Hugh MacDonald's tale of the Maurice MacNeill saving Olav's ship: Hugh was writing in the 16th century
According to William Skene (quoting an early 16th century letter from John Elder) the Scottish clans at that time considered themselves Redshanks or Picts (Protestants), the native inhabitants of the Scottish highlands. Elder was upset because he said the churchmen of Scotland were trying to force them to accept the "Irish" version of their descent from various Irish mythological kings, which they firmly rejected. But a few centuries later, that is indeed what we find: the Scottish clans mostly claiming a descent from Irish mythological kings such as Conn of the Hundred Battles.
And there is another McLaughlin sept in Scotland (MacLachlan) in turn related to none of the Irish families. It would be oversimplification to try and lump all of these different McLaughlin families into one common origin. This is true for many Irish families. There are many Ó Murphy families in Ireland, none of them related to the other. There are several Ó Neill families, none of which are related to the Ó Neills of Ulster. The list goes on and on.an Irish family assumed the surname Mac an t-Saoir does not mean that a family of Scottish descent with the same surname must necessarily be related in some way.
In Ireland, some surnames were corrupted into other surnames when they were anglicized into English forms. The Ó Maoilseachlainns were Kings of Meath, and their surname was at first anglicized to Ó Melaghlin, which is proper. But in the 1600's members of the sept started calling them "MacLoughlin." two identical surnames with two dissimilar origins. Scottish surnames are a particular mess because there are almost no records whatsoever prior to 1200 A.D., and precious few after that, except for the major families who received grants from the Kings. There is exactly one pedigree source for Scottish clans which makes them all (with a few exceptions) descend from Irish Kings. This is the very thing John Elder was raving about in the 1500's; the Irish seanachies tried to make all the Picts of Ireland descended from the Irish much the same thing the Irish seanachies did in Scotland. They linked all these various tribes together with a pedigree from the sons of Mil, in one line or another. The MacNeills of Barra and Gigha today swear they are descended from the Ó Neills of Ulster. Ditto for the MacSweeneys, Maclachlans, MacEwens, Lamonts, et al. The MacDonalds claim a descent from Colla Uais, one of the three Collas, based on equally spurious pedigrees from the Irish seanachies. These old pedigrees functioned as a sort of title deeds in an era when there were no land records (Kerns) or courthouses or even much of a central government. The important clans in each area all had their pedigrees artificially linked together in common descent from some imagined ancestor, usually but not always Irish. As far as actual history goes, they have to be taken with a very large grain of salt.
800 A.D. to well into the 1200's, the Scots were under constant pressure from the Norse, who routinely sacked their monasteries and burned their castles. The Scots intermarried with these Norse invaders and became the hybrid race Skene terms the Gall-Gaedhel. There's little wonder they have few manuscripts or historical sources dating from these turbulent centuries. The Scottish monarchy and the seats of learning were far from the western Isles of Scotland and unconcerned with the doings and history of such as Somerled, King of the Western Isles, who owed no allegiance to the Scottish Kings since he had acquired his lands through connections with the Norse Kings of Mann.
There are many, many historians who think Somerled and the MacDonalds were primarily Norse in origin, and this statement would include nearly all of the families thought to be related to the MacDonalds, such as the MacIntyres, the MacDougals, the MacAlisters, and most of the families of Kintire, Knapdale and Cowal in Argyle. One would have an even more difficult time in positing a relationship between an Irish surname and one that sprang up from Norse roots.
There are two Maurice MacNeills mentioned in the text. Are they the same man or two different Maurice MacNeills? Some authors think they are different men. The first reference (the story of the wright) simply makes him a foster-brother of Olay's and a near friend of Somerled's. The second makes him a son of Somerled's sister, and therefore his nephew. The second also states he was bribed by Malcolm IV to kill Somerled in return for lands he was promised by the king, which is probably why this text does not appear on any MacIntyre web sites. Is Maurice MacNeill as surname? Or should we read Maurice the son of Neill in this phrase therefore linking the MacIntyres to the MacNeills of Barra and Gigha. (Although even further in the text, it states the MacNeills were brought from the Lennox to assist the MacDonalds). The MacIntyres web sites state his name was Maurice MacNeill, or Macarill. Where did this reference come from? It's not in the Hugh MacDonald history. Macarill is probably a corrupted form of Mac Torquill, Torquill being a common name amongst the MacNeills of Barra and the founder of one of their branches. The name is commonly anglicized as MacCorckle today, which is close in form to Macarill (MacCorquill, MacTorquill).
The Clan MacNeil descends from Niall Og, a 13th Century chief from the family of Cowal and Knapdale, which was descended from the O’Neill clan of Ireland. The line of descent for this clan runs through the son of Aodh O'Neill, King of the North of Ireland, Anrothan, , who married the daughter of a Scottish king. The MacLean hold on these lands did not prove to be secure, and in 1554 they were sold by MacNeil of Gigha to James MacDonald of Dunyvaig and the Glens. John MacDonald of Knockrinsey was the only senior member of Clan Donald South on Islay after the Campbell take-over, and he sold out to the new masters in 1629. Although many Scottish MacNeills came to Ireland with the 17th century plantation of Ulster, one sept, originally galloglasses, was established in Antrim 300 years earlier.