Project Goals
The goal of the Oriel Septs of Ireland Project is to use traditional genealogy, combined with the science of molecular biology, i.e. DNA analysis, to try and answer some of the questions surrounding the history and identity of the of the group, known collectively, as the "Oriel."
It is the premiss of this project, that the information on the history of the Oriel, as put forth by traditional historians, constitutes a set of testable hypothesis, with the advent of the technology of Y-DNA analysis. We will be testing the theories of historians, such as Dr. Edward MacLysaght, and the historians that he drew from, using the tools of molecular biology.
Here are some questions that we will be looking at:
1. Who were "The Three Collas"? Were they, in fact, brothers? Did they share the a common male ancestor? Did they leave a large pool of descendants?
2. Did the septs of the Oriel share a common male ancestor? Were they direct male line descendants of the leaders, or share a common ancestor with those leaders? Were they all related on their male line, or were they, as some have suggested, a loose confederation of separate septs.*
3. Did subsequent leaders of the Oriel and/or the septs leave a large pool of descendants?
4. What happened to the members of the Oriel septs and their leaders? Did they remain in Ireland? Were they relocated to other areas? Where are they today?
5. Can we determine, through DNA analysis, which of the present day persons sharing the surname of an Oriel sept or leader, actually are descended from the Oriel group, or another clan of the same name?
6. Are the descendants of the Oriel various surnames, as grouped by MacLysaght and others, actually related?
*It is important to note here the difference between septs and clans:
From Dr. Edward MacLysaght:
"At this point it would be well to consider what we mean by the term “ sept "—the word “ clan" has been avoided because its use might imply the existence in Ireland of a clan system like that so highly developed in Scotland, which in fact we never had in this country."
“The term “sept “ has never, as far as I know, been given an authoritative technical definition. It can perhaps best be explained by saying that it is a collective term describing a numerous group of persons who, or whose immediate and known ancestors, bore a common surname and inhabited the same locality.”
"An Introduction by Dr. Edward Mac Lysaght"
So, a clan is a group of related individuals, through birth or marriage. Ireland did not, historically, have a highly developed clan system, as did the Scots.
A sept is a group of individuals, possibly a family group, who are committed to acting on behalf of a larger group. A sept need not be related to the leaders of the larger group, but can be.
Thus, the Oriel Septs are those septs which inhabited the area known as Oriel, or Airghialla.
If you have any suggestions or requests for goals to be addressed, please contact the Oriel Project Group Administrator.