The Mac an Oirchinnigh of Tradraighe

Documented accounts of Mac an Oirchinnigh clerics would suggest that the sept was well represented in the parishes of Kilnasoolagh, Kilmaleery and Clonloghen in the fifteenth century. The Mac an Oirchinnigh were the primary sept in supplying clerics to Kilnasoolagh, though their influence there was not necessarily that of ‘natural incumbency’ found amongst the hereditary termon lands. ^[52] It is therefore uncertain whether the early airchinneach career of the Mac an Oirchinnigh began in Kilnasoolagh; the traditional genealogies may be correct to assert their airchinneach origins lay with Killaloe in the twelfth century - though whether they held hereditary termon lands is less clear and difficult to now identify. ^[53]

The Mac an Oirchinnigh secured numerous church appointments in Tradraighe. These included, aside from others already mentioned, appointments at the Mac Conmara controlled parishes of Quin, Bunratty and Kilfintanan, as well as the rectory of Drumline and the small rectory of Tymorlogyg in Quin parish. The presence of numerous Mac an Oirchinnigh references in the Papal Registers indicates that they were a sept strongly represented in Tradraighe in the early fifteenth century; a point shared by their representation there centuries later in 1641. ^[54]