The third instance I have met with of this false Irish vanity is in the far-famed Thomond, where a gentleman of the O’Malronies has followed the plebeian corruption of that name, by which it is metamorphosed to Moroni, by which he affects to pass as one not of Irish but of Spanish descent; but he cannot prevent his neighbours from calling him O’Murruana when they speak the native language, for by a strange corruption in that part of Ireland, where the Irish language is in most other instances very correctly pronounced, when the prefix maol is followed by r, the l is itself pronounced r, as in the instance under consideration, and in O’Mulryan, a well-known name in Munster, which they now pronounce O’Murryan. Thus an accidental corruption in the pronunciation of a consonant is taken advantage of to metamorphose a famous old Irish name into a Spanish one. It is indeed most lamentable to see the native Irish think so little of their names and of their own natural country.
I have many other instances of this audacious kind of change of surnames at hand, but I refrain from enlarging on them, from the apprehension of exceeding my limits without being enabled to bring this subject to a close in the stipulated space. A few others, however, are necessary to be exhibited to public scorn. The next instance, then, which has come under my notice, is in the province of Connaught, where the family of O’Mulaville have all changed their name to Lavelle, and where those who know nothing of the history of that family are beginning to think that they are of French descent. But it is the constant tradition in the county of Mayo that they are of Danish origin, and that they have been located in Iarowle since the ninth century. Of this name was the late Editor of the Freeman’s Journal: a man of great abilities and extensive learning, who among other ancient languages had acquired a profound knowledge of his own native dialect. This name is scotticised Mac Paul in the province of Ulster.
Another name which some people are apt to take for a French or Anglo-Norman name, is Delany, as if it were De Lani; but the Irish origin of this family cannot be questioned, for the name is called O’Dulainé in the original language, and the family were originally located at the foot of Slieve Bloom in Upper Ossory. Another instance is found in the change of O’Dowling to DuLaing, but this is seldom made, and never by any but people of no consequence.
Some individuals of the name of Magunshinan, or Magilsinan, upon leaving their original localities in Cavan and Meath, have assumed, some the name of Nugent, and others that of Gilson. Of this family was Charles Gilson, the founder and endower of the public school of Old Castle, a man of great benevolence, who found it convenient on his removal to London to shorten his name to Gilson.
Other individuals of Irish name and origin, upon settling in London and other parts of England, have changed their surnames altogether, as the ancestor of the present Baron of Lower Tabley, whose name was Sir Peter Byrne, but who was obliged to change his name to Leycester, to conform to the will of his maternal grandfather, who had bequeathed him large estates in England, on condition of his dropping his Irish name and adopting that of the testator. He is the most distinguished man of the O’Byrne race now living, and we regret that his Irish origin is entirely disguised in his present name of Warren. He descends from Daniel, the second son of Loughlin Duff of Ballintlea, in the county of Wicklow, a chief of great distinction, and is related to the Byrnes of Fallybeg, near Stradbally, in the Queen’s County, who descended from the first son of this Loughlin—a fact with which his lordship is altogether unacquainted; and the writer of these remarks has often regretted that his lordship has not been made acquainted with this fact, as it might be in his power to serve the sons of the late venerable Laurence Byrne of Fallybeg.
Other changes have been made in Irish surnames by abbreviation; but though we regret this, we are not willing to condemn it altogether, especially when the changes are made for the purpose of rendering such names easy of pronunciation in the mouths of magistrates and lawyers, who could not, in many cases, bring their organs of speech to pronounce them in their original Irish form. Of these we could give a long list, but we shall content ourselves with a selection.
In the province of Connaught the name Mac Eochy has been shortened to M’Keogh, and latterly to Keogh; O’Mulconry to Conry and Conroy. In Ossory, Mac Gillapatrick has been manufactured into Fitzpatrick. In the county of Galway, and throughout the province of Connaught generally, Mac Gillakelly has been manufactured into Kilkelly; O’Mullally to Lally; Mac Gillakenny, to Kilkenny; Mac Gillamurry, to Kilmurry; Mac Gilladuff to Kilduff; Mac Geraghty, to Geraghty and Gearty; Mac Phaudeen, to Patten; O’Houlahan, to Nolan. This last change is not to be excused, for it entirely disguises the origin of the family; and we would therefore recommend the Nolans of the county of Galway to reject their false name, and re-assume that of O’Houlahan. This family were removed from Munster into Connaught by Oliver Cromwell, under the name of O’Houlahan, and they have therefore no just right to assume the name of another Irish family to whom they bear no relation whatsoever. The real Nolans of Ireland are of Leinster origin, and were the ancient chiefs of the barony of Forth, in the now county of Carlow, anciently called Foharta Fea, where they are still numerous; but the Connaught Nolans are not Nolans at all, but O’Houlahans, and are a family who bore the dignity of chieftains in ancient times, though it happens, that, not knowing their history, or taking a dislike to the sound of the name, they have, with questionable propriety, assumed the name of a Leinster family, which seems to sound somewhat better in modern ears. In the province of Ulster, the name Mac Gillaroe has been shortened to Gilroy and Kilroy; Mac Gillabride, to Mac Bride; Mac Gillacuskly, to Cuskly, and impertinently to Cosgrove and even Costello! Mac Gilla-Finnen, to Linden and Leonard; Mac Gennis, to Ennis and Guinness; Mac Blosky, to Mac Closky. In Munster the noble name of Mac Carthy (or, as it is pronounced in the original Irish, Maw Caurhă) has dwindled to Carty (a vile change!); O’Mulryan, to O’Ryan and Ryan; Mac Gilla-Synan, to Shannon; Mac Gillaboy, to Mac Evoy, &c. &c. In Leinster, all the O’s and Macs have been rejected; and though a few of them are to be met there now, in consequence of the influx of poor strangers of late into that province, it is certain that there is not a single instance in which the O’ or Mac has been retained by any of the aboriginal inhabitants of that province, I mean the ancient Irish Leinster, not including Meath. The most distinguished of these was Mac Murrogh, but there is not a single individual of that name now living in Leinster; the descendants of Donnell Mac Murrogh Cavanagh, who, although illegitimate, became by far the most distinguished branch of that great family, having all changed their surnames to Cavanagh, and the other branches having, as the present writer has strong reasons to believe, changed it to Murphy. The writer has come to this latter conclusion from having ascertained that in the territory of the Murrows, in the county of Wexford, once the country of a great and powerful sept of the Mac Murroghs, the greater number of the inhabitants, who are perhaps the finest race of men in Ireland, are now called Murphy. He has therefore come to the conclusion, and he hopes not too hastily, that the Murphys of this territory are all Mac Murroghs. At the same time, however, he is well aware that the name generally anglicised Murphy is not Mac Murrogh, but O’Murchoo, which was that of a branch or offshoot of the regal family of Leinster, who became chiefs of the country of Hy-Felimy, and whose chief seat was at Tullow, in the now county of Carlow. The writer is well aware that the Murphys of the county of Carlow and Kilkenny are of this latter family, but he cannot get rid of the conviction that the Murphys of the Murrowes, in the east of the county of Wexford, are Mac Murroghs. On the subject of the difference between these two families, we find the learned Roderic O’Flaherty thus criticising Peter Walsh towards the close of the seventeenth century:—
“An O’ or a Mac is prefixed in Irish surnames to the proper names of some of their ancestors, intimating that they were the sons, grandsons, or posterity of the person whose name they adopted; but it was not proper to use one name promiscuously in the place of another, as he writes O’Murphy, king of Leinster, instead of Mac Murphy, or rather Mac Murchadh; but the family of O’Murchadha, which in English is Murphy, is very different from and inferior to this family.”—Ogygia, Part III, cap. xxvii.
There are also some few instances to be met with, in which the O’ has been changed to Mac, and vice versa, as in the remarkable instance of O’Melaghlin, chief of the Southern Hy-Niall race, to Mac Loughlin; also in those instances in which O’Duvyerma has been changed to Mac Dermot, O’Donoghy to Mac Donogh, O’Knavin to Mac Nevin, O’Heraghty to Mac Geraghty, and a few others.