Erenachs, erenachships and church landholding in Gaelic Fermanagh, 1270-1609

Abstract:This article sets out to fill in neglected gaps in our scholarly knowledge of the system of erenach and church landholding in Gaelic Ulster (1270-1609). In contrast to previous studies which have concentrated on the legal status of coarbs and erenachs, this study analyses at macro level the functioning of erenachships as economic units, and at a micro level the system as it operated in the medieval lordship of Fermanagh. The result has been to demonstrate that the enfranchisement of nativus septs as erenach septs on church-lands took place as a result of the twelfth-century Reform (1101-72). In the case of Fermanagh, outside of the initial transfer of lands from the monasteries to the erenach septs, most of the church-lands were acquired piecemeal over the course of centuries. Many of the erenach septs were furthermore of outside origin, but became accepted as nativus septs through longterm settlement.