Part 2

Now, you see, every sheep, while he was spakin’, lifted the right fore leg, an’ raised the head a little, an’ behould when he finished, they kissed their foot, an’ made him a low bow as a mark of their estimation an’ superfluity. He thin clapped his finger an’ thumb in his mouth, gave a loud whistle, an’ in a periodical time he had all the other cattle on the hill about him, to which he addressed the same ondeniable oration, an’ they bowed to him wid the same polite gentility. He then brought the lad along wid him, an’ as they made progress in the journey, the little fellow says,

‘You seem frustrated by the walk, an’ if you’ll let me carry your bundle, I’ll feel obliged to you.’

‘Do so,’ said the saint; ‘an’ as it’s rather long, throw the bag that the things are in over your shoulder; you’ll find it the aisiest way to carry it.’

Well, the boy adopted this insinivation, an’ they went ambiguously along till they reached the chapel.

‘Do you see that house?’ said St Patrick.

‘I do,’ said the other; ‘it has no chimley on it.’

‘No,’ said the saint; ‘it has not; but in that house, Christ, he that saved you, will be present to-day.’ An’ the boy thin shed tears, when he thought of the goodness of Christ in saving one that was a stranger to him. So they entered the chapel, an’ the first thing the lad was struck with was the beams of the sun that came in through the windy shinin’ beside the altar. Now, he had never seen the like of it in a house before, an’ thinkin’ it was put there for some use or other in the intarior, he threw the wallet, which was like a saddle-bag, across the sunbeams, an’ lo an’ behould you the sunbeams supported them, an’ at the same time a loud sweet voice was heard, sayin’, ‘This is my servant St Kieran, an’ he’s welcome to the house o’ God!’ St Patrick then tuck him an’ instructed him in the various edifications of the larned languages until he became one of the greatest saints that ever Ireland saw, with the exception an’ liquidation of St Patrick himself.”

Such is a faint outline of the style and manner peculiar to the narratives of Tom Grassiey. Indeed, it has frequently surprised not only us, but all who knew him, to think how and where and when he got together such an incredible number of hard and difficult words. Be this as it may, one thing was perfectly clear, that they cost him little trouble and no study in their application. His pride was to speak as learnedly as possible, and of course he imagined that the most successful method of doing this was to use as many sesquipedalian expressions as he could crowd into his language, without any regard whatsoever as to their propriety.

Immediately after the relation of this legend, he passed at once into a different spirit. He and Frank Magaveen marshalled their forces, and in a few minutes two or three dozen young fellows were hotly engaged in the humorous game of “Boxing the Connaughtman.” Boxing the Connaughtman was followed by “the Standing Brogue” and “the Sitting Brogue,” two other sports practised only at wakes. And here we may observe generally, that the amusements resorted to on such occasions are never to be found elsewhere, but are exclusively peculiar to the house of mourning, where they are benevolently introduced for the purpose of alleviating sorrow. Having gone through a few more such sports, Tom took a seat and addressed a neighbouring farmer, named Gordon, as follows:--“Jack Gordon, do you know the history of your own name and its original fluency?”

“Indeed no, Tom, I cannot say I do.”

“Well, boys, if you derogate your noise a little, I’ll tell you the origin of the name of Gordon; it’s a story about ould Oliver Crummle, whose tongue is on the look-out for a drop of wather ever since he went to the lower story.” This legend, however, is too long and interesting to be related here: we are therefore forced to defer it until another opportunity.

SEALS OF IRISH CHIEFS.

By George Petrie, R.H.A., M.R.I.A.

(Concluded from No. 45.)

The next seal which I have to exhibit, belongs to a chief of another and nobler family of Thomond, the O’Briens, kings of the country, and descendants of the celebrated monarch Brian Boru. This seal is also from the collection of the Dean of St Patrick’s, and was purchased a few years since in Roscrea. Its type is unlike the preceding, as, instead of the armed warrior, it presents in the field the figure of a griffin.

The inscription reads, _Sigillum: Brian: I Brian_.

In the genealogies of this illustrious family, which are remarkable for their minuteness and historical truth, two or three chiefs bearing the Christian name of Brian occur. But from the character of the letters on this seal, I have little hesitation in assigning it to Brian O’Brian, who, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, succeeded to the lordship of Thomond in 1343, and was killed in 1350.

The next seal which I have to exhibit is also from the Dean’s collection, and, though of later date, is on many accounts of still higher interest than perhaps either of the preceding. It is the seal of a chief of the O’Neills, whose family were for seven hundred years the hereditary monarchs of Ireland.

This seal was found about ten years since in the vicinity of Magherafelt, in the county of Derry, and was purchased by the Dean from a shopkeeper in that town some years after. The arms of O’Neill, the bloody hand, appear on a shield, and the legend reads, _Sigillum Maurisius_ [Maurisii] _ui Neill_. The name Mauritius, which occurs in this inscription, does not occur in the genealogies of the O’Neill family, and is obviously but a latinised form of the name Murtogh or Muircheartach, which was that of two or three chiefs of the family; and of these I am inclined to ascribe this seal to Murtogh Roe, or the Red O’Neill, lord of Clanaboy, who, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, died in 1471.

These are all the seals of Irish princes which have fallen under my observation. But there remain two of equal antiquity, but which belonged to persons of inferior rank, which it may interest the Academy to see. The first, which is in my own collection, exhibits the figure of an animal, which I must leave to the zoologists of the Academy to describe, with the legend _Sigillum Mac Craith Mac I Dafid_.

The O’Dafys were an ancient family in Thomond, and are still very numerous in the county of Clare.

The next and last is from the cabinet of the Dean, and is very remarkable in having the head of a helmeted warrior cut on a cornelian within the legend, which reads, _Sigillum Brian: O’Harny_.

The O’Harnys are a very ancient and still numerous family in Kerry, descendants of the ancient lords of that country, and remarkable in history as poets and musicians.

I have only to add, that it will be observed that these seals are all of a round form, which characterises the seals of secular persons, while those belonging to ecclesiastics were usually oval.

ORIGIN AND MEANINGS OF IRISH FAMILY NAMES.

BY JOHN O’DONOVAN.

Fourth Article.

Having in the last article spoken of the origin of surnames in Ireland, and of the popular errors now prevailing respecting them, I shall next proceed to notice certain epithets, sobriquets, &c., by which the Irish chieftains and others of inferior rank were distinguished.

Besides the surnames, or hereditary family names, which the Irish people assumed from their ancestors, it appears from the authentic annals that most, if not all, of their chieftains had attached to their Christian names, and sometimes to their surnames, certain cognomens by which they were distinguished from each other. These cognomens, or, as they may in many instances be called, sobriquets, were given them from some perfection or imperfection of the body, or some disposition or quality of the mind, from the place of birth, or the place of fosterage, and very frequently from the place of their deaths. Of the greater number of these cognomens, the pedigree of the regal family of O’Neill furnishes examples, as Niall Roe, _i. e._ Niall the Red, who flourished about the year 1225, so called from his having red hair; Hugh Toinlease (a name which requires no explanation), who died in 1230; Niall More, _i. e._ Niall the Great, who died in 1397; Con Bacach, _i. e._ Con the Lame, who was created Earl of Tyrone in 1542. Among the same family we meet Henry Avrey, _i. e._ Henry the Contentious, Shane an Dimais, _i. e._ John the Proud. Of the cognomens derived from the places in which and the families by whom they were fostered, the pedigree of the same family affords several instances, as Turlogh Luineach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Luney, chief of Munterluney in Tyrone; Niall Conallach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Donnell, chief of Tirconnell; Shane Donnellach, so called from his having been fostered by O’Donnelly (An Four Masters, 1531 and 1567); and Felim Devlinach, so called from his foster-father O’Devlin, chief of Munter-Devlin, near Lough Neagh, in the present county of Londonderry. Various examples of cognomens given to chieftains from the place or territory in which they were fostered, are to be met with in other families, as, in that of O’Brien, Donogh Cair-breach, who was so called from his having been fostered by O’Donovan, chief of Carbery Aeva, the ancient name of the plains of the county of Limerick. In the regal family of Mac Murrough of Leinster, Donnell Cavanagh was so called from having been fostered by the Coarb of St Cavan, at Kilcavan, near Gorey, in Hy-Dea, in the present county of Wexford. This cognomen of Donnell has been adopted for the last two centuries as a surname by his descendants, a thing very unusual among Irish families. In the family of Mac Donnell of Scotland, John Cahanach was so called from his having been fostered by O’Cahan or O’Kane, in the present county of Londonderry.

In the pedigrees of other families, various instances are on record of cognomens having been applied by posterity to chieftains from the place of their deaths; in the family of O’Neill, for example, Brian Chatha an Duin, or “of the battle of Down,” was so called by posterity from his having been killed in a battle fought at Downpatrick in the year 1260; in the family of O’Brien, Conor na Siudaine, from the wood of Suidain in Burren, in which he was killed in the year 1267; and in the family of Mac Carthy, the celebrated Fineen Reanna Roin, from his having been killed at the castle of Rinn Roin in the year 1261, after a brilliant career of victory over the English.

On this subject of cognomens and sobriquets among the Irish, Sir Henry Piers wrote as follows in the year 1682, in a description of the county of Westmeath, written in the form of a letter to Anthony Lord Bishop of Meath, and published in the first volume of Vallancey’s Collectanea:--

“Every Irish surname or family name hath either O or Mac prefixed, concerning which I have found some make this observation, but I dare not undertake that it shall hold universally true, that such as have O prefixed were of old superior lords or princes, as O’Neal, O’Donnell, O’Melaghlin, &c., and such as have Mac were only great men, viz, lords, thanes, as Mac Gennis, Mac Loghlin, Mac Doncho, &c. But however this observation [may] hold, it is certain they take much liberty, and seem to do it with delight, in giving of nicknames; and if a man have any imperfection or evil habit, he shall be sure to hear of it in the nickname. Thus, if he be blind, lame, squint-eyed, grey-eyed, be a stammerer in speech, be left-handed, to be sure he shall have one of these added to his name; so also from his colour of hair, as black, red, yellow, brown, &c.; and from his age, as young, old; or from what he addicts himself to, or much delights in, as in draining, building, fencing, or the like; so that no man whatever can escape a nickname who lives among them, or converseth with them; and sometimes so libidinous are they in this kind of raillery, they will give nicknames _per antiphrasim_, or contrariety of speech. Thus a man of excellent parts, and beloved of all men, shall be called _grana_, that is, naughty or fit to be complained of; if a man have a beautiful countenance or lovely eyes, they will call him Cueegh, that is, squint-eyed; if a great housekeeper, he shall be called Ackerisagh, that is greedy.” (_Collectanea_, vol. I. p. 113.)

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Irish families increased, and their territories were divided into two and three parts among rival chieftains of the same family, each of the chieftains adopted some addition to the family surname for the sake of distinction. Thus, among the O’Conors of Connaught we find O’Conor Don, _i. e._ O’Conor the brown-haired, and O’Conor Roe, or the red-haired. This distinction was first made in the year 1384, when Torlogh Don and Torlogh Roe, who had been for some time in emulation for the chieftainship of the territory of Shilmurry, agreed to have it divided equally between them; on which occasion the former was to be called O’Conor Don, and the latter O’Conor Roe. (See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Charles O’Conor). It is now supposed by many of the Irish that the epithet Don postfixed to the name of the chief of the O’Conors is a Spanish title! while those who are acquainted with the history of the name think that he should reject it as being a useless sobriquet, and more particularly now, as there is no O’Conor Roe from whom he needs to be distinguished. It is true that the O’Conor Don might now very lawfully be called the O’Conor, as there is no O’Conor Roe or O’Conor Sligo, at least none who take the name; but as he had borne it before O’Conor Roe disappeared, we would not advise it to be rejected for another generation, as we think that an O’Conor Roe will in the meantime make his appearance, for we are acquainted with an individual of that name who knows his pedigree well, but is not sufficiently wealthy to put himself forward as an Irish chieftain.

In the same province we find the Mac Dermots of Moylurg divided into three distinct families the head of whom was, _par excellence_, styled the Mac Dermot, and the other two who were tributary to him called, the one Mac Dermot Roe, _i. e._ the Red, and the other Mac Dermot Gall, or the Anglicised. In Thomond we find the Mac Namaras split into two distinct families, distinguished by the names of Mac Namara Fin, _i. e._ the Fair, and Mac Namara Reagh, or the Swarthy. In Desmond the family of Mac Carthy split into three powerful branches, known by the names of Mac Carthy More or the Great, Mac Carthy Reagh or the Swarthy, and Mac Carthy Muscryagh, _i. e._ of Muskerry. Beauford asserts with his usual confidence that Mac Carthy Reagh signifies Mac Carthy the King, but this is utterly fallacious, for the epithet, which is anglicised Reagh, is written _riach_ and _riabhach_, in the original annals of Inisfallen and of the Four Masters, and translated _fuscus_ by Philip O’Sullivan Beare (who knew the import of it far better than Beauford) in his History of the Irish Catholics published at Lisbon in 1621. The O’Sullivans split into the families of O’Sullivan More and O’Sullivan Beare; the O’Donovans into those of O’Donovan More, O’Donovan Locha Crot, and O’Hea O’Donovan; the O’Kennedys of Ormond into those of O’Kennedy Finn, O’Kennedy Roe, and O’Kennedy Don; the O’Farrells of Annally into those of O’Farrell Bane, _i. e._ the White, and O’Farrell Boy, or the Yellow, &c., &c.

The foregoing notices are sufficient to show the nature of the surnames in use among the ancient Scotic or Milesian Irish families. It will be now expected that I should say a few words on the effect which the Anglo-Norman invasion and the introduction of English laws, language, and names, have had in changing or modifying them, and on the other hand the influence which the Irish may have had in changing or modifying the English names.

After the murder, in 1333, of William de Burgo, third Earl of Ulster of that name, and the lessening of the English power which resulted from it, many if not all of the distinguished Anglo-Norman families located in Connaught and Munster became hibernicised--_Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores_--spoke the Irish language, and assumed surnames in imitation of the Irish by prefixing Mac (but never O in any instance) to the Christian names of their ancestors. Thus the De Burgos in Connaught took the name of Mac William from their ancestor William de Burgo, and were divided into two great branches, called Mac William Oughter and Mac William Eighter, _i. e._ Mac William Upper and Mac William Lower, the former located in the county of Galway, and the latter in that of Mayo; and from these sprang many offshoots who took other surnames from their respective ancestors, as the Mac Davids of Glinsk, the Mac Philbins of Dun Mugdord in Mayo, the Mac Shoneens, now Jennings, and the Mac Gibbons, now Fitzgibbons. The Berminghams of Dunmore and Athenry in Connaught, and of Offaly in Leinster, took the name of Mac Feoiris, from Pierce, the son of Meyler Bermingham, who was one of the principal heads of that family in Ireland. The head of the Stauntons in Carra took the name of Mac Aveely. The chief of the Barretts of Tirawley took the name of Mac Wattin, and a minor branch of the same family, located in the territory of the Two Backs, lying between Lough Con and the river Moy, assumed that of Mac Andrew, while the Barretts of Munster took the now very plebeian name of Mac Phaudeen, from an ancestor called Paudeen, or Little Patrick. The De Exeters of Gallen, in Connaught, assumed the surname of Mac Jordan from Jordan De Exeter, the founder of that family; and the Nangles of the same neighbourhood took that of Mac Costello. Of the Kildare and Desmond branches of the Fitzgeralds there were two Mac Thomases, one in Leinster, and the other in the Desies, in the now county of Waterford, in Munster. A branch of the Butlers took the name of Mac Pierce, and the Poers, or Powers, that of Mac Shere. The Freynes of Ossory took the name of Mac Rinki, and the Barrys that of Mac Adam. In the present county of Kilkenny were located two families, originally of great distinction, who took the strange name of Gaul, which then signified Englishman, though at an earlier period it had been a term applied by the Irish to all foreigners; the one was Stapleton, who was located at Gaulstown, in the parish of Kilcolumb, barony of Ida, and county of Kilkenny; the other a branch of the Burkes, who obtained extensive estates in that part of Ireland, and dwelt at Gaulstown, in the barony of Igrine. The writer, who is the sixth in descent from the last head of this family, has many of his family deeds, in which he styles himself sometimes Galle and sometimes Galle alias Borke; on his tomb, however, in his family chapel at Gaulskill, he is called Walterus De Burgo without the addition of Galle, and is there said to be descended from the Red Earl of Ulster. His descendants now all retain the name of Gaul, as do those of his neighbour Stapleton. The Fitzsimons, in Westmeath, took the name of Mac Ruddery, and the Wesleys that of Mac Falrene, &c. &c.

Edmund Spenser, secretary to the Lord Arthur Grey (deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth in the year 1580), attempted to prove that many distinguished families then bearing Irish surnames, and accounted of Irish origin, were really English. This, however, is undoubtedly false, and is a mere invention of the creative fancy of that great poet and politician: but as it has been received as truth by Sir Charles Coote and other English writers, we shall show how Spenser deceived himself or was deceived on this point. He instances the following families: 1, The Mac Mahons of Oriel in Ulster, who, as he states on the authority of the report of some Irishmen, came first to Ireland with Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, under the name of Fitz-Ursula: 2, The Mac Mahons of the South: 3, The Mac Sweenys of Munster: 4, The Mac Sheehys of Munster: 5, The O’Brins or O’Byrnes of Leinster: 6, The O’Tooles of the same province: 7, The Cavanaghs: 8, The Mac Namaras of Thomond. But he gives no proof for his assertions but the report of some Irishmen, corroborated by etymological speculations of his own; and as the report of some unnamed persons can have no weight with us when in direct contradiction of the authentic annals of the country, I shall slightly glance at some of the most important of his etymological evidences, and then give my own proofs of the contrary. To prove that the Mac Mahons of Oriel are the Fitz-Ursulas, he says that _Mahon_ signifies _bear_ in Irish, and hence that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula; but granting that _Mahon_ does mean a _bear_, it does not follow that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula. But we have stronger reasons to urge than to prove that this is a _non sequitur_, for we have the testimony of the authentic pedigree of the Mac Mahons of Oriel, and of the annals of Ulster, that the Mac Mahons had been located in Oriel and had borne that name long before the English invasion. The Mac Mahons and Mac Namaras of the south are a branch of the Dal-Cais, a great tribe located in Thomond, whose history is as certain from the ninth century as that of any people in Europe. The Mac Sweenys and Mac Sheehys of Munster are of Irish origin, but their ancestors removed to Scotland in the tenth century, or beginning of the eleventh, and some of their descendants returned to Ireland in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were hereditary leaders of Gallowglasses to many Irish chieftains. To prove that the Byrnes, Tooles, and Cavanaghs, are of British origin, he has recourse also to etymology, which is a great lever in the hand of a historical charlatan, and says, in the first place, that _Brin_ in the Welsh language means woody, and that hence the O’Brins or O’Byrnes must be of Welsh origin. But admitting that _Brin_ does in the Welsh language mean woody, what has that to do with O’Brain, the original Irish name of O’Byrne, especially when it can be proved that that surname was called after Bran, king of Leinster, who was usually styled Bran Duv, _i. e._ the Black Raven, from the colour of his hair, and his thirst for prey. Secondly, to prove that O’Toole is a Welsh name, he says that _tol_ means hilly in the Welsh language! and so does _tol_ in Irish bear this meaning. But what, I would ask, has that to do with O’Tuathail, or descendants of Tuathal, the son of Ugaire, from whom this family have taken their surname? The name Tuathal, signifying _the lordly_, has no more to do with _tol_, a hill, than it has with the English word _tool_, to which it has been anglicised for the last two centuries. Thirdly, to prove that the name Cavanagh is of Welsh origin, he asserts that Kaevan in Welsh signifies _strong_ in English. This may be true; but what has the signification of the Welsh word Kaevan to do with the name of the Mac Murroghs of Leinster, who assumed the cognomen of Cavanagh from Donnell Cavanagh, the son of Dermot Mac Murrogh, who had himself received this name from his having been fostered at Kilcavan in the north-east of the present county of Wexford? _Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici?_