Above : One Of Irish Clan Family Logo

Socially every group was divided into classes, from the king or chief down to the slave, and the law took cognisance of all—setting forth their rights, duties and privileges. These classes were not castes ; for under certain conditions persons could pass from one to the next above. There were five main classes:—(i) Kings of various grades from the king of the tuath up to the Ard Ri ; (2) nobles ; (3) freemen with property ; (4) freemen without property (or with very little); (5) the non-free classes. The first three were the privileged classes: a person belonging to these was an ” aire” (arra) or chief.

• Flaiths or Nobles.—The nobles were those who had land as their own property, for which they did not pay rent. Part of this land they held in their own hands, and tilled by the labour of the non-free classes : part they let to tenants. An aire of this class was called a flaith (flah), i.e., a noble, a chief, a prince.
• Free Tenants.—A person belonging to the third class of aire, a non-noble rent-paying freeman with property, had no land of his own ; his property consisting of cattle and other movable goods ; hence he was called a bo-aire, i.e., a cow-aire. A bo-aire rented land from a flaith, thus taking rank as a free tenant, and he grazed his cattle partly on this and partly on the ” commons ” grazing land. The bo-aires had certain allowances and privileges according to rank. The brugh-fer or brugaid (broo-fer; broo-ey) was an interesting official of the bo-aire class. He was a public hospitaller, bound to keep an open house for the reception of strangers. The next class, the fourth, the freemen without property, differed from the bo-aires only in not possessing property in herds—for the bo-aires were themselves rent-payers ; and accordingly, a man of the fourth class became a bo-aire if he accumulated property enough.
• Unfree Classes.—The non-free people were those who had scarcely any rights—some none at all. They had no claim to any part of the tribe land or to the use of the commons ; though the chief might permit them to till the land, for which they had to pay an arbitrary rent. Their standing varied ; some being absolute slaves, some little removed from slavery, and others far above it. The most numerous class of the non-free people were those called fudirs ; they had no right to any land they tilled, and were in complete dependence—tenants-at-zvill, who could be put out at any time.