The Mackays, with Angus of Strathnaver at their head, finding themselves fiercely attacked, sought shelter in the church of Tarbat. In defence of his people, Alastair Ross, the Laird of Balnagown, gathered all his forces, and, meeting the invaders, engaged in the long and desperate battle of Blair alt na charish. The MacKay tribe was dispersed from the ancient lands of the Mormaers of Moray during the rebellions of 1153-1154. There can be no doubt about the connection of the MacAedths or MacAoidhs to the Moray alliance, but the earldom of Ross was not created until years after the MacKays were banished-from MacHeth, a rival of the Freskins, for the right of representation in the paired district of Moray and Ross. The Earldom of Moray was forfeited after the rebellion of 1153-1154, and Malcolm and his son Donald were imprisoned in Roxburgh dungeon until other troublesome Morays were relocated to Southern Scotland.
It is the origin of many Gaelic surnames and especially many which are common in Ulster and Scotland. Aodh means Fire, from the old Irish name Aed - i.e.; the Firey One and Eth from Ethelred. Eth seems to have been debarred from the throne, or perhaps because he was already an Abbot. The Line of Kenneth II ending in Bethoc, who married Crinan, hereditary Abbot of Dunkeld, of the Kindred of Saint Columba, and the Line of Duff ending in Gruoch, who married Gillacomgan, Mormaer (King) of Moray, of the line of the Cenél Loam. King Kenneth II, and the two lines alternated the High-Kingship of Albany until 1034, as both lines had their ultimate origin in sons of King Malcolm I of the line of the Cineal Gabhran who had inherited the Picto-Gaelic crown (hence their traditional descent, in the female line, from Conall Cearnach, traditional ancestor of the Cruithne).
The main reason for the differences in the English forms is the fact that the name Aodh can be put into the genitive in one of two different ways after mac – it can be treated as a third declension noun and have an –a added to the end, or it can be slenderised like a first declension noun. This, happening after mac to denote son of, affects significantly the pronunciation of the word, and gives us either mac aodha, or mac aoidh. In its various forms and pronunciations, therefore, this simple combination of mac and the name aodh is responsible for Mac (or Mc) Hugh, Kay, Key, Kee, Coy, etc. It has also been translated as Hughes, Eason and Hewson. It is most common in Ulster, and Scotland, and it is in Ulster that another dialect change has affected the pronunciation and the English form of the name.
The Galloglach (foreign youth) were ferocious mercenaries of Norse-Gaelic descent who served in Ireland. They were the mainstay of Scottish and Irish warfare before the advent of gunpowder, and depended upon seasonal service with Irish lords. The first record of galloglas service under the Irish was in 1259, when Prince Aed O'Connor of Connaught received a dowry of 160 Scottish warriors from the daughter of the King of the Hebrides. The importation of galloglas into Ireland was a major factor in containing the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century, as their ranks stiffened the resistance of the Irish lordships.
The Mackay Gallowglasses fought with the MacLeans and MacLeods for King Shane the Proud Ó Neill in 1560. Shane Ó Neill's career was marked by his ambition to be The Ó Neill - chief of the Ó Neills. This brought him into conflict with competing branches of the Ó Neill family and with the English government in Ireland, who recognised a rival claim. Shane Ó Neill refused to help the English against the Scottish settlers on the coast of Antrim, allying himself instead with the MacDonnells, the most powerful of these immigrants. Shane's mother Alice Fitzgerald, Tyrone's first wife, was born the daughter of the 7th Earl of Kildare, and his stepmother was the daughter of Hugh Boy Ó Neill of Clanaboy. She died shortly afterwards and Shane Ó Neill was fostered by the Donnelly family, who raised him until his early teenage years. Although Shane had allied himself with the Scottish MacDonnell clan, who had settled in Antrim, against the English, Queen Elizabeth, on succeeding to the English throne in 1558, inclined to come to terms with Shane, who after his father's death functioned as de facto chief of the formidable Ó Neill clan. Attended by a small body of gallowglass, and taking his prisoner Sorley Boy with him, he presented himself among the MacDonnells near Cushendun, on the Antrim coast. After the combined Irish defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, recruitment of galloglas waned, although Scottish Highland mercenaries (redshanks) continued to come to Ireland until the 1640s notably Alasdair MacColla.