McInerney
| McInerney Mac an Airchinnigh |
|
|---|---|
 Armorial of McInerney |
|
| Country | Kingdom of Thomond |
| Parent house | Dál gCais |
| Titles |
|
| Founder | Donnchadha Mac Con Mara |
The name McInerney is of noble Irish origin where it is found in the modern Irish form of Mac an Airchinnigh (pronounced mock-on-arc-kenny) and in the old and literary form of Mac an Oirchinnigh and Mac an Oirchindig. The pronunciation of Mac an Oirchinnigh has led the name to be sometimes anglicised as McEnherheny in Irish documents from the 16th–19th centuries. The name is derived from the Irish Mac an Oirchinnigh, meaning ‘son of the erenagh’, (erenagh in Irish being 'airchinneach') literally meaning 'son of the Lord of church lands'. The Irish word airchinneach may derive from its 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, 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).
...
Wikipedia