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.

According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the MacInerneys were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCais or Dalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.

[1] 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.

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.

The McInerney surname gave rise to a well known sept based in eastern Thomond,[5] or Co Clare, where the name was first recorded in the early 14th century document 'Triumphs of Torlough' (Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh).

[6] In the 'Triumphs of Torlough' the McInerney sept is referred to on several occasions as being followers of the McNamaras and were present at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318 in which the English forces under De Clare were decisively defeated.

R. W Twigge based his research off an 18th-century Irishman named William O’Lionain who wrote that Thomas, the son of Shane Mac Anerheny, erected Dromoland – probably between the 1450s–1550s.

The Elizabethan Inquisition records (legal assessments of property transactions) of the late 16th century refer to a long-running land dispute between the two leading factions of the McInerneys.

A subsequent Inquisition, taken in 1632, finds that Mahone had been in possession, and that he died about the year 1617, leaving a son John to succeed him, a man then of full age.

It can be surmised that most of the 'rebellious activity' was due to the Crown's push for control of feudal duties and rents that were paid by the 'urraghts', or lesser landowners, to their more powerful overlord clans such as the O’Briens and McNamaras.

During this period the Elizabethan Fiants record a 'Mahowne McShane McInErrihine of Ballykilly [sic Ballykilty] Co Clare, gent', as obtaining a pardon in 1577 for rebellious activities.

Anthony MacBrody's 17th century compilation Propugnaculum Catholicæ Veritatis: It appears that Jeremiah McInerney was born of wealthy Tradree parents,[14] related to the Bunratty Barony and according to other descriptions he was initially beaten with sticks and, after refusing to recant his Catholic faith, the Cromwellian soldiers then dragged him to a tree and hanged him.

Edward MacLysaght, in his book "The Surnames of Ireland", also mentions a Fr Lawrence McInerheny who was martyred in 1642, however there appears to be no reference to this individual in the historical record.

In the townland of Fyntra in Kilferboy parish in the barony of Ibricknane, 'Teige McInerny gent' is recorded as holding land and 30 tenants in joint with several other tituladoes.

As can be found in the Tithe Applotment Books (c1826) and the Griffth Valuation (c1851) records, McInerneys were quite numerous in Co Clare, as well as in Limerick city and in clusters around the Killaloe and Ballina area, as well as in the district of Castletownarra in north-west Tipperary.

The note also refers to the McInerneys as loyal chiefs of the lands of Caherteige, Clonloghan, Drumgeely and Tullyvarragh which locate nearby to the present-day Shannon Airport.

These MacEnerys, thus cousins of the O'Donovans, held large estates in south-west Limerick well after the disintegration of Uí Fidgenti in the 13th century, and were associated with their feudal overlord, Fizmaurice of Desmond.

In Irish MacEnery is Mac Inneirghe (derived from eirghe 'to arise') and the sept held extensive lands in Castletown MacEniry and several of the family were noted émigré in the service of France and Spain in the 17th and 18th centuries.