Táinisteacht , athbheóú agus imscrúdú

Tanistry, research and revival

Tanistry

The system of tanistry governed the relationship not only between clan and chief but also governed a wider range of relationships concerning clan lands.

Irish social and property relationships were codified into laws popularly known in English as the Brehon law, and enforced by the Brehon class. These laws were codified in a work called the Seangus Mór. The Seangus Mór was written down in 438 A.D., when Laegaire King of Ireland appointed a committee of nine learned and eminent persons, including himself and St. Patrick, to revise the existing pagan laws. At the end of three years these nine produced a new code, from which everything that clashed with the Christian doctrine had been carefully excluded. As the Seangus Mór drew on laws streaching back into the mists of Ireland's mystic Druid era, much of the original source material was written in the oldest dialect of the Irish language, called Bérla Féini. It was so ancient that persons about to become brehons had to be specially instructed in the language. The authors of Commentaries and Glosses on the Seangus Mór, who were themselves learned brehons, were often quite at fault in their attempts to explain the archaic text: and their words show that they were fully conscious of the difficulty. It will then be readily understood that the modern task of translating these laws into English was a very difficult one, rendered all the more so by the number of technical terms and phrases, many of which are to this day obscure, as well as by the peculiar style, which is very elliptical and abrupt. Often the scribe has written down incomplete sentences, or mere catch-words of rules, the remainder being held in memory by the Brehons. Another circumstance that greatly adds to the difficulty of deciphering the text is the confused way in which the Commentaries and glosses are written, with the object of economising on the expensive vellum.

The two great Irish scholars, O'Donovan and O'Curry, who translated the laws into English in five printed volumes, were able to do so only after a life-long study; and in numerous instances were, to the last, not quite sure of the meaning. As they had to retain the legal terms and the elliptical style, even the translation is hard enough to understand, and is often unintelligible. It is, moreover, imperfect for another reason: it was only a preliminary and provisional translation, containing many imperfections and errors, to be afterwards corrected; but the translators did not live to revise it, and hence it has remainbed as they left it.

The Seangus Mór did codify the various aspects of Tanistry and it is from this that we understand much of how Gaelic society functioned. Fron the Seangus Mór and legal structure of land holding, we understand that the basic unit in ancient Ireland was not the nuclear family but the Sept, a body of families and their servants all connected by blood relationship. We also understand that the sept formed part of a Clan which comprised of several septs. The clan members were ultimately all descendants of a common ancestor. Above the Clan there was the Tuath, which was itself a collection of Septs, who also all nominally claimed descent from a common ancestor.

The chief was the nominal owner of land for the clan, but with land occupation held on three different types of tenure :-

• Part of the land was held in perpetual tenancy by the freemen including the chief. On a man's death there was not a system of primo genitur where the eldest son took all, but of gavelkind where the whole of the land belonging to the fine or sept was redivided or gavelled among all the male adult members of the sept - including the dead man's adult sons. The redistribution by gavelkind on each occasion extended to the clan or sept land but not beyond. This custom tended to deter the tenants from making permanent improvements as their property changed with the death of clan members.

• Another part of the land was held by the chief. The income of this land was devoted to supporting him in his office as chief. The domain of the chief was exempt from gavelkind, all lands passing intact to the next chief.

• The income of the remainder of the land, usually forest, bog, or other non farm land was shared annually among the freemen of the clan. On this common land the freemen could all freely graze their cattle and make use of the natural harvest.

Some land was also held privately outside the clan lands. This personal land was the private property of the kings and the nobles and passed by descent to their heirs as they willed and unlike clan land was not affected by gavelkind. Despite the existence of this private land, the vast bulk of land in Ireland was held as clan land within the above structure.

Under the Irish system of tanistic succession (as opposed to the English system of pure primogeniture), the chiefdom did not automatically devolve to the eldest son of the last chief. Instead whilst the clan chief was still alive he could nominate his successor, or Táiniste "the expected one". The main precondition was that the Táiniste had to be someone within a class of persons known as the Derbfine. The Derbhfine included all males descended in unbroken male-line from an earlier Chief, being a common great-grandfather, i.e. relatives up to second cousins. If a chief's male line of descent was extinct or untraceable then the Táiniste was the last chief's nearest traceable eligible kinsman. Despite the existence of a nominated candidate, following the death of a chief the succession might initially be claimed by one of the deceased chief's sons. This introduced an element of conflict. But it was the clan which ultimately decided on the Táiniste by election. The elections and quasi-democratic aspects to clan procedures should not blind us to the reality that in practice it was the most able (or most ruthless) candidate who succeeded in being "elected" clan chief. The nature of Táiniste elections and the practice of unsuccessful candidates to challenge the decision by force encouraged further conflict and instability at the heart of Irish leadership.

Whilst strictly speaking a family, sept, clan or tuath was supposed to consist of persons who could trace back their line to a common ancestor, these groups did on occasions allow outsiders to join them. Usually just individuals were adopted, however sometimes whole groups were accepted into the family or clan. The process required the consent of the "Fine" or circle of near relations, formally given at a court meeting. As a result complex relationships and genealogies developed in early Irish society, presenting a daunting challenge to any researcher.

The property system led to a structure of Irish society consisting of five groups of people the kings, the nobles, the wealthy freemen, other freemen, and the serfs.

The kings, nobles and wealthier freemen were collectively known as "Aire" the privileged property class. The kings and nobles were separately distinguished as "Flaith aire," that is that they held private land of their own, on which they paid no rent as clan, or sept chiefs. Amongst the Flaith aire there were several levels, dependent on the wealth and status of the individual. Below them the wealthier freemen, or "Bó aire" rented land as free tenants with their wealth represented by their cattle and other property. All three types of aire had some part in the government of the country and in the administration of the law, as kings, nobles, Táiniste, military chiefs, magistrates, and persons otherwise in authority; and they commonly wore a flesc or bracelet on the arm as a mark of their dignity.

Below the Bó aire were the "Céile aithech", or annual tenants. The Céile aithech were freemen who could in time acquire sufficient wealth to become Bó aire. The Céile aithech constituted the bulk of Gaelic society. They were largely peasant farmers, but also included most artisans and craftsmen, though the more prestigious crafts would have qualified as Bó aire. As the Céile aithech did not own cattle of their own, they rented the cattle from the clan chief. Brehon law strictly controlled the rate of rent to be paid to the chief and in return they were allowed to occupy clan land. Some tenants also had to pay Coinmed that is to provide several days hospitality to the chief and his retinue. If the chief's retinue were in party mode then this could be very expensive and one can imagine was not very popular with the tenants.

Below the Céile aithech were the serfs. This group had differing levels of condition from the "Fuidir" who were simply farm labourers, down to those at the bottom who were effectively slaves. Whilst bound in a form of serfdom these unfortunates had few rights under the system, but could claim sustenance and shelter from the clan. Their lot was miserable as Brehon law rights were primarily directed to freemen. The Fuidir had no security of tenure over their land, so that the chief could throw them off their holding at will. Furthermore without protection of the rental safeguards of Brehon law available to the freemen, the Fuidir were often rack rented by the chief.

Neither Roman law nor Common Law were applied in Gaelic Ireland and hence the Irish did not have quite the same notion of private property as understood in modern society, but rather a unique combination of earned cooperative ownership and moderated dictatorship.

The concept of elected chiefs went right up through the whole system of kingship to the high king. There were in excess of 100 petty kingdoms, or Tuath where the kings were entitled to be called Rí. Above the Rí were layers of regional and provincial kings in a pyramid structure right up to the High king of Ireland, or Árd Rí at the top.

Under the rules of tanist succession for kings and chiefs, anyone who suffered from a significant physical defect was excluded from being Táiniste. Very possibly this was a motivation for blinding opponents amongst the Irish as it would ensure that they would never become king. The chiefs of the clans, kings of the Tuath and other nobles had more responsibilities than just to maintain their own position and well-being of their people. They were the guardians and sponsors of Gaelic culture. As sponsors of the Gaelic language they were expected to support poetry, music and the bardic schools. A measure of their success is that both Ireland and Scotland had a reputation of having high proportion of their populations as being literate. The Old English adopted the filí into their society at an early stage, a factor instrumental in Gaelicising the Old English. Even the New English were forced to admit the power of the Gaelic poets. Sir Henry Sidney, one of the Lord Deputy's who fought Aoidh Ó Néill was even obliged to employ an Irish filí on his campaigns to try to counter the effect of the poets of the Uí Néill, who urged the Gael to resist destruction of their way of life. The generosity of the chiefs and other nobles to sponsor filí and musicians was a measure of the dignity of the clan. Any restructured clan should place the Gaelic language at the core of it's activities. Whilst this site has initially been built in English it is clear that we need to build a parallel version in Irish and ensure that due regard is given to the language in future.

Tanistry and the clan rituals surrounding it continued without change, despite intervention by English monarchs, until the reign of Henry II. Only from that point in time did the English gradually introduce the Common Law into Ireland and in the process dismantled the native institutions in order to control Irish society. In the middle ages the 'New English' saw Plantation as a short cut to accelerate this process.

To wrestle control of land from the clans even in 12th century Ireland required powerful strategies to control the natives. Common Law concepts of land ownership were therefore used to divide the Irish nobles from their clans, by investing them with legal title to all of the clan lands. By the 16th century many unscrupulous Irish nobles had been transformed into rich and powerful landlords. Outside the Pale Tanistry metamorphosed with Common Law into a revised Irish law known as Féinachas.

Similar forces in Scotland resulted in the abolition of Tanistry by a legal decision in the reign of James I (1406-37) and the English system of primogeniture substituted. There may also have been a self interest in the Scottish state to reign in the semi- independent Gaelic kingdoms in the Western Isles and the Highlands by the removal of Tanistry.

Following the final military defeat of the Gael in Ireland at Kinsale in 1601, new anti-Irish laws were introduced which were more effectively enforced. But it was in the English courts and two legal cases in particular which finally sealed the fate of the Gaelic order. The Gavelkind case, 1605, and Tanistry case, 1608, decided that the two Irish customs of land devolution were no longer legal. In the case of Tanistry, 80 Eng. Rep. 516, 520 (K.B. 1608) the court ruled that the indigenous laws of a country could survive English rule, "if they are reasonable, certain, of immemorial usage and compatible with Crown sovereignty." The court held in both cases that the customs did not meet the test and thus both Gavelkind and Tanistry were outlawed. Accordingly all land in Ireland thereafter devolved to the next heir only according to the English law of Primur genitur. Lands held in common grazing became the absolute ownership of landlords, who allowed the tenants of individual tenant-holdings to graze the commonage. With the legal basis to group land ownership removed, the other clan structures were readily supressed, or lapsed of their own accord. Interestingly the Tanistry Case has been successfuly quoted in the defence of native land rights in both the United States of America and in Australia. The case whilst not assisting the Gael in the 16th century did establish the principle that native law had validity even after colonial conquest and could not be dismissed outright.

With the economic basis of their society undermined the decline of the Gael continued apace. Oliver Cromwell's 17th century military campaigns swept away many remaining native institutions, religious, legal, and cultural and replaced them with those of the "New English". Gaelic clan chiefs either emigrated, integrated or became impoverished. With the collapse of the clan system the institutions it supported were cut loose. Some institutions such as Gaelic music, poetry, and the Gaelic language declined, others such as use of Gaelic names, the bardic schools, or clan genealogy died. Gaelic noble families who fled Ireland joined previous emigres and went into service of various continental monarchs. Some of these families such as the O'Neill's in Spain managed to retain some element of their Tanist traditions.

Most of the dispossessed Gael such as our own clan and their clan chief simply disappeared into the obscurity of poverty. Over the following centuries oral traditions kept alive some clan histories, which were passed down through families. However the 1846 famine was a terrible watershed for such oral traditions. In the aftermath of survival the psyche of the Irish population was badly scarred, causing a rejection and loss of much of this kind of folk knowledge. On the other hand and despite incredible odds, there are today some 10 inheritors to titles of the old Gaelic nobility, who claim, (sometimes dubiously), continuity of the old Tanist succession.

Our own family have no continuity of Tanist tradition. The best we can hope for is that amongst the immense body of text, archives, oral transcriptions and other genealogical and historical records there is information, which will throw light on our ancient Tanist past.

As said above the right to appoint a clan chief vests in the Derbfine of each generation descending from an earlier Chief, or from the nearest traceable eligible kinsman, should the Chief's male line descent be extinct or untraceable.

Were we to revive ant Tanist tradition it would also be relevant to consider what would a properly constituted Derbfine have done to preserve the clan from the time when Tanistry was banned. In this regard the main issue would have been the fact that landed estates were "entailed", that is, inheritance was to be legislated for strictly by primo genitur, according to English law, and then only to an heir of the Protestant (Anglican) religion. If a Gaelic Irish chiefly title, unlawfully abolished by English law, yet fully viable under Brehon Law, were vested within such an Irish family, it is at once evident that the Chiefship most likely would even under Tanistry have been privately transmitted by to the eldest son in order to preserve both the family estate and the Chiefship together. Only a family historically well documented is likely to be able to trace it's lineage with this degree of certainty. It is most unlikely that we could establish such records for our own relatively obscure clan. In such event, if we can follow any line from any chief then that would be the best result. It would give us a legitimate Derbfine from which a new chief could be selected and confirmed by a Council of Irish Chiefs & Chieftains. 

Taking this one stage further, we could then with a new Tanistic structure in place follow the correct rules under Brehon Law. There would be no "automatic" succession of an Irish chief . The new Chief could nominate his successor, but it would be the Derbfine which deliberate and acclaim (albeit with limited authority to over-rule a Tanistic designation). The clan would need to present any the new chief to the Provincial king for recognition of the title. The clan would have to maintain its genealogy by the highest standards possible and select its Chief according to the requirements of Brehon Law. The Provincial king, in his capacity as traditional overlord, would decide cases of contested chiefship.

A Chiefship emerging from a long dormancy would need to immediately resume the practice of Tanistic succession, carefully documenting sucessors by testate nomination, and be in a position to finance the cost of holding his office.

Realistically, establishing a clan chiefship is probably one step too far down the road of fantasy, though it's nice to dream.