The Clause in the various submissions by which the chiefs agree to hold their lands from the King under certain feudal conditions should be noted; they furnish, in some sort, the key to the whole situation. We have seen {Book I) that, according to the old Irish system the land of a clan was considered as fundamentally belonging, in its several portions, to the family groups, which, taken together, constituted the State. The chief's mensal land was ultimately the property of the State ... Read More

Above : One Of Irish Clan Family Logo The political organisation was based upon groups of various sizes from the family upwards. The family was the group consisting of the living parents and all their descendants. The fine* was a group related by blood within certain recognised degrees. The sept * was a larger group descended from common parents long since dead. All the members of a sept were nearly related, and in later times bore the same surname. The clan ... Read More