More Irish than the Irish themselves

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"More Irish than the Irish themselves" or 'Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis' was a phrase used in the Middle Ages to describe the phenomenon whereby foreigners who came to Ireland attached to invasion forces generally associated with Richard "Strong Bow" de Claire, Hugh de Lacy, and Gilbert de Angulo. The first family to be thus recognised was the de Angulo, known as MacOisdealbh or MacGoisdelbh (i.e. Gilbert, son of Jocelyn) the name which was given to his descendants in Connaught. It was rendered back into English as MacCostello, which in time became Costello.

They tended to be subsumed into Irish social and cultural society, adopted the Irish language, Irish culture, style of dress and a wholesale identification with all things Irish. While this phenomenon was associated with earlier invaders, and particularly with the post-12th century English and Norman settlers who became known as the Old English, it was not associated with later arrivals from the seventeenth century onwards.Template:Euro-hist-stub Template:Ireland-stub