned; and took the name from Con, one of the chiefs in the eleventh century, and from Ciar, their great ancestor; thus spelling the word “Conciar” or “Conior,” Anglicised “Conor.”(See No.108, page 98). From a portion of the ancient inheritance of this family, the present barony of Iraghticonor afforded its name.

The ancient Irish Chiefs and Clans of Dublin, Kildare, and King’s counties, (areas now forming the counties of Dublin and Kildare), together with some princes and chiefs of Meath, (Individuals collected from the Topographies of Connellan’s ‘Annals of the Four Masters’). The O’Connor’s, princes of Offaley, possessed part of Kildare as did the O’Ciardha (O’Carey), chiefs of Cairbre. The O’Ciardha clan, occupiers of the land, now referred to as the barony of “Carbery”.

King Henry II, through Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke, otherwise known as the Earl Strongbow, gave grants of land in parts of Leinster to his followers; giving the O’Ciardha land of Carbery to Robert de Bermingham who eventually become earls of Lucan, later, barons of Carbery. The Pomeroy’s became barons Harberton and viscounts of Carbery. Clans in Mayo and Sligo included the O’Ciardha clan, who had anglicized their name to O’Carey.

The O’Ciardha, now perhaps O’Carey, were a senior branch of the Cenel Cairpre, descended from Cairpre, an ancient warrior-clan who lived near the barony of Granard, speaking Gaeltacht. The chiefs were closely related to the supreme ruler of southern Ireland. Although the chiefs were minor kings they were descendants of the Ui Neill lords of Cairbre who made up the Múscraighe Tribe an aristocratic family Ui Raibne who settled in the barony of Carbury in county Kildare.

The other principal Norman and English families of the County Cork, were the Cogan’s, Carew’s (or Cares) Condon’s (or Cantons). Page 282. The Carew’s were marquises of Cork. Page 282, part V, No. 2. The chiefs and clans in the counties of Dublin and Kildare. O’Ciardha or O’Carey, chiefs of Cairbre O’ Ciardha now the barony of “Carbery” forming the Counties of Dublin and Kildare. Page 813, item 10. Chiefs of Ciarraighe, Loch-na-Nairneadha – in the territory in the barony of Costello, County Mayo, comprising the parishes of Aghamore, Bekan, and Knock.

The history of Ireland’s people is one of tribal units. My family’s people were considered part of the Carraige Tribe (tuath) under its king (ri). The Tribe’s structure was class ridden. The druids (priests), warriors, farmers and smiths, leeches (medicine men) sat apart, those that ruled over the commoners. The O’Ciardha, or O’Carey, chiefs of Cairbre O’Ciardha, occupied territory in the centre of the county, and barony of ‘Carbery,’ in the county of Kildare - its northern boundary the River Shannon. John O’Hart p18. Carey (Carew) mentioned as descended from Heremon. Airbre (Latinized “Cairbrens,” and Anglicised “Carbery,”) is derived by some from “Corb,” a chariot, and “ri,” a king, signifying the chief or ruler of the chariot.

These people lived and worked in accordance with the times. Chiefs given authority by strength of arms, someone who could lead (tanistry, the awaited one). The original settlers in America who gradually moved there across the straights from Russia acted in very much the same way as all roaming people warding off others who tried to take their place receiving recognition by what they could steal from others – tribal wars. This unsettled way of living was very much how the Celtic Irish behaved pre-Christianity.

If you were told you could have everlasting life, if you worshipped in a certain way to a spirit named Christ, a person who had risen again from the dead, you would consider following that person and their beliefs. If you managed to enrol that person into your space - sitting at your table, you may be considered closely aligned to them and their beliefs, and given supernatural strength and wise opinions, you would, as a chief, be given greater obedience and recognition.

The coming of Christianity, ‘Divine Will’ by preachers from abroad was acted out, as disciples of God, and it was their coming which changed the inter-tribal wars and gave stability. Over a short space of time Ireland changed course in all respects from waring to building, reading and writing. Kings and chiefs now included priests, the new power, and for us they, the priests, who produced descriptions of the time and place, behaviour and beliefs, indicated who to prey to and who to fear though the written word with illuminated text. The kings valued their castles to intimidate and instil fear. The priest’s had their religious houses which acted in the same way.

During the tenth century the Eoghhanachta, the Dal Cais established a kingdom of its own. Within this ecclesiastical political kingship group of families was created the diocese of Killaloe, increasingly becoming in the interest of the O’Connor’s who reigned over the kingdom of Connacht forcing out the O’Kelly’s, and many other lines of descent within the Ciarraige, of Ui Mhaine including the O’Ciardha ,(of the old order).

The battle of Hastings 1066, and the victory of William over Harold, change warfare. The Norman cavalry of armoured knights with lances, banks of archers, building impressive castles enabled them to rule over the English, later the Welsh, finally the Irish. This French based society was dominant, becoming a military aristocracy that the mainly untrained undisciplined hoards could not defeat. The landing of a Norman army in Waterford, and its successes, was the turning point which ultimately lead to the rule of the French in Ireland. In 1171, King Henry visited Ireland and accepted the homage which he received.

From that time minor clans began to falter, either move away or become accepted by more powerful clans that offered protection. In this instance this was the O’Connor’s. Within a short space of time the church of Ireland followed, the majority of priests and Bishops were French-orientated who, supported the aristocracy. This gave additional power to the chiefs and kings. The stage was set for the land to be distributed as a reward for occupation and to secure the backs of the nobility.

How simple this all was to give the best land with all that land means and supplies, to curry favour, receive support, and increase power. This happened in all four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Naturally in most cases that land was the land of the commoners who once again had to fight to get some back to feed themselves and their families.

Keary is a widespread name in Ireland, and has a number of different origins including Kearey and Carey. In the west it originated in Munster and migrated to Cashel in County Tipperary. When the Normans consolidated their army William spent very little time prevaricating over the battle, established himself quickly. The Norman successes created a French-speaking body of people. It is estimated that the Normans built over a thousand castles and abbeys.

The aristocracy and main landowners kept very much to themselves. In a short space of time the important institutions of Norman society became ‘The Manor’ the lord’s demesne, he demanded tithes, and the bailiff saw to it that these were paid through the Reeve, both governed who could build and where, what the market sold, and how the land was worked by the serfs and villeins. The Norman take-over of Ireland began in 1166, Dairmaid’s cry for help received it mostly from Wales. Churchmen increasingly played an important role. The Abbey of Fore, where a Keary family member died much later in 1654 - killed by Cromwell’s forces, was replaced by Augustinian canons.

To quell and suppress the Irish Catholics, the church and believers, throughout the Centuries, large tracts of Ireland’s south-east was handed over to English and Scottish Protestant land-owners to help secure Ireland’s support for the English Crown and ruling classes. The new landowners accepted the privilege but not all the responsibility many turned their backs leaving resident managers and remaining landowners to produce sufficient food for the bulk of the population. A series of bad harvests - ignorance of proper drainage, poor land management and soil husbandry, resulted in massive hardship. Finally potato blight caused a catastrophe which drove the poor from the land to seek work elsewhere.

References

Collins Irish Dictionary.

Hugh Kearney, The British Isles, A history of Four Nations. Pub. Cambridge University Press 2012.

P. White, Classic Reprint Series. History of Clare and the Dalcassian Clans.

Story of Ireland by Neil Hegarty, 2011, BBC Books.

The Course of Irish History. Moody and Martin. 2001.

John O’ Hart. Irish Pedigrees. 2019.

The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh 1942.

Irish Clans by John Grenham. Chartwell Books Inc, 1994.