| Co.
Cork 21 baronies, Anciently inhabited
by the Uterni or Iberni as cited by Ptolemy, as well as the Vodiae and the Coriondi. They
occupied most of the southern part of the country subsequently called Desmond:
their name and situation prove them to have been of Spanish Iberian origin, and
the former, as well as that of the tribes from which they sprung, and the designation
Ibernia or Hibernia. The Coriondi appear to have inhabited the native kingdom
or principality of Thomond in the province
of Munster bounded on the north by the estuary of the river Shannon and the county
of Tipperary; on the east by the county of Tipperary; on the south by county Cork,
and on the west by county Kerry.
The Galtees were formed during the Caledonian Foldings, which caused the underlying
Silurian rocks to fold into great ridges. On the north-east the barony of Owneybeg
embraces the skirts of the Slieve Phelim mountains, which forms an extensive group
penetrating the interior of Tipperary. At the turn of the last century Dineen
and Dinneen were the two preferred spellings of the name, both of which were centered
in Co. Cork. Earlier in the census of 1659, Dinane
was a principal name of county Cork. |
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| Barretts |
- Cited as part of Múscraighe
Mittaine when granted to Richard de Cogan in 1207.
- Barratt
of "Barretts Country" after the coming of the Normans.
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| Barrymore |
- Named for the de Barri (Barry) family arriving in the wake of the Invasion.
- O'Liathin (O'Lehan or Lyons) were chiefs of Uí Anmcadha,
and lords of Uí Liathain.
- The O'Riordans of Muskerry
are noted here in the place name Ballyreardon.
- The O'Broders
and O'Hegartys are cited in
this barony.
- Abbeymahon,
Cork was founded in 1172 by Dermot MacCormac MacCarthy, king of Desmond.
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- Part of the diocese of
Ross, an area which was approximately co-extensive with the ancient territory
of Corca Laoidhe.
- In Bishop Montgomery's survey of the diocese
of Raphoe (1606) O Dinan
is given as the name of the erenagh family of Aghadowney, but it is evident that
this is property O'Dunan. Dinan is now seldom met with its prefix O; the variant
spelling Dynan is also rare. In our own day the great majority of Dineens, who
rarely if ever have the prefix O in English, belong to Co. Cork families, especially
to the south-western part anciently known as Corca Laoidhe. In Dinan,
Brittany a fortified wall starts at the Jerzual gate along the Rance River.
First found in Monmouthshire:
The Saxon Chronicle places king William's expedition to Wales in 1081- Dynan,
Ludlow Castles.
- The
Corca Laoighdhe were a great clan in the southwest of County Cork. Their territory
was coextensive with the Diocese of Ross, and their chief families were those
of O’Coffey, O’Dinneen, O’Driscoll, O’Flynn, O’Hea, 0’Hen-nessy and O’Leary.
- The O'Sullivan Beare were chiefs here beginning in the 13th century.
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| | - Carbery
(Desmond) is said to derive its name from
its ancient chieftain, Carbry Riada.
- Mac
Carthaigh (MacCarthy Reagh) were chiefs here, sometimes styled prince of Carbery.
After the first shock of the Norman invasion the Irish people began to rally and
their chiefs hired soldiers in the Hebrides
called Gallógláich (Gallowglass).
In the Irish annals the rig, or chief of a great tribe (mor
tuath), such as of Ross, Moray, Marr, Buchan, &c., is called a mor maer, or
great maer.
- In 1134,
A troop [was brought] by Cormac son of Muireadhach Mac Carthaigh and Toirdhealbhach,
Tadhg, and Conchobhar, three sons of Toirdhealbhach son of Tadhg son of Brian
Bóramha, into Connacht. In 1157, he
afterwards divided Munster between the son of Mac Carthaigh, i.e. Diarmaid, son
of Cormac, and Conchobhar, son of Domhnall Ua Briain.
- It is
believed that the Irish Culdee movement
included those who fled from Ireland at the time of Danish ascendancy there to
Scotland. While Emly was important for the Munster
ruling house of the Eóghanacht,
it is interesting that when the Dál
gCais (the Úí Fidgente of the Fidelma stories) had a king on the
throne of Cashel in 786 in the person of Olchobar mac Flainn (d. 796/7) he was
also abbot of Inis Carthaigh (Scattery
Island), baronage of Cork.
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| | - Sections
here were included in the ancient territory of Corca Laoidhe.
- Mac
Carthaigh (MacCarthy Reagh) were chiefs here.
- O
hUorthile (O'Hurley) is cited at Ballynacarriga Castle, as well as being chiefs
in neighboring Muskerry barony. In the 12th century the modern
county Cork area was part of the kingdom of Desmhuman and included the territories
of Ivelaugh, Beara, Dubh Alla, Insovenagh, Muskerry and Fearmuigh, among others.
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| | - The O'Driscol
were head chiefs of the Eugenians
Corca Laoidhe and seated near Baltimore, originally from Co. Kerry and forced
south by the O'Sullivans. The Corca Luighe were a pre-Milesian race and the name
Luighe was common among their early chiefs. One of those, Lughaidh Mac Con was
High King of Ireland. The O'Driscolls
were the ruling race. These races had been gradually pushed south of the Bandon
river by the Eoghanachta of which the ruling families were the O'Mahony's and
the O'Donoghues. The Franciscans
acquired a foundation at Sherkin
Island from the O'Driscolls in 1460.
- The O'Flynn
of the Corca Laoidhe were seated here. The territory of the Uí
Tuitre was also said to have included an area west of Lough
Neagh (in modern co. Tyrone), as well as northwest of the great Lough in the
modern barony of Loughinsholin,
co, Derry. Loughinsholin itself is said to derive from the "lough of the island
of the O'Lynns", i.e. the O'Flynn, chiefs of Uí Tuirtre. Groups of the
Uí Tuitre were apparently driven east across the river Bann by the rise
of the O'Cahans about the 12th century, and are later recorded in the central
baronies of Co. Antrim, i.e. Toome and Antrim. The Uí Tuirtre genealogy
goes back to Fiachu Tuirtri, son of
Colla Óiss (Uais). After this time the O'Flynns (O'Lynns) were dominant
chiefs of Uí Tuirtre, they being claimed as a senior branch of Clanna
Rury of Ulidia. The neighboring
territory of Fear Li (Fir Li) was (also?) in the barony of Coleraine
(northeast co. Derry), and the O'Flynns (O'Lynns) are cited holding the kingship
of both Tuirtre and Fir Li, at various times.
- Ancient
Brefney bore the name of Hy Briuin Breifne, from its being possessed by the
race of Brian, King of Connaught, in the fourth century, brother of Niall of the
Nine Hostages, and son of Eochy Moyvane, Monarch of Ireland from A.D. 357 to 365,
and of the race of Heremon. The kings of the old Ulaid, who resided in pre-historic
times at Navan (Meath), pushed east of the
line between Newry and Lough Neagh.
- In 1172, Henry the Second
despoiled Murchard O'Melaghlin of his kingdom of Meath,
and granted it to Hugh De Lacy, who was appointed Lord Palatinate of the territory.
- The Compostition Book of the province of Connaught and Thomond.
(1585)
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- O Mathghamhna (O'Mahoney),
chief of Uí Eachach, which later became Ivaugh comprising the whole peninsula
in West Carbery.
- Mac Carthaigh (MacCarthy Reagh).
- The O’Hegartys (O hEighceartaigh)
of the Cenél Eoghain were chiefs in the present barony of Loughinsholin
in the south of County Derry, and by about the beginning of the seventeenth century
some of them settled in the baronies of Barrymore and Carbery West in County Cork.
The family was numerous in the Irish Brigades of France, and several O’Hegartys
were, during the eighteenth century, particularly distinguished in that service.
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- Anciently named Corcach or Corcach-Bascoin, signifying 'a marshy place'.
Vikings made settlement here in the 9th and 10th centuries to found the city of
Cork, although St. Finbarr
is attributed founding a cathedral church here much earlier.
- Clan
O'Dea was Déaghaidh (pronounced Day), who is referred to in Keating's
History of Ireland under the yeare 934 A.D, where he describes the rescue of Ceallachán
(King of Munster) from his capture on a Viking ship at Dundalk. Day is an English
and Irish name that originates in several forms: as an English variation of David.
When Edmond Mortimer arrived in Ireland (Dundalk)
in 1380, The Annals of The Four Masters
records that the O'Hanlons as Lords of Orior were considered to be amongst the
mightiest lords of Ireland.
- In the 12th century the city and
adjacent country were in possesion of the Danes, who held them under Mac Carthaigh,
prince of Desmond.
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- Named for the (Anglo-Norman) de Courcy family who arrived in the late
12th century.
- Hy Segan,
or Hy Seanghain, that of Ardee; Fera Lorg, Lorgan, or Lurgin, that of Lower
Dundalk at Louth Hy Mac Uais, the country
of the Mac Scanlans, that of
Upper Dundalk; and Ludha, or Lugha, that of Louth, which last was the country
of the O'Carrols, chiefs of Argial. Argial was conquered by John
de Courcy in 1183, after which it was divided into Irish Argial
and English Uriel.
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- O Donnagain's (Donegan's)
country was in the baronies of Orrery and Duhallow before the arrival of the Barry
(Cambro-Norman) family. They were a once powerful sept of Muscraige Tri Maighe.
Ua Donnocáin (e.g. O'Donegan)
is cited in the Annals as a king of Múscraige Mittaine in the late 11th
century, and MacLysaght (More Irish Families) notes that O'Donegan's country was
the alias for Múscraige Tri Maighe.
- O'Cuillen
(O'Cullen) were cited as chiefs of Eoghanacht Aradh
in the barony of Owney and Arad. Mac
Uí Bhrian (Mac I Brien), a Dalcassian sept, were lords of Owney
and Arra, their territory anciently referred to as Aradh
Cliach and acquired from the O'Donegans around 1300.
- Kenmare
Bay (Derrynassagart) belongs jointly
to Cork and Kerry; on the Cork side are Ballydonegan and Coulagh Bays, and Ardgroom
Harbour belongs jointly to Cork and Kerry. The
Herenaghs of Fermanagh
- The territory of the MacAuliffe
sept, Glen Omra, was here, Castle MacAuliffe was the seate of its chief. O'Nunan
is cited as a chief of Tullaleis and Castlelissen in the parish of Tullylease.
- The O'Callaghan's were lords of Clonmeen near the river Blackwater.
COLLA da CHRIOCH
and Heber
- The
MacCarthys, the O'Sullivans and the O'Callaghans, all of Eoghanacht
Caisil stock, migrated southwards into Counties Cork and Kerry in pre-Norman
times, ousted from their original lands in Counties Tipperary and Limerick by
the aggression of the Dál Cais.
- Caissil, or Caisel, is
a reference for Cashel, in Co Tipperary.
The Mac Carthaigh (Mac Carthy) family was a chief sept of the Éoganachta Caisil.
Other septs of the Uí Aongusa an Deisceirt, descended from Aengus mac Nadfraich,
included O'Callaghan, O'Sullivan, O'Keeffe, Mac Cárthaigh.
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- This area was held by the O'Keefes, princes of Fermoy and anciently chief
of Glanworth (and Glen Avon), before they moved west near Duhallow. Besides Kerrycurrihy
and Imokilly, the entire central part of the county, between the rivers Lee and
Blackwater, formed a portion of the ancient territory of Muskerry,
which name the western portion of it still retains. The remainder, to the north
of the Blackwater, formed, before the English conquests, a principality
of the O'Keefes, called Fearmuigh.
- The O'Duggans are anciently cited as chiefs of Fermoy (Desmond).
- In Munster, the MacSweeneys had
the parish of Kilmurry, in the Barony of Muskerry, and had their Chief castle
at Clodagh, near Macroom, and had also Castlemore in the parish of Movidy.
- After the Norman invasion it was held by the Roche family, Viscounts
and barons of Fermony, and it became known as Roches country.
- The
formation of this part of Ireland (Armagh comprised
the counties of Louth and Monaghan) into separate dominion is said to have
taken place so early as the yeare 332, after the battle of Achaighleth-derg, in
Fermoy, in which, as recorded by Tigernach, abbot of Clonmacnois. The chief part
of the county prior to the arrival of the English had centered in the families
of the O'Nials, the Mac Cahans, and the O'Hanlons.
- North of
these lies another range running east and west, beginning on the west with the
Derrynasaggart Mountains (2,133)
on the buondary between Cork and Kerry. midway between Macroom and Killarney;
east of these are the Boggeragh Mountains, culminating in Missheramoe (2,118)
rising over Millstreet; further east are the Nagles Mountains terminating near
Fermoy. Killarney is home
to St. Mary's Cathedral, Ross Castle, Muckross Abbey, torc waterfall and Innisfallen
Island, the location of a ruined monastery. It is a sister city of Concord, North
Carolina. This whole range from the west end of Derrynasaggart Mountains to
Fermoy is over 40 miles in length. In 1836 the Catholic diocese of Cloyne
& Ross had 54 parishes.
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- O'Flynns were chiefs of Uí
Baghamna, which covered the baronies of Ibane and Barryroe.
- The
O'Cobhthaigh (O'Cowhy or O'Coffey)
had 7 castles on the coast and were lords of Triocha Meona. The O’Coffeys
(0 Cobhthaigh) were formerly a powerful family of West Cork. They were seated
in the barony of Barryroe, where Dun Uí Chobhthaigh, Dunocowhey, marks
the site of their residence.
- Armagh
Surnames
- The O'Cuileannain (O'Cullenane)
of Barryroe are cited here.
- O'Fehilly
(aka Field) of Tuatha O Fitcheallaigh
is cited as chief in west Barryroe and the parish of Ardfield.
Sections of this barony were included in the ancient territory of Corca Laoidhe.
- Barryroe is named for the Barry Roe sept of the Anglo-Norman Barry
family. For 1240, The Monastery of Timoleague,
in Carbery, in Munster, in the diocese of Ross, was founded for Franciscan Friars,
by Mac Carthy Reagh (1442), Lord of Carbery, and his own tomb was erected in the
choir of the Friars.
- Welsh
place names as surnames near the Radnor Forest in Mid Wales. Tracton
was founded in 1225 and was colonised with monks from Whitland, in Wales. The
Cistercian General Chapter approved Odo’s petition to found an abbey in 1222 and
again in 1223. Although the tabula lists Maurice MacCarthy as founder, it is generally
accepted that Odo de Barry was responsible.
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- Anciently part of Muskerry Ilane.
- O'Breghaim (O'Bregan)
were chiefs here, as was (O'Glaisin)
O'Gleeson cited as the chief of Uí Mac Caille, from which the barony from
Kilkenny/Ossory derives its name.
- McTire is mentioned among them above. A sept of Uí Liathain,
they gave their name to the barony of Imokilly, county Cork. The sept of Ó
Mic Thíre (anglicized as Wolfe) are noted in the annals of the
12th and 13th century as chiefs of Uí Mac Caille, and also as chief of
Uí Ghlaisín at the time of the Anglo-Norman arrival. “Tire” or Tyre,
stands here and elsewhere for “An t’Oighre,”
or the Heir. The clan whose genealogy is there given is undoubtedly that of the
Rosses, and in the manuscript they are traced upwards from Paul MacTire in
a direct line to Gilleon na h'Airde, the "Beolan" of the Norse Sagas, who lived
in the tenth century, and who will be shown to be also the remote progenitor of
the Mackenzies. The Aird referred to is said to be the Aird of Ross. Paul
McTyre, the grandson of Olaf the Red or Anlaf
was a freebooter who controlled a large part of Sutherland and the Parish of Kincardine
in the County of Ross.
- Aradh Tíre
was located in northern Tipperary, within the half barony of Ara (and Owney) or
the northern half of the barony of Owney and Ara. Ua Donnacáin (O'Donegan)
is cited as king of Arad or Aradh Thíre prior to the Norman arrival, with
Uí Riada (O'Reidy) cited as king of Aradh in 1129. Grey
Abbey
- Co. Tipperary,
the ancient home of Eile, Deisi Thuasgeart, Muscraige Tire, Dal Cairpri Araide
(?), and Éoganacht Caissil. Territorial names in the 12th century included
Ely and Hy Fogarta (Ormond), Muscraige Cuirc, Aradh Cliach, Hy Kerrin, Uaithni
Tire and North Decies.
- O'Ciarin (O'Kieran)
is given along with O'Brien and O'Halloran as a chief in this barony.
- The Mac Oitir (MacCotter)
and O'Rinn (Ring) septs are also noted here.
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- Anciently part of Muskerry Ilane. O'Curry
of Clan Torna are found as chiefs here.
Cruaghan or Croaghan, near Eiphin in the county Roscommon, became the capital
of Connaught and the residence of its ancient kings. A
poem, giving an account of the kings and queens buried at Cruaghan, was composed
by Torna Eigeas or Torna, the learned, chief bard to the Monarch Niall of the
Nine Hostages.
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- Kinalea is named for the
clan territory of the Cenél Aodha.
- O'Ceallachain (O'Callaghan)
of the Eóghanacht Chaisil were driven to the north near low by de Barri (Barry)
in the wake of the Invasion, and transplanted to Clare in the time of Cromwell.
- The O'Cahill sept
were chiefs of Kinelea in southern County
Galway.
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- Bordering on the Co. Waterford
baronies of Coshmore & Coshbride.
- In the mid 18th century
popular surnames here were Keeffe, Ahern, Carthy, Cotter, Daly, Fitzgerald, Geiry,
Lyne, Quirk and Walsh.
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- O'Kearney is cited here as chief of Uí Floinn. By the 13th century
the De Courcy dynasty held this territory.
- The Old Head of Kinsale
west of Kinsale Harbour. Line
of Heremon (Maguire)
- Donegal
Castle
- The Kindred Of Snorri
The Priest dwelt at Tongue for twenty winters. The northern part of the peninsula,
is in County Kerry, while the rest lies in County Cork. It was the traditional
seate of power of the O'Sullivan Clan
and was one of the last points of Gaelic resistance after the Battle of Kinsale.
The name of the town Castletown Berehaven comes from the no longer extant MacCarty
Castle.
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- The Úí Cheinnselaig
expanded into Wexford down the Slaney valley through a pass between the Balckstairs
and the Wicklow Mountains. Chiefs
of Sio Aodha-Enaigh in Tryone.
- Cited as part of Múscraighe Mittaine when granted to Richard
de Cogan in 1207.
- The Murphy
clan of the Muscraighe are associated with the barony of Muskerry. Also, Mac
Carthaigh (MacCarthy) of Blarney Castle.
- The O'Flynns were Lords of Muskerrylinn here.
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| | - Cited
as part of Múscraighe Mittaine when granted to Richard de Cogan in 1207.
- O Laoghaire (O'Leary)
were chiefs in Corca Laidhe in south-west Cork, prior to the Norman Invasion.
Also noted here is Mac Carthaigh (MacCarthy)
of Blarney Castle.
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| | - O'Cuileannain
(O'Cullenane) was sited as chiefs alongside the (O)Donegans who were cited as
chiefs of Muskery of the Three Plains (Muscraige Tri Maighe).
- Later
came the de Barri (Barry) family in the wake of the Norman Invasion.
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