Q&A The big questions answered

1 What's the history of Irish clans?

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Many people associate clans with Scotland, but the word originated in Ireland in the early Middle Ages. It derives from the Irish clann, meaning children, and is used to describe a highly organised hierarchal family grouping. A patriarchal kinship system, Irish clans were led by the male head of the family, the Taoiseach (a title still given to Ireland's Prime Minister), with the pecking order of other clan members determined by their blood relationship to this chieftain.

The Irish diaspora began in earnest in the mid-19th century, when Ireland's population was cut in half by the Great Hunger, and over a million people fled the famine to seek safety overseas. As a result, Irish family names proliferated all over the world, from O'Brien to O'Neill, MacCarthy to Murphy. Most, if not all, can be traced to ancient clans.

The tales associated with these names are straight out of Game of Thrones, full of fighting between royal Gaelic families and breakaway septs (from the Irish sliocht, meaning birth or line) of big clans.

The island of Ireland was once divided into many small kingdoms, as well as larger provinces, the main four being (as now) Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connaught. Clan chiefs vied for control of these dominions, as well as for the loftiest position in the land: High King of Ireland.

The most common Irish name of all, Murphy, can be linked to several clans and people that used the moniker Mac Murchada (which derives from the Old Irish words for sea warrior, and was anglicised as Murphy), including the infamous Diarmait Mac Murchada. However, most surnames can be more accurately traced to a specific clan.