Castle
The Hill of Tara in County Meath was the royal seat of our ancestors,
the early High Kings of Ireland, but there was never a stone castle on
this ancient religious and royal site.
The "royal palaces" of the High Kings were constructed of wood,
wicker and thatch, and have long since disappeared. The Grianan
Aileach, locate west of modern day Londonderry, the royal seat of our
ancestors, the early Ui Neill kings of Aileach, is a large stone ring
fortress built over 2000 years ago and restored in the late 1800′s, but
the associated residential buildings were constructed of wood, wicker
and thatch, and have disappeared.
The parish church at Kinawley, County Fermanagh was the family
church of one line of our clan, who were the parish priests and
stewards of church lands in that area for several centuries. The
cemetery there contains the ruins of the original medieval church and
several graves and headstones of clan members. There are also many
archeological sites in County Donegal, County Tyrone and County
Fermanagh that are associated with our ancestors.
Irish noble families did not live in "castles" until long after the
Norman conquest, and very few Gaelic Irish families were ever
granted the lands and titles to support a castle. Stone castles were a
Norman innovation, and did not appear in Ireland until the end of
the 12th century. Turlough Luinech, who was crowned The O’Neill
Mor (the Gaelic king of Tir Eoghain and Ulster) in 1567 AD, did
rule from a stone castle in the Mhuintir Luinigh, until he was deposed
and the castle destroyed in 1593 AD. Some remains of Turlough’s
castle still exist at Newtownstewart.
Our ancient ancestors usually lived in large, circular enclosures called
"raths", typically comprised of three concentric rings formed by
ditches, mounds and wooden ramparts. In the center ring would
usually be one or more large, round, woven, double-walled houses
with conical thatched roofs. These homes were comfortable, wellinsulated, finely made and very flammable. They typically had
wooden floors, comfortable furniture and exquisite pieces of weaving,
fine pottery and metalwork. The next ring housed the slaves and
other staff. Ancient Irish noble families kept large numbers of slaves
and peasants. St. Patrick was a wealthy Roman Briton, who was
supposedly kidnapped into slavery by one of our ancestors and
brought to Ireland. In addition to slavery, the ancient pagan Irish
may have practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. The
outer ring housed the livestock. The ancient Irish kept large herds of
cattle and horses, and liked to steal more from other clans.
The ancient Irish nobility usually ate very well. Their diet consisted of
beef, dairy products, grains, vegetables and fruit, and of course, the
legendary honey beer. Evening entertainment typically consisted of
eating and drinking to excess, storytelling, singing and mock battles.
Wealthy households even employed full-time professional
genealogists, praise poets and singers. There would also have been
the clan’s druids for legal, medical and spiritual matters. Hospitality
for the noble Irish was considered a sacred obligation.