Local history with Monica McGill: Discovering all the facts and fictions about our ancestors

Children are said to typically ask their parents or guardians “Where did I come from?”

This question in adulthood takes on another meaning for people hunting their family background and history.

As genealogical groups and TV programmes show, sometimes today’s people discover the “black sheep” of the family of former generations, or adventurers or entrepreneurs, or just ordinary people going about their lives.

Clondalkin Genealogy Group

Our own excellent (and free) local genealogical group meets weekly in Clondalkin Library on the Monastery Road.

The group shares information about sources to consult, places to go, things to do, people to see – if you’ve a mind to do so. Interested? Ask at Clondalkin Library for details.

Our ancestors

Some people emigrated abroad, some stayed in Ireland, some returned, some antecedents came to Ireland from abroad, settled down, raised families.

Some branches of families thrived. Some failed economically.

Family lore and stories can provide a chequered past involving bravery, tenacity, cowardice, travel, good times and bad – but always interesting.

The thought occurs that, just like other nations, Ireland is made up of a mixture of peoples whose bloodlines can be traced the world over, either originating from Ireland or elsewhere.

The more one examines the notion of being ‘Irish’, the less defined the historic bloodline appears to become.

Being of Irish descent is a well-known concept, but what does it really mean, historically?

Which one of us can really prove our forebears were “always here”?

Go back far enough, chances are we all originated somewhere else.

Immigration

Immigration (people coming here to live) can be identified many times over thousands of years.

Lost in the mists of time now are the Fir Bolgs, or the Druids, or the early hunter-gatherers.

Where did they originate? How or when did they get here?

No-one really knows.

Ancient arrow-heads and other artefacts have been found in and around Clondalkin, but we don’t know anything now about the individuals who made or used them.

The most reliable, earliest historical date in Irish history is AD 432, when a man – who all agree wasn’t from here – returned to Ireland as Bishop.

Raised in his home place as a Christian, he had been kidnapped and enslaved here as a lad.

We refer to him today as Patrick, one of our patron saints.

Lineage

Some can trace their lineage back hundreds or thousands of years.

For instance, the O’Briens of today are said to have come from Brian Boru, that leader who destroyed Clondalkin’s Viking settlement(s) because they wouldn’t support him on his way to the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.

However, Boru was essentially one of the strong tribal leaders in Ireland at the time who wanted – and gained – overall power for a time.

It’s not clear that he thought of himself as ‘Irish’.

Brú Chrónáin visitor centre, tour guides

The Vikings first came to Ireland in AD 795. They plundered rich monasteries – including our own in Clondalkin.

More information is available at the recently re-opened Brú Chrónáin beside our Round Tower where excellent, voluntary tour guides are available by appointment to give you the benefit of their careful-research.

The free indoor exhibition is a wealth of history.

The café has a gorgeous menu and our Round Tower stands in a pleasant garden for your amazement and delectation.

De La Salle school site, Ballyfermot

The Vikings first raided, then traded, then stayed in our midst.

As with other “strangers”, they brought with them new knowledge, technology, artworks, artefacts, traditions, foods, and ways of being.

They enhanced Ireland just as they did other places, between their homelands in Scandinavia to Russia and all points in between.

Theirs was a trade route to equal any before or since.

Recent excavations in the De La Salle school site in Ballyfermot have unearthed proof of Viking trade routes over great distances – a Roman 4th century elephant ivory lid for a lotion bottle, a small piece of 9th century Islamic glass from the Middle East.

Thanks to Antoine Giacometti’s recent riveting lecture in Clondalkin Library, we can keep up to date with unfolding discoveries via the website.

There, what we know as the De La Salle site is called “Butchersarms, Ballyfermot, Co. Dublin”.

Despite the advantages the Vikings brought, a local ‘Irish’ tribe ransacked a Viking settlement in Clondalkin.

They slaughtered its inhabitants and displayed a hundred of their skulls on stakes.

‘Irish’ surnames

There’s something amazing about finding out that one’s family surname (for instance, De Lacey, D’Arcy, de Courtney, or Delaney) indicates that they came to Ireland about 1169 with the Norman invasion.

The ‘De’ or ‘de’ is said to come from the French language and means ‘from’ or ‘of’ a place or ancient tribe.

They’re equivalent to the ‘O’, ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ in surnames rooted in tribes of the Gaelic languages.

The Normans brought to Ireland a new type of warfare, building design, town layout and governance.

Like the Vikings, they eventually inter-married with the people already living in Ireland.

Sculpture of St Patrick, in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Photo: © Monica McGill

Cromwellian land clearance

Most people are aware of the hated Cromwellian diktat: “To hell or to Connaught” to people who had owned or occupied lands in Ireland in the 17th century.

Their homelands paid Cromwell’s soldiery instead of money.

Land clearance (the ethnic cleansing of today) happened not only in Ireland.

In the 18th century great wool-producing areas of Britain, land-owners shoved the land-working people off it so that sheep could be grazed there instead.

Sheep were much a more profitable crop than any the land-workers could produce.

Sheep were also less ‘troublesome’ than tenants.

Portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews

Artworks can sometimes reveal more than is appreciable at first sight.

Latest research about Gainsborough’s 18th century renowned painting of the Andrews uncovered unsettling (a pun!) information about the attitude of the individuals portrayed in it, and other landowners like them.

Gainsborough knew what he was doing, but the sitters who commissioned him were, apparently, ignorant of Gainsborough’s political and economic criticisms.

Their vast land in the background was recently where tenants lived and worked, now cleared for sheep grazing.

Copyright precludes showing the painting, but check out.

Deprivation

Famines and economic deprivation forced thousands of Irish people to emigrate in the 19th century to America, Canada, and other places.

More recent economic considerations forced our grandparents and parents to seek and gain a better life abroad – sometimes forever, sometimes on a temporary basis.

Britain was a prime safety-valve for Ireland in the ‘hungry’ 1950s. Not all Irish were treated well. Life at home was tough.

To be able (though perhaps unwilling) to work, live, and perhaps thrive abroad offered our people a lot of hope in a time of despair.

More modern times in Ireland have brought other waves of people here. Some flee persecution, some not. Some tell the truth, some don’t – for a myriad of reasons.

Either way, we haven’t always welcomed them, nor treated them properly, with justice and dignity.

We sometimes ask them “Where are you from?” – not always a friendly question.

Disbelievingly, we sometimes query them “Really, how bad could it have been back home?” and sometimes insult them, calling them nasty names and telling them to “go back where you came from”.

The tragedy of Ukraine, Gaza and other (now) dystopian places may cause us to shake our heads, criticising those who are responsible for the economic and other severe deprivations and what amounts to attempted or actual land clearance, ethnic cleansing.

We may be dismayed at how the aggressors treat people, made of flesh and blood like themselves.

We ask “Who on earth do they think they are?”

We ‘Irish’ might ask ourselves the same question.