ERENAGH in the Early Middle Ageseirenarch / Oirchinnigh / aircinnech / Irenarch \I"re*narch\, n. [L. irenarcha, irenarches, Gr. peace + to rule.] (Gr. Antiq.) An officer in the Greek empire having functions corresponding to those of a justice of the peace... Corab or Ereneagh: a saintly founder by the church abbot; the comarba or aircinnech maintained a priest.

The Iron Age is the period in cultural development succeeding the Bronze Age in Asia, Europe, and Africa, characterized by the introduction of iron metallurgy. In Europe it began around the eighth century B.C. The medieval Irish office of Erenagh was responsible for receiving parish revenue from tithes and rents, building and maintaining church property and overseeing the termon lands that generated parish income. Thus he had a prebendary role. After the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries the role of erenagh became subsumed in the responsibilities of the parson in each parish including townland (Ball'a) and historically back to county before the 1650s. Before then, an Erenagh Abbey and Holycross, also called ‘Carrig’, was traditionally founded by the Abbot. The first was founded earlier than the Northern Crusades, in 1127. The abbey was in the diocese of Down and was frequented by the Angeln kingdom. Colonists reallocated these 'termon-lands' - or 'sanctuary-lands' - to parish priests, or new monastic orders like Benedictines, or the barons simply annexed them. By the 12th century many Early church sites had no monks or clergy. After 1177 the abbey was rebuilt as monastery / vicar to-from the Isle of Man.

From the Annals of Inisfallen- an occupation Atlas of Family Names in Ireland, succeeding the confessor of 881, 1018, 1078 was the head of irish monks 1042, 1095; the historian from jarl 1005; high king 1111; the erenagh years of 991, 993, 1022, 1057, 1058, 1059, 1060, 1074, 1078, 1092, 1093, 1106, 1119. The contemporary of the confessor 881 was the chief poet 896, 913, 932, 1024, 1058. The chief mercenary of Ireland in 968 led to the chieftan 1067, 1095, 1111 but the origins of Irish galloglach called gallowglass means a heavily armed mercenary soldier, usually but not always of Scottish origin, although from Celtic. The bishop 792-1168, brehon 1106. St. Dymphna

But the lector continued 808-1122. The priest 1007, 1021, 1077, 1091, 1095, 1105, 1095, 1100. Vice abbot in 1095 and in 1098, vice-erenagh... From the north, sage in 783 became scribe 995, 1098; vice-abbot 920, tanist abbot 924, became vice-abbot 994, 1095 then to vice-erenagh. Also from the north, pilgrim in 887 led to poet 1097, 1119. Patron continued 893-1164; lord 940 and noble in 962 became lord by 1107; ollav continued 925-1165. First recorded in 612 from the north, the anchorite, 900, 929, 954, 973, 1007, 1031, 1044, 1044, 1056, 1074, 1076, 1095; Octhighern and Chief Bishop 1120-1131, to archbishopabbot 1160.

From 1070-1119: Sage, Master of Harping, Noble, Noble, Clergy, Head of Clerics, Lord of Alms, Fisherman, Warrior of God, Warrior of Christ, Harrier, Horseman, Horseman, Wright, Philosopher, Chief Elder, Pious Man, Chief Elder, Saint, Head of the Poor, Head of the Piety, Paragon of Ireland, Successor, Tributary, Cleric, Elder, Confessor, Chief Ollav, Fosairchinnech, Lectorship, Abbacy, Bishopric.

Early church sites had no monks or clergy. In Gaelic the word in Ireland has no relation to Scotland. Instead hereditary tenants farmed the church lands, under lay abbots known as 'erenaghs' - Irish 'oirchinneach' or 'superior' - in the case of smaller church sites; and 'coarbs' - Irish 'comharba' or 'heir' - who governed the principal shrine in a network of church sites dedicated to a single saint. The area of Derry called Kilrea which was a compact little parish lying along the River Bann, and like its neighbor Agivey, held a peculiar position being "appropryated" to the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul of Armagh.

The practice of attaching a word to help identify a man was resurrected in Venice and spread first to France, then England, then Germany -- then to the rest of Europe. In the English-speaking part of the world, the exact date that surnames began to be adopted can't be pinpointed, however, during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) there were Saxon tenants in Suffolk bearing such names as Suert Magno, Stigand Soror, Siuward Rufus, and Leuric Hobbesune (Hobson). The use of 'surnames' was quite extensive among the Norman nobility, and the Norman conquest saw a more formally introduced.

There erenach, a lay guardian of a parish church, was nominated by the Bishop as headman of the family which had hereditary tenure of that church’s lands. Ultimately, the erenagh lands of Fermanagh and the other counties colonized by the English in the Plantation of Ulster were indeed forfeited, and the family Ó Dúnáin, formerly a respected and educated family of church administrators, was put out.

When we come to define the exact lands that were granted to him, we must quote from a later Inquisition, for the account of the termon and erenagh lands of the 1609 Inquisition. Donaghmore and Donaghcarr, all of which are contained in the modern parish. All the other balliboes of erenagh land still remain and surround the ancient church on the hill.