top of page

Glossary of Terms

You've decided to delve more deeply into Irish history? If you're a non-native Irish speaker some of the terms you're going to run into can be daunting to grasp. So we've decided to build a list of common terms people find when looking through Irish records. We hope it helps - but please let us know if there is a word you'd like listed and defined!

  • Ad Hoc Derbhfine - the process for electing a successor to the late chief when a hereditary chief cannot be identified, whereby a family convention is convened to nominate a Commander (called a Ceann Cath), and a subsequent election is held as needed for the clan or family to elect a new chief.

  • Clan - the kin group descended from a common ancestral chieftain. The MacCarthy Reagh and MacCarthy Mór septs are members of the MacCarthy clan, descended from Cárthach, King of Desmond. 

  • Derbhfine - the kin group descended from a common great-grandfather.

  • Geilfine - the kin group descended from a common grandfather.

  • Iarfine - the kin group descended from a common great-great-grandfather.

  • Innfine - the kin group descended from a common great-great-great-grandfather.

  • Riabhach - translated as meaning 'grey' and anglicized as 'Reagh,' this was the agnomen given to the sept of MacCarthys descended from Donal Gott MacCarthy, who ruled over the territory of Carbery during the medieval period.

  • Sept - a kin group descended from the greater clan. The sept of Clan Dermod is the family descended from a cadet member of the MacCarthy Reagh clan. 

  • ​Tanist - the successor, i.e. heir apparent, of the sitting chief.

  • Tanistry - the law of succession in ancient Ireland by which the derbhfine of the sitting chief elects his successor from amongst themselves.

  • Tuath - in ancient Ireland the tuath was the kin group, more closely identified today as a sept. However, as septs became more settled in certain regions of the country, the tuath became synonymous with the sept's territorial holdings. 

bottom of page