Genealogy of Travellers

Mac an BHÁIRD—VII—MacAward, MacWard, Ward; 'son of the bard' (Irish 'bárd'); a very common surname; found in every county in Ireland, but especially in Donegal, Galway and Dublin. Three families of the name are known to history: (1) Mac an Bháird of Tirconnell, who were bards to the O'Donnells; (2) Mac an Bháird of Ui Maine, who were bards to the O'Kellys, and were seated at Muine Chasain and Ballymacward; and (3) Mac an Bháird of Oriel.

Mac DONNCHADHA, Mac DONNCHAIDH—IV—M'Donoghue, M'Donnoghie, M'Donaghy, M'Donchie, M'Denis, MacDonnagh, MacDonough, MacDonogh, MacDonagh, MacDona, MacDunphy, Donoghue, Donohoe, Donaghy, Donogh, Donagh, Dunphy, Duncan, Dennison, Denison, Dennis, &c.; 'son of Donnchadh' (brown warrior, or strong warrior, an ancient and very common Irish personal name, anglicised Donough, Denis.) There are at least three distinct families bearing this surname: (1) A branch of the MacCarthys, who were chiefs of Duhallow, in Co. Cork, and at one time very powerful. Their principal seat was at Kanturk. (2) A branch of the MacDermotts of Moylurg, who were chiefs of Tirerrill and Corran, in Co. Sligo, and resided at Ballymote. The Book of Ballymote was compiled under their patronage. an offshoot of this family settled in Co. Clare, and thence spread into Co. Limerick. (3) A Scottish clan in Perthshire, said to be a branch of the MacDonalds. This family now anglicised their name Duncan, and some of them call themselves Robertson. See Mac Dhonnchadha.

Mac SUIBHNE—IV—MacSeveney, MacSwiney, MacSweeny, MacSweeney, MacSween, MacSwine, Swiney, Sweeney, &c.; 'son of Suibhne' (well-going); the name of a great military family, formerly famous throughout Ireland as captains of gallowglasses. They derive their name and descent, according to MacFirbis, from Suibhne, who was son of Donnshléibhe Ó Néill and lord of Knapdale in Argyle, about the beginning of the 13th century. The first of the name to come to Ireland was Murchadh, grandson of Suibhne, who is mentioned in the Annals at the year 1267. Early in the next century, the MacSweeneys effected a permanent settlement in Tirconnell, where they became captains of gallowglasses to O'Donnell. They branched out into three great septs, viz.: MacSweeny of Fanad who dwelt at Rathmullin Castle and had extensive possessions in the north-east of the barony of Kilmacrenan; MacSweeney of Baghnagh, now the barony of Banagh, in the west of Co. Donegal; and MacSweeney na dTuath, lord of Tuatha Toraighe, or the districts of Tory Island, sometimes incorrectly called MacSweeney of the Battleaxes. A branch of the MacSweeneys of Fanaid settled in Desmond as commanders of gallowglasses under the MacCarthys. They had several castles in the barony of Muskerry, and were celebrated for their hospitality. The Irish form of the surname is now sometimes Ó Suibhne, which see; in Scotland it is generally Mac Shuibhne (which see), but MacSween still survives as an anglicised form.

Ó MONGÁIN—I—O Mongane, Mongan, Mangan, Mangin, Mongon, (Mannion, Manning), &c.; 'descendant of Mongán' (diminutive of mongach, hairy); the name of at least three distinct families, seated respectively in Cork, Mayo and Fermanagh. In the 16th century, it was not uncommon in Galway, Clare, Kerry, Tipperary, Kildare and Wexford. It is now generally anglicised Mangan, but Mongan, which is nearer the original, is still preserved in Mayo and other parts of Ireland. Ó Muingeáin (which see) is an attenuated form.

Mac CNÁIMHÍN—IV—M'Cnavin, M'Knavin, MacNevin, Navin, Neavin, Nevin, Neven, Nivin, Nevins; 'son of Cnáimhín' (diminutive of cnámh, a bone); the name of an ancient family in Co. Galway, who were chiefs of a district in Ui Maine and seated at Crannag MacNevin, in the parish of Tynagh. The name is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 1159. The chief in the time of Elizabeth was Hugh MacKnavin. He went out in rebellion, was taken and hanged on the 4th June, 1602, and his lands granted to the Earl of Clanrickard. Other members of the family possessed considerable property at the beginning of the 17th century. The celebrated Dr. MacNevin of the United Irishmen was the last supposed head of the family.

Ó FÍODHABHRA—I—O Fiorie, O Fuery, O Fury, Fury, Furey, (?) Fleury; 'descendant of Fíodhabhra' (bushy-eyebrows, from fíodh, a wood, and fabhra, an eyebrow); also Ó Fíodhabhair, which see; the name of an old Westmeath family who, not improbably, are a branch of the O'Melaghlens. Two of them were bishops, or abbots, of Clonmacnoise in the latter part of the 12th century; and in the next century, Donat O Fiodhabhra, after filling the see of Clogher for nine years, was translated to the primatial see of Armagh. He died in England in 1237, as he was returning from Rome, "with great honour and spiritual glory from the Pope." Before the end of the 16th century the name had spread into Roscommon, Sligo and Cork. It is now most frequently met with in Co. Galway. In Munster the present form is Ó Fíodhabhair, anglicised Feore.

johnohanlon wrote: »

They mostly seem to be called Maguire here in Ulster which was a Fermanagh based clan

Mag UIDHIR—IV—Maguier, M'Guier, M'Gwire, M'Guiver, Maguire, MacGuire, MacGiver; 'son of Odhar' (pale, dun-coloured); the name of a great Fermanagh family, formerly one of the most powerful in Ulster. The name is first mentioned in the Annals at the year 956. Towards the end of the 13th century, the Maguires became chiefs of Fermanagh, a position which they held down to the reign of James I, when their country was included in the confiscation of Ulster. The family produced many valiant chiefs and learned ecclesiastics. The name is sometimes pronounced dialectically Mac Guibhir.

One of the most important phenomena in a clan-based society is that of expansion from the top downwards. The seventeenth-century Irish scholar and genealogist Dualtagh Mac Firbisigh remarked that ‘as the sons and families of the rulers multiplied, so their subjects and followers were squeezed out and withered away’; and this phenomenon, the expansion of the ruling or dominant stocks at the expense of the remainder, is a normal feature in societies of this type. It has been observed of the modern Basotho of South Africa that ‘there is a constant displacement of commoners by royals [i.e. members of the royal clan] and of collateral royals by the direct descendants of the ruling prince’, and this could have been said, without adaptation, of any important Gaelic or Gaelicized lordship of late medieval Ireland.

In Fermanagh, for example, the kingship of the Maguires began only with the accession of Donn Mór in 1282 and the ramification of the family – with the exception of one or two small and territorially unimportant septs – began with the sons of the same man. The spread of his descendants can be seen by the genealogical tract called Geinelaighe Fhearmanach; by 1607 they must have been in the possession of at least three-quarters of the total soil of Fermanagh, having displaced or reduced the clans which had previously held it. The rate at which an Irish clan could multiply itself must not be underestimated. Turlough an fhíona O’Donnell, lord of Tirconnell (d. 1423) had eighteen sons (by ten different women) and fifty-nine grandsons in the male line. Mulmora O’Reilly, the lord of East Brefny, who died in 1566, had at least fifty-eight O’Reilly grandsons. Philip Maguire, lord of Fermanagh (d. 1395) had twenty sons by eight mothers, and we know of at least fifty grandsons. Oliver Burke of Tirawley (two of whose sons became Lower Mac William although he himself had never held that position) left at least thirty-eight grandsons in the male line.

Irish law drew no distinction in matters of inheritance between the legitimate and the illegitimate and permitted the affiliation of children by their mother’s declaration (see Chapter 4), and the general sexual permissiveness of medieval Irish society must have allowed a rate of multiplication approaching that which is permitted by the polygyny practised in, for instance, the clan societies of southern Africa already cited.