The Great Ferriter Family

View Ferriter Family Gathering 2009 in a larger map

O.K., What you see here is the Google Earth satellite view of the Gathering Place, with key features indicated. As noted, there is camping, nature walks, a swimming and fishing pond, a natural spring that ultimately flows into the Mississippi, plenty of parking, and a big tent for the presentations. Of course, there is much more! Pull out on the shot, and you will see, at roughly equidistant plases east and west, the Green Frog Bar, and St. Patrick's Church. We live in balance here.

We all have pretty clear ideas or notions as to what our ancestors were up to during the past 150 years or so. This is true for those who stayed in Ireland as well as the immigrant families. Family stories, oral traditions, old papers and photographs all serve to support this knowledge and history, within our respective lines. But what about those who lived long ago?

What was life like for the Ferriter family during the long years spent at home on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry? This is a picture much less clearly painted for most of us.

There are periods wherein documentary data for the Ferriter Family is very sketchy. One such interval of time is the 15th Century, or that period extending from 1400 – 1500. We do know something about life in Ireland at large during the period cited, even life as far “beyond the Pale” as that enjoyed by the Ferriter Family, living at the edge of the territories controlled by the Geraldine Earls of Desmond, and their lesser House, that of the Knight of Kerry. The sources of this data include Irish writings of the period, documentary records as kept by the Anglo-Irish within the Pale, contemporary accounts of travelers, and songs and poetry that have survived.
 

Traditional and Anglicized Irish Feasting, c1500

From this information, a sketch may be drawn of what the lifestyles and occupations of Ferriter families in far West Kerry were most likely like. Together with the known attributes of life and activities during these times, we can do a certain amount of forensic reconstruction, by assessing what the local economy consisted of, who trading partners might have been, and what the family’s relationships with both the indigenous Irish and the Geraldines probably were.

While the very early Ferriters have been cited as filling the niche of “knights of the shire” within the Norman feudal system put in place by the DeMarais family, and their FitzGerald successors, the notion of “knight” as it pertained to West Kerry in 1400 must be clarified. The Ferriters were never “knighted” in the modern sense, or even in the English sense…they were “knights” in that they held title to lands in response to certain services and rents owed to their “liege lord”, or next individual up on the feudal hierarchy. They had considerable legal authority over those who dwelt upon their land, and no doubt regarded themselves as the property owners.

The men of the family did not ride armored horses, dress in armor themselves, joust, or do other “knightly” things. They would however, be required to serve as soldiers under the colors of the FitzGerald family. The lead man of the family, An Fearitearach, (pronounced An Ferr – tear - och), or “The Ferriter” doubtless regarded himself as a knight, since he provided scutage, or knights service in military fashion, when called upon. He probably owned chain mail, and maintained an armory with swords and pikes sufficient to arm the men that followed him or his designee off to serve alongside other FitzGerald tributaries.

The Ferriters had come to the land as soldiers and adventurers. The land assigned or granted to them by the local authority was not prime agricultural land. In the 15th century, (prior to the introduction of the potato), this land would have been sparsely populated, in general only supporting the population that could be fed from the small farms and the sea. Then, as today, Ferriter lands embraced steeply sloping grasslands, rockbound shorelines, stony mountains, and marshland, along with several coves suitable for anchoring and beaching boats. These lands included several individual townlands, each with a concentration of families, many of which were descended from the original Gaelic stock, with lines of descent far pre-dating the Norman incursion.

With the land offering little beyond subsistence farming and pasturage, there should be little doubt that the family’s interest would turn seaward. The rights to the immediate offshore fisheries were doubtless part of their fiefdom, as were the Blasket Islands, from an early period.

As early as the century preceding that under discussion, The Ferriter had caused to be erected stone forts and fighting positions of various sorts. Like their close neighbors, the FitzGerald Kerry family (the Knight of Kerry), the Ferriters built a fortification on the remains of an earlier fortification. Such building on earlier fortified sites was common practice amongst the Normans, as the sites already fortified were often the most strategic, and the earlier fort would be a handy source for building materials.

Whereas the FitzGeralds built a bit inland, upon the remains of a ring fort attributed to the O’Falvey family, the Ferriters built on the site of a Gaelic promontory fort, right at the edge of the sea. The location of this structure speaks to the focus of the Ferriter Family upon the ocean.

 

1825

So what did these Ferriter men and women do on any given day? First, understand that by the mid 1400s, Ferriters had resided upon this land for a couple of hundred years. An estimate as to how many family members there were at that time can be made by examining the growth of the Ferriter name between 1650 and 1850, as these dates bracket a similar duration of time, and embrace the growth of the family in numbers from single individuals. Extending from the barest handful of souls in 1650, the Ferriter Family grew to something like 100 people by the time that the famine came. Discounting the introduction of the potato, which allowed displaced tenants farther west to eke out a living on the poor ground near Ferriter’s Town, nutrition and sanitation were in fact probably better from 1250 -1450 as opposed to 1650 – 1850. On this basis, some confidence can be applied to an estimate of on the order of 100 Ferriters in the home area in 1450.

The FitzGeralds, in their several houses, were frequent practitioners of small-scale warfare. This sort of skirmishing with adjacent lords and chieftains persisted throughout the 1400s. As The Ferriter had an obligation to provide men, both mounted and foot, and weapons, as a part of his entitlement to land, participation of Ferriter men in these many conflicts is again a certainty. That this cost the family in terms of men killed and wounded can also be assumed, but through the 1400s, the losses would have been light. Not so in the next century, but that is a different tale altogether.

Attack on a Tower House, c1450

The Knight of Kerry, a FitzGerald who held one of the three hereditary knighthoods in Desmond, made his principal residence at Castle Rahinane, on the slope above Ventry, from 1250 through to Cromwellian times in the mid 1600s. Rahinane is a short distance (less than 7 miles), from Ballyoughtra, the townland within Dunurlin where Castle Ferriter stood, and closer yet to the site where The Ferriter’s principal residence likely stood.

Castle Rahinane

While The Ferriter would not have been on equal social footing with the titled Knight, they both paid allegiance to the Earl of Desmond. One can make probably safe assumptions that The Ferriter was close to the Knight, and that the families socialized. The lesser lines of both families no doubt intermarried from early times, as they still do today, binding the families yet closer together.

While many of the men may have had as principal employment soldiering for either FitzGerald Kerry or FitzGerald Desmond, and others may have been given tasks about the farm, many should have been available for nautical work. Nautical work probably included inshore fishing, trips to the Blaskets and beyond for deeper water fishery, light cargo transport from the cove to the deeper harbors of Smerwick or Dingle, as well as light coastwise shipping, perhaps up the bay to Tralee, and around the Shannon mouth and upstream to Limerick. Cargos would have included livestock, fish, local crafts, perhaps wax and honey in season, salt, and passengers.

What sort of craft would have been used in these activities? The sea going boats of recent history provide strong clues. First, the traditional curragh, constructed with lightweight ribs and stiffened via application of a stretched outer covering of leather. These vessels remain in use in West Kerry, and elsewhere along the western coast of Ireland. The fabled voyage of the missionary Saint Breandan is said to have involved such a boat – stout enough to transit the Atlantic, and make landfall in the New World, hundreds of years before Columbus.

Up from the curragh, we have the famed Galway Bay “hooker” a lateen rigged open hulled workboat that also remained in service until recent times, famous for her black sails.

The probability that Ferriters deployed similar vessels in pursuit of the sea’s bounty, and as wage earners in the transport of goods and people is very high.

The fore mentioned seaside fort probably served a base for nautical activities, amongst other things. Castle Ferriter would have been great place to secure valuable items like cleats, hawsers, sails, oars, nets and lines. In addition to being a storehouse, the structure, with it’s massively thick walls, and apertures for weapons would have been an outstanding defensive position. In addition to all of these fine qualities, the tower also would have been an excellent signal tower or light house, which may help explain why “Castle Sybil” and “Castle Ferriter” (different names for the same place) remained on so many maps of Ireland for so long.

1605

Trade with Spain, and to a lesser extent France and England was also a feature of West Kerry life during the 1400s. This activity required larger vessels than the hooker, but probably not much different in shape or design. That ships left Dingle for these far away places is known. That Ferriters sailed upon these ships, perhaps as crew, perhaps as captains cannot be established in fact, but can be supposed with confidence.

One might surmise that the lucrative pastimes of piracy and shipwrecking might have been partaken of from time to time. It is most certainly true that the coast of Southwestern Ireland with its wild shores and secret coves had a terrible reputation for both of these up to modern times. I may write more on that later, but not here, not now.

That Ferriter’s Town, and all the rest of Dunurlin spread across the land in small clusters of stone houses, with the occasional larger farmhouse, and with a substantial fortified messuage, or manor castle near the church at Dunurlin can be easily visualized. Stone houses, stone walls, stone mountains and stone sea cliffs – these were the physical boundaries that embraced the early Ferriters in Kerry. War, trade, and fishing were most likely the principal occupations of the Ferriter men. Their society would have swirled about these activities, with women, family, and the church near the center of this swirl.

Ancient Stone Hut, Ballyferriter

Life was no doubt difficult at times. For individual family units, loss of a breadwinner to the sea or to battle would place them in a position of dependency upon the extended family. One might imagine a paternal system wherein some provision was made to assist those most needy – the widows, orphaned children, and the deserving aged.
Lesser lines of the Ferriters would expect little or no inheritance, and be challenged to provide for their families.

As the Norman order, which seems to have been fairly strictly patrilineal and patrimonial began breaking down in the 14th century; Norman outposts beyond the Pale began adopting Gaelic notions of family, ownership, and law. Quite likely by the 1400s in Ferriter’s Town, some sort of shared ownership and community effort to the common good was in play, and that the extended family looked out for their own.

2009

This is supposition, but knowing those of use who bear the name yet today, I would think nothing less. We might be confident that Ferriters were then, much as as Ferriters are now, willing to work hard, set high goals, and to ensure that no family member is abandoned or forgotten.

1759

NOTE: References and citations for source material utilized in this essay are available from the writer.

Archived comments:

michele said...
Great article, nicely written! Thanks for the great info. Michele

25 JUNE 2009 21:00

One can wonder about the nature of “family”. Certainly shared personal experience, bonds of love, common values and bonds of place are fundamental to any acceptable definition of what constitutes a family. This explains why certain faith communities, military units, political cadres, and even work groups can attain a strong sense of being families. Sometimes these groups displace or replace blood relationship-based families in the lives of individuals.

I have written before about the unique attributes of the Ferriter Family. In this context, I am defining the family in a very broad sense – that of a group of people who share certain genetic kinship, and whose history has played out with certain common forces in play. These two elements, taken alone, are not of necessity strong bonds in our shared culture. Western Europe, and the New World extension of that has grown away from placing any premium on shared history, and the notion that distant biological or genetic kinship has value also has largely been dismissed. Nuclear families and current popular idiom have displaced extended families and heritage.

In society at large, the eclipse of the sense of extended family must be regarded as a terrible loss. The term “extended family”, has now come merely to mean, parents, grandparents, children, and sometimes aunts, uncles and first cousins, (but usually not). Many people do not even know what second or third cousins are, much less who they are.

When I study the portions of the Padraig Feiritear (1856 – 1924) Family Tree that describes the state of the Ferriter Family prior to the Irish Diaspora, I am struck with a certainty that these people not only knew of each other, but in most cases actually knew each other, and knew how they related to one another. I also have no doubt, that if everyone had stayed home, that if history had been different and whole branches of the family had not left Ireland, then this sense of understanding would have remained intact to a much greater degree than it has.

I stated that the Ferriter Family has unique attributes. One aspect of this uniqueness is our small size, numerically. Another aspect of this is our close inter-relatedness, at least in a global sense. Many of us are more closely related than 5th “cousinship”, and almost everyone seems to be closer than 7th. In terms of the world population, this is like being siblings.

Now you may have deduced that I am concerned with loss of a sense of kinship, and what might be done to remedy that. We have a gulf between the Irish and the immigrants, and we also have gulfs between immigrant branches and even between branches of the family that stayed in Ireland. Yet in our family (and this is hugely important), we all know who we all are, at least by virtue of our uncommon name.

When I am confronted by a Ferriter or Feiritear, or Firtear, or Farritor who says, “We are not related”, I simply disregard that, because I am increasingly certain that such a statement is incorrect. When I am confronted by someone who says, “I don’t regard you as a part of my family”, I feel a sharp pain, because in this I see clear evidence of our shared loss, as an extended family.

We are entering a period in history of increased distress and turmoil, on many levels. In the hierarchy of loyalties that has developed through my life, “Family” has been gradually ascendant. During any time of disorder and confusion, we should be able to look both at our immediate, nuclear families as a source of stability, but also towards our extended families. I am not speaking now about sharing resources or communal efforts, but about something a bit deeper, and certainly easier to sustain – simply the sense of being a part of something larger, a larger family that has a degree of self – awareness, and a common basis for communication as a result.

Being a Ferriter, however you may choose to spell it, may never transcend loyalties of politics or faith, although for some it might. “Ferriterness” may vary by degree between individuals. For all of us, a benefit, and an increase in the fabric and texture of our lives is available if we come to awareness that we are, in fact, one family.

So, I have made all of these statements when I am five days away from traveling to an island whereupon I was not born, and have no knowledge of save through tales, books and the accounts of others. For all that, I have always tried to keep a clear eyed and realistic vision of the place, and for all of that, I do sense an affinity for this place, and for the people who have made their lives their, through hardship and famine, and who never left.

This should be an interesting trip.

Archived comments:

Theresa said...
Morgan, I read your posting with complete understanding. I too feel the profound sense of family and how we must connect. I have been to Bally Ferriter twice and love it there. I feel really connected when there. I have a lot of history I can share. At this time I plan to attend the reunion although I haven't yet made any reservations. I will bring what I have to share with others. There is a book you might be interested in reading. It is about the Irish disporia of the past. The Wandering Irish in Europe: Their Influence from the Dark Ages to Modern Times by Matthew Culligan and Peter Cherici (1999) Clearfield Company, Inc. Baltimore, MD. ISBN: 0-8063-4835-6. I have a pretty good collection of Celtic and Irish books.

I look forward to meeting you. Theresa (Terry) Ferriter Teti

2 March 2009 18:59

middlefingermedia.net said...
I was wondering when you would update this particular blog because I have family that live right in next to the Dun An oir Hotel, I can say as a first cousin I don't get that warm a reception from some, great reception from others. And these are my father's siblings. I am very interested to hear what kind of reception, you may have received.

Thanks,
Damien

29 May 2009 09:33

Seoirse said...
Hi Damien, Indeed the Ferriters/Feiritears who remain rooted in West Kerry are avaried group. I would say that our experience was much like yours - in general we were well met, and near the end of our stay, met a fairly broad section of people who were all kind, welcoming and enthusiastic. These were mostly distant cousins. The Ballyoughtra families are very proud of their heritage, and may regard those families who have left as bit bet less "ferriter", and I am willing to spot them a bit of that...after all, they have stuck to the place through all adversity for 700 years.

Best,
Seoirse

2 June 2009 18:16

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