The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, June 1865

JUNE, 1865.
A.D. 1492.
1. The town of Ivrea, to use the learned writer's words, is the capital of the Piedmontese province of the same name, and we may add that it is most picturesquely situated at the foot of the Alps, and is one of the first Italian towns which the traveller meets when, having crossed Mount St. Bernard, he wends his way towards Vercelli or Novara. In medieval documents Ivrea receives the Latin names of Eporedia , Iporegia , and Hipporegia , as may be seen in Ughelli's Italia Sacra , or in the later work of Cappalletti, ' Le Chiese d'Italia ' (Venice, 1858, vol. xiv., pag. 177), and at the time of which we speak, the see was held by Nicholas Garigliati, who was appointed its bishop in 1483, and died in 1499.
2. That the Blessed Thaddeus, who by his sanctity and miracles merited to be numbered amongst the patrons of Ivrea, was Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, is beyond all controversy. To the arguments advanced by the writer in the last Record we may add an extract from the Todd MSS. given by Brady in his Records of Cork (vol. iii. pag. 44), in which Bishop Thaddeus, who was appointed to the see of Cork in 1490, is said to have died at the town of Eporedia in Piedmont in 1492 . The date 4th October, is indeed added, but this is probably a mere misprint for the 24th October, the true date of the demise of our holy bishop.
Regia progenies alto de sanguine Machar .
Now the learned editors of the Martyrology of Donegal inform us that the name Mechar is the same as the O'Meachair which appears so often in the ancient monuments of our history (see Martyr. of Donegal , published by I. A. S. 1864, pag. 517), and which at the present day has assumed the Anglicized forms of Meagher and Maher .
5. Nothing now remains but to cite some few passages from our early writers which serve to illustrate these points in the history of the O'Meachairs.
In the first place, the topographical poem of O'Huidhrin (who died in 1420) has one important passage which not only throws some light on the family name, but moreover points to the territory of Ui-Cairin as the chief abode of the O'Mahers, precisely as the name Carinum in the Latin poem cited above marks the native district of our holy Bishop Thaddeus. The translation of this poem of O'Huidhrin was the last work achieved by our illustrious O'Donovan, and was published by the I. A. S. in 1862. At page 133 we find the following verse:—