| This surname is numerous in counties
Armagh and Antrim. It is said to have originated in
the case of early emigrants from Ireland who thus
acquired the Norman name of de Yrlande, some of their
descendants returning eventually to this country.
In its modern form it occurs in the 1664 Hearth Money
Rolls for Co. Armagh, and Samuel Ireland was one of the
Poll-tax Commissioners for Co. Louth in 1660. In
mediavel records we meet more frequently the cognate name
le Ireis; its modern form, Irish was formerly well known
in Co. Kilkenny; eight families of the name are in
Griffith's Valuation of that county in 1851, in which
three Irelands also appear. Ireland is now rare
there but fairly numerous in Ulster.Mac)
GLOSSARY
| Clan |
From the Gaelic
clann which means literally 'children'. |
| Mac- |
From the Gaelic
mac, meaning 'son' |
| O' |
From the Gaelic
Ó, meaning 'grandson', 'grandchild' or
'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó,
meaning 'daughter' or 'descendant' |
| Plantation (Ulster) |
The
redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight
of the Earls' in 1607. Only counties
Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and
Cavan were actually 'planted', portions of land
there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of
bawns. |
| Sept |
A family group of
shared ancestry living in the same locality |
| Undertakers |
Powerful English
or Scottish landowners who undertook the
plantation of British settlers on the lands they
were granted. |
| Gaelic |
This word in
Ireland has no relation to Scotland. As a
noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as
an adjective to denote native Irish as opposed to
Norman or English origin. |
| Erenagh |
From the Irish
Gaelic airchinneach, meaning 'hereditary steward
of church lands'. A family would hold the
ecclesiastical office and the right to the church
or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one time
being the erenagh. |
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