Irish clans

Irish clans are traditional kinship groups sharing a common surname and heritage and existing in a lineage based society prior to the 17th century.

History

The Irish word clann is a borrowing from the Latin planta, meaning a plant, an offshoot, offspring, a single child or children, by extension race or descendants. For instance the O'Daly family were poetically known as Clann Dalaigh, from a remote ancestor called Dalach.

Clann was used in the later Middle Ages both to provide a plural for surnames beginning with Mac meaning Son of. For example "Clann Cárthaigh" for the men of the MacCarthy family and "Clann Suibhne" for the men of the MacSweeny family. Clann was also used to denote a subgroup within a wider surname, the descendants of a recent common ancestor. For example, the Clann Aodha Buidhe or the O'Neills of Clandeboy whose ancestor was Aodh Buidhe died in 1298. Such a 'clan' if sufficiently closely related, could have common interests in landownership, but any political power wielded by their chief was territorially based.