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The term Hiberno-Norman is used of those Norman lords who settled in Ireland, admitting little if any real fealty to the Anglo-Norman settlers in England.^[1] It refers to both the origins of the community and the dialect of Norman-French used by them as they developed in Ireland from 1169 until the eclipse of the Hiberno-Norman community in the early seventeenth century. In the process they became Hiberniores Ipsis Hibernis. The prefix "Hiberno" means "relating to Ireland or the Irish", from Hibernia. The Clan Burke, FitzGeralds, Butlers, and de Berminghams are the more noted among them. ("Fitz" is a particularly Hiberno-Norman prefix, meaning 'son', cf. modern French "fils" with the same meaning).

By the late 16th century, the Hiberno-Normans began to be referred to as the Old English. In the Irish language, they were known as the gaill or "foreigners". Englishmen born in England however were called Sasanaigh or "Saxons", and there was a very strong distinction made between Gaill and Sasanaigh in the Irish annals, with the former being referred to variously as Fionnghaill or Dubhghaill depending upon how much the poet wished to flatter his patron.^[2]

[edit] References

^ See, for instance, Robert Dudley-Edwards, Ireland in the Age of the Tudors: The Destruction of Hiberno-Norman Civilization (1977); Gearóid Mac Niocaill The Red Book of the Earls of Kildare (1966);Edward MacLysaght, Guide to Irish Surnames (1965), passim; Lists of Hiberno-Norman French texts (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/frlist.html & http://www.ucc.ie/celt/hibfrbib.html)
^ See Art Cosgrove, 'Hiberniores Ipsis Hibernis', Late Medieval Ireland 1370-1541 (Dublin, 1981) for a discussion of the differences between 'Gaill', 'Gaedhil' and 'Saxain' in late medieval Irish identity. Fionnghaill, fair-haired foreigners, were of Norwegian descent; Dubhghaill, dark-haired foreigners, were of Danish descent. The former had longer roots in Ireland and thus was, as Brendan Bradshaw demonstrated, used as a greater compliment. Normans were, of course, originally 'men of the North' i.e. from Scandinavia. See CELT (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/publishd.html) for English translations of these distinctions made in all the principal late medieval Irish annals.

[edit] See also

[0] See, for instance, Robert Dudley-Edwards, Ireland in the Age of the Tudors: The Destruction of Hiberno-Norman Civilization (1977); Gearóid Mac Niocaill The Red Book of the Earls of Kildare (1966);Edward MacLysaght, Guide to Irish Surnames (1965), passim; Lists of Hiberno-Norman French texts (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/frlist.html & http://www.ucc.ie/celt/hibfrbib.html)

[1] See Art Cosgrove, 'Hiberniores Ipsis Hibernis', Late Medieval Ireland 1370-1541 (Dublin, 1981) for a discussion of the differences between 'Gaill', 'Gaedhil' and 'Saxain' in late medieval Irish identity. Fionnghaill, fair-haired foreigners, were of Norwegian descent; Dubhghaill, dark-haired foreigners, were of Danish descent. The former had longer roots in Ireland and thus was, as Brendan Bradshaw demonstrated, used as a greater compliment. Normans were, of course, originally 'men of the North' i.e. from Scandinavia. See CELT (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/publishd.html) for English translations of these distinctions made in all the principal late medieval Irish annals.

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