Liberty, Order and Law Under Native Irish Rule

territory—Process of normal development—Authority of the special geilfine the "hand-family," the most immediate branch of the Irish kinship system class and the power of the purse—The probable course of development until dissolved after four generations—Rules for the division of inheritance and the dissolution of the system—The family community continues as a voluntary co-operative brotherhood if desired—Hereditary rights are not transmissible through more than four generations—The geilfine chief is the head of the kindred (cinel) original: cinel; a clan or descent group.

Chapter VIII

DEVELOPMENTS ARISING OUT OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE COMPOSITE FAMILY . . . . . . 153

¶ The ennoblement of the kindred is a permanent result achieved by the Geilfine organization—The Rule of the Three Descents—Analogous rules for admission to the freedom of the tribe—Similar principles applied to other cases—Co-partnership as a means to the enfranchisement granting of freedom or legal rights of the bondsman and the stranger—The "five-houses" holdings of the fuidir a tenant-at-will or stranger-tenant who lacked full tribal rights tenants under one chief of their race, who was responsible for their crimes—Single households acting as a voluntary kindred with a common interest: specifically, the "families" of the druid, the poet, the tutor, the craftsman, the churchman, and the saint—The natural status of the fuidir tenant—Developments of co-partnership as a means to political enfranchisement, such as collective frank-pledge a system of joint responsibility where members of a group were held liable for each other’s good behavior and representative institutions, as well as trade guilds, town guilds, and trade corporations.

Chapter IX

RANK DUTY AND PRIVILEGE IN ANCIENT IRISH SOCIETY . . . . . 171

¶ Saer-nemed original: saer-nemed; meaning "noble-sacred" or privileged persons persons include chiefs, poets, brewys original: brewys; specifically the "briugu," a wealthy public hospitaller of high status, and the stewards of kings—Every man is saer free or noble who purchases his nobility by