Church property in pre-Reformation Ireland was often administered by specific families called ‘erenaghs’, (airchinnech in Irish) on a hereditary basis. In return for the income from church lands, they were responsible for the upkeep of churches and monasteries, and for the needs of the resident clergy and visiting ministers. Though initially many would have been ordained, in later medieval times this was less frequent, and some became quite rich and powerful dynasties in their own right, while ensuring that the most rewarding ecclesiastical posts were filled by members of their own families, clerical celibacy being widely ignored. Although the O’Boyles were not primarily an erenagh family, it is likely that some branches were, as there are frequent references to them holding important church positions.

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Among the first recorded uses of the surname is the mention of Cáenchomrac Ua Baigill who was Bishop of Armagh from 1099 until his death in 1106  [O'Donovan, 1849].

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At that time, the offices of abbot and bishop were separate, with the abbot being most important politically. While of noble birth,  Cáenchomrac’s origins are unknown, and it can only be assumed that he came from among the clerics of the abbey, as he was an ordained priest while the abbot was not (and didn’t have to be).  His successor, Ceallach, combined both offices and succeeded in getting recognition as in effect the head of the church in Ireland as Archbishop and Primate. A little later, in 1135, the death of Cinaeth h-Úa Baigill, bishop of Clogher is noted[ Stokes, 1895].

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 In 1397, Archbishop John Colton’s Latin account of his visitation (inspection) of the diocese of Derry mentions ‘Laurentius Obogyll’ perpetual vicar of Ardstraw. In an explanatory note, William Reeves the editor of Colton’s account states that “A sept of them (the O’Boyles) held the herenagh land of Marfaugh in the parish of Clondehorky”.[Reeves, 1850] Today Marfagh is an uninhabited costal strip of rocky land and sand dunes to the north of Tramore strand, near Dunfanaghy. Whether it would ever have provided a living is doubtful.

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Following his break with Rome, Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of monastic property. In 1542 Shane O’Boyle, the prior of the Dominican Abbey at Coleraine, surrendered the Abbey to the King’s Commissioners. Surrendering was a legal procedure that saved Shane O’Boyle’s life. A refusal to hand over the Abbey would have been treated as treason, punishable by hanging, drawing and quartering[Gamble, 2008].

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During the late 16th century, the most turbulent period of Donegal’s history, the Franciscan abbey of Donegal was ransacked in 1588 by William Mostian the English-appointed Sheriff of Tyrconnell, and its Guardian, Tadhg O’Boyle was murdered.[Morgan, 1999, p.122]

 

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