McInerney  The name McInerney is of noble Irish origin where it is found in the modern Irish form of "Mac an Airchinnigh" () and in the old and literary forms of "Mac an Oirchinnigh" and "Mac an Oirchindig". The pronunciation of "Mac an Oirchinnigh" led the name to be sometimes anglicised as McEnherheny in Irish documents from the 16th–19th centuries. The name translates to "son of the erenagh" in Irish ("erenagh" being "airchinneach"), literally meaning "son of the Lord of church lands". "Airchinneach" may in turn derive from the twin components of "air" ("noble") and "ceann" ("head"), therefore meaning a ‘noble-head’ or ‘Lord’, denoting its aristocratic status in medieval Ireland. The coat of arms is three red lions passant, and the motto is "Veritas", meaning "Truth". In some places, the motto can be found as "Vincit Veritas", meaning "Truth Conquers", or "Truth Prevails". The erenagh was an important position in early medieval Ireland and originally was associated with hereditary ecclesiastical office among certain custodian families of monasteries and churches. Later, the office of erenagh passed into the hands of laymen. After the disorder of the Norse wars in the 10th and 11th centuries, the erenaghs were generally lay families who controlled the lands and therefore the economic base of the important churches and monasteries on behalf of the overlord clan. In turn, the erenagh received part of the rents from the land and normally held their own mensal estate which was generally hereditary and passed down among the principal family lineage (Irish, 'derbhfine') and occupied by the 'chief' of the erenagh family. The erenagh families held high social status and were often at odds with the ecclesiastical authorities over the ownership and management of church lands and were often in conflict with rival churches located in hostile clan lands. Some erenagh families maintained their influence over ecclesiastical property right down until the collapse of the Gaelic social system in the beginning of the 17th century. Because of the proliferation of lay erenagh families, there are many unrelated erenagh families throughout Ireland. The name McInerney is by far the most popular form of the Irish Mac an Airchinnigh and the most numerous as well.