My interpreter and I followed him, and the captain, who had heard the bustle, opened his cabin door. I repeated the purport of my unseasonable visit, telling him, by way of a clincher, that the Irish Penny Journal, to which I contributed by far the best articles (“and which,” said I, “you of course take for the gratification of your passengers”), could not flourish during my absence from home.
“Come on board, both of you,” said he, “if you like, but don’t bother me with any more talk at this unseasonable hour of the night.”
“An Irishman!” thought I to myself.
He banged the door, and I suppose was instantly asleep again.
I was soon in the same condition, and did not awake until we had made considerable progress with the very next tide towards London.
[1] Mr Doyle probably means the coupée.—Editor.
ORIGIN AND MEANINGS OF IRISH FAMILY NAMES.
BY JOHN O’DONOVAN.
Sixth Article.
In my last article I gave examples of the process now in progress in the several provinces of Ireland among the people generally in changing their original names into names apparently English or Scottish: there are others in Ireland among the genteeler classes who have changed their old Milesian names in such a manner as to give them a French or Spanish appearance; and the adopters of these names now wish to be deemed as of French or Spanish origin (any thing but Irish!) These, it is true, are few in number, but some of them are respectable; and their effort at concealing their origin is not to be recommended. We shall therefore exhibit a few instances of this mode of rendering Irish names respectable-looking by giving them a foreign aspect, which the bearers cannot by any effort give their own faces. The most remarkable of these changes has been made by the family of O’Dorcy, in the west of the county of Galway, who have assumed not only the name of D’Arcy, but also the arms of the D’Arcys of England. But it is well known that the D’Arcys of Galway are all descended from James Reagh Darcy, of Galway, merchant, whose pedigree I know to be traced by Duald Mac Firbis, not to the D’Arcys of Meath, who are of Anglo-Norman origin, but to the Milesian O’Dorcys of West Connaught, who were the ancient chiefs of Partree, a well-known territory extending from the lakes of Lough Mask and Lough Carra, westwards, in the direction of Croaghpatrick.
The next instance of this kind of change which I shall adduce, is found in the adjacent county of Mayo, where a gentleman of the ancient and celebrated family of O’Malley wishes all his friends to call him not O’Malley, for that is Irish, but De Maillet; but though his friends condescend sometimes to call him by this name, they can scarcely refrain from laughter while pronouncing it, for they know very well that he descends from Owen O’Malley, the father of the famous heroine Grania Wael, and chief of Umallia or the Owles, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.