Events | 2010.08.21
Letters: Priestly clans
There are indeed several Irish names that translate as "son of the priest", my own among them ( In the name of the father , G2, 17 August) but this surely has as much to do with the structures of the old Irish church as any conduct unbecoming a clerk in Holy Orders. Celibacy was not a requirement, and some senior positions were in fact hereditary, with abbacies and even episcopal sees being passed down through specifically priestly clans which were well established long before the Anglo-Norman intervention of 1169. Naturally this intervention had the full support of the pope, who saw it as an opportunity to bring the Irish church into line with the rest of western Christendom.
Jeremy Muldowney
York
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/21/priestly-clans
