Castle Aughnenure, Galway County

O'Flaherty History

Introduction to the History of My Tribe

These O'Briuin Seola evolved into a tribe called, the Muinter Murchada, whose chieftain, Murchada, ruled Connaught in the latter half of the ninth century. During these years the clan was resisting the incursions of the Vikings (Northmen, then Norman) who conquered the west coast of Europe, and England.

The O'Flaherty get their name from a descendant of Murchada, Flaithbhertaig Mac Ermin (Flaherty, son of Evin). a Prince of Connaught. Flaithbhertaig (or Flaithbertach) was a popular name in Ireland in the10th century a.d. Today it is translated into "bright leader." The clan, during these pre-Norman times, had emerged from the Viking terror of the previous two centuries, becoming known for two seemingly contradictory traits, its warlike prowess and its amiable mansions.

The first O'Flaherty, known in the Irish as ua flaithbhertaig, is mentioned in the annals of Ireland in the year 1034 - Muireadhach Ua Flaithbheartach, Lord of Ui-Briuin-Seola, a descendant of the Muinter Murchada and the Ui Briuin clans.

Muireadhach O'Flaherty ruled his clan as a high chief (or "low king") and claimed his royal blood through many an Irish hero. He united many of the descendants of the the Ui Briuin tribes in the area east of Loch Corrib near the western coast of Ireland.

These O'Flaherty tribes were nominally subjunct to the tribe of Sil Murray, the O'Connors, but they were also fiercely independent. The O'Flaherty tribes who dominated the area around Galway Bay served as the Admirals in the forces of the O'Connor dynasty during the 11th and 12th centuries. In the year 1092, Flaherty O'Flaherty briefly siezed the Kingdom of Connaught from Ruadri O'Connor, and proclaimed himself Ard Ri of Ireland. However, discovering the better part of valor, he chose not to hold the throne, eventually conferring the Kingship on Muirchertach O'Connor. Flaherty O'Flaherty died in battle, slain by the MacLochlainn tribe in the year 1098.

In 1124 the O'Flaherties built one of the first castles in Ireland, the original Castle Galway. The Norman use of castles to subjugate the Saxons in Britain had upgraded the science of war. Until the invention of the cannon and explosives, castles were the primary defensive weapon of the era. The O'Flaherty clan, with their capital at Enach-dun, controlled the Loch's Mask and Corrib, the Bay of Galway, Clare, Connemara, Gnobeg, Gnomor, "half barony" of Ross. The O'Flaherty fleet controlled the Connaught coastline.

During this period of peace the clan was building Galway into an important commercial center in the Irish Nation. The beginnings of civil life were making great inroads into Irish thinking, and the rule of law, Brehon Law, was institutionalizing civil administration among the learned Irish tribal chiefs who recognized the unwieldiness of tribal administration. The influence of the Irish Christian Church on organizational habits can not be overemphasized.

In Il69 an Irish chief named Dermott MacMurrough was dispossessed of his territory, and lost his legal appeal. The treacherous Dermott offered his daughter to a Norman general named "Strongbow." Also known in England as Pembroke, Strongbow was a restless warrior under the thumb of England's Henry II, and he wasn't making much booty in impoverished Wales. MacMurrough had been ostracized by his people, and he wanted revenge. In return for his own child, MacMurrough brought the Normans into Ireland. MacMurrough had his revenge when he and the Normans with Strongbow brought their chain mail and armor against the bare chests of the Irish warriors to conquer Ulster, Munster and Leinster in Eastern Ireland. The price of MacMurrough's treachery would be paid in centuries of blood.

The Ard Ri at the time, High King Roderick O'Connor in Connaught, ceded his claim to Ulster, Leinster, and Munster to the Normans, and held to himself the province of Connaught. The Normans wanted more, and soon planted a castle in Connaught.

O'Connor summoned his councils and called the other clans into action as described in a poem of the time:

Connemara, Gnobeg and Gnomore united as Magh Uillen (Moycullen), and the half-barony of Ross, would become O'Flaherty territory for the next 450 years.

The Galway river, and the linking lakes Corrib and Mask, eventually became the boundaries that separated the Norman territories in Connaught held by the Burkes, and the Gaelic areas in Western (Iar) Connaught held by the O'Flaherty, and to the north by the O'Malley clan (Ua Maile). Inside an area bounded to the north, by the O'Malley's in Mayo, to the east the lakes; the south, Galway Bay; to the west, the Atlantic Ocean, this region called Moycullen, Connamara, and the half barony of Ross, - lumped into one name,- Iar-Connaught - was considered one of the most desolate lands in Ireland.

But, the O'Flaherties survived, and maintained their Gaelic heritage against the onslaught of fate. The Normans, led by the de Burgo family, took control of the town of Galway, whose citizens would one day erect a wall that bore the plaintive prayer, "From the ferocious O'Flaherties, Good Lord protect us" (Hardiman's History of Galway).

In this territory of Iar-Connaught rose the family's most illustrious Renaissance characters, including the Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley, Murrough of the Axes, and Donnel of the Wars. Here also were all the intrigues of the Medievil world, castles, conquests, faith and betrayal.

So dominant in the area of Iar-Connaught were the O'Flaherty clans, they were viewed as tacitly a separate nation; so much so that when England's Sir John Perrot initiated "the Composition of Connaught" (1585), he referred to the territory as "O'FFLAHARTYES CONTREY" (O'Flaherty's country). The O'Flaherty's were to hold their country for 400 years. ruling with only occasional obeisance to the English King, presenting an impregnable frontier to the Norman Lords and their client city of Galway. In those centuries the O'Flaherty adapted much from the Normans, building castles, churches, towns and growing rich on the commerce of the day. The O'Flaherty should be credited also with helping to preserve the essence of the Gaelic-Celtic-Irish heritage to the point that when the Irish chief Murrough O'Flaherty died in 1626 it was written that he still practiced the ancient brehon ways. The writings of the eminent Irish Historian, Roderick O'Flaherty, indicate he was one of the pre-eminent Irish historians of his day, his history of his nation, the Ogygia considered the classic national history of the era.and should be credited with laying the groundwork for Duald McFirbis's contribution to "the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland" (the Annals of the Four Masters).

In the turbulent 17th Century occurred the singular most notorious event in O'Flaherty history: "the massacre at Shrule." At Shrule, a town in Connaught, dozens of English Protestants were murdered. While the exact murderers are unknown, it was said the English protestants were executed by the wrath of the O'Flaherty in 1641. This event helped lionize Britain's revenge on the island. Edmond O'Flaherty, a colonel in the Irish army was blamed for these events and executed by the conquering army in 1653. Most historians agree, that while the tragedy was egregious, the events were exagerated and propagandized by the British Puritans to mobilize their armies against Ireland.

The course of family history cuts through many hard rocks. Intrigue, treachery and greed mingle with faith, loyalty and hope in all family histories.

Partially as a consequence of anti-gaelic prejudice among the Anglo-Norman royalist aristocracy, the English completed their reconquest of Ireland in 1653, when they finally took Inisboffin Island in O'Flaherty territory. Except for a brief flurry of rebellion that resulted in the Battle of the Boyne at the end of the 17th century, England would dominate Ireland for the next 270 years.

There followed years of poverty, a consequence of the cruel, corrupted power of the English ruling class, which indeed had its effect on all of Catholic Ireland. This English arrogance and corruption, so horribly evident in Ireland, would eventually spawn the historic American Revolution.

In the nineteenth century, the family again began to forge its way into the modern world. After the Act of Union, the O'Flaherty saw family members in Parliament, and prominence in the City of Galway loomed. But the desolation inflicted on Ireland by the famine of the 1840's destroyed the chance for many to escape the poverty of British domination .... unless they fled the island.

And, like their Milesian ancestors, many sought adventure beyond the seas.

During the nineteenth century, O'Flaherties of Ireland began building clans all over the world.

While some O'Flaherty stayed, others fled to the United States. Here, and in Canada, Jamaica, and Australia, eventually the descendants of ua flaithbhertaig assimilated into the modern world. By the time of the Easter Rebellion in 1916, O'Flaherties in many parts of the globe were beginning to prosper. With the firm establishment of the Irish Republic in 1922, the end of anti-gaelic prejudice meant that at last the O'Flaherty could begin to prosper in their home counrty, too.

Here and there, the O'Flaherty found success, and in some cases prominence. It is in the modern world, where the Science of War sometimes makes peace, that the History of My Tribe can finally be written.

Condensed from My Tribe, by William Francis O'Flaherty, Jr. Special thanks to Charles O'Flaherty and Jack O'Flaherty for pictures of Aughnenure.

A work in progress

O'Flaherty Genealogical Project

Email: Bill O'Flaherty

oflahewf@wwics.com

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