THE DALYS FROM HEAVEN TO EFFIN
Presented to Anna Keohane for her 69th birthday 22 March 2014
Daly Family
d | P Publications
From left: Pauline, Kitty and yourself You should wear matching clothes more often!
Happy Birthday! Dear Anna,
We hope you like this book – we wanted to give you and Dad something special to mark your joint birthday extravaganza. We hope you enjoy all the information, photos and poems – there’s a lot in here! And the sub-title, From Heaven to Effin, will make sense as you read on…
Love,
Libby, Mia, Tom and Stephen
You and Kitty Fennessy —looking the bees knees!
With all your little monkeys (human and animal varieties)
Contents
PART ONE | B I R T H D A Y P O E M S
1 | My Young Days Going to School Jack Maume
2 | Sarah the Lovely Giraffe Mia Daly
PART TWO | T H E M A K I N G O F T H E D A L Y S 3 | Origins and Meaning of the Surname Origins of Irish Surnames ● Surnames with Uncertain Origins ● The Ó Dálaigh Surname ● Mythological Origins of the Ó Dálaighs
4 | The Golden Age of the Ó Dálaighs: 12th -17th Century Early Ó Dálaighs ● Norman Names: A lasting legacy ● The Golden Age of the Ó Dálaighs The ‘Men of Skill’ ● The Men of Mischief ● The Dark Side of the Ó Dálaighs
5 | 17th Century: Fall of the Ó Dálaighs The Flight of the Earls ● Poem: ‘Where are the Gaels Gone?’ ● The Cromwellian invasions ● The Battle of the Boyne 1690 ● The Ó Dálaighs’ fall from grace ● Ó Dálaigh changes to Daly: Repression and Anglicisation
6 | Daly Heraldry and Motto Coat of Arms: General Description ● The Red Hand of Ulster ● Colours of the Coat of Arms ● Motto
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PART THREE | M O D E R N D A L Y S 7 | Scattered to the Four Winds: Emigration from the 17th to the 20th Century Early Daly Emigrants: Back to the Land of Míl Espáine ● Warriors on Foreign Soil ● Making it in North America ● A Complex Daly History in the Caribbean ● Dalys Leaving their Mark on the World
8 | Dalys who Remained in Ireland The Gaelic Revival: Return of the Macs and O’s ● Daly Numbers and Strongholds ● Ancient and Modern Residential Territories of the Ó Dálaigh/Dalys in Ireland
9 | Biographies of Notable Dalys: 1560s -Present Dominic Ó Dálaigh ● Anthony Daly ● Sir Dominick Daly ● John Daly ● Malachy Bowes Daly ● Edward ‘Ned’ Daly ● James Daly ● Carroll John Daly ● Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh ● Lar ‘America First’ Daly ● Marie Maynard Daly ● Thomas Aquinas Daly
10 | Our Family History Introduction
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The Dalys
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The Maumes
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The Family Tree
From left: Anna, Kitty, Pauline The three amigas, hanging out in the sun
Part 1
BIRTHDAY POEMS
The Ballyhouras ‘Jack’s Mountain’
1 | MY YOUNG DAYS GOING TO SCHOOL
My Young Days Going to School Though truth to tell, I like to dwell on my young days going to school That man severe his wit we’d fear, his discipline and rule. The Confirmation, our destination – sure all our troubles over Out in the farm to work our arm sure then we’d be in clover, And so to merit the Holy Spirit and to secure the Chrism We learnt the Bible off by heart and all the Cathechism. We spoke and sung our native tongue for at it we did delve We were speaking Gaelic fluently at the age of twelve
At trigonometry and geometry he made us well aware Of the angle and triangle and the circle and the square. When we were older and more bolder and in the senior classes We had a go at Euclid and we crossed the Bridge of Asses; At Science and Nature study he would talk till he was weary, With a candle and a j am-mug he’d demonstrate some theory. At Geography the maps we’d see and we learnt them off like ditties, The rivers and the mountains and the counties and the cities.
At arithmetic t’was pathetic for the lads that were fair ‘thick’, The fractions and the decimals they always left them sick; And all those cryptic questions I know I cannot list them Although it’s seventy years ago we had the metric system. But history it was to me the subject of my liking The Cromwellians and the Normans, the Orangemen and Viking, And Fionn and all the Fianna with their heroic exploits, Cuchulainn and his hurley and our noble Red Branch Knights.
We would roll out reams of poetry till the cows they would come home From Goldsmith and Grey’s elegy and the days of ancient Rome. We had a look at Shakespeare’s book, which we never did forget Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet and Macbeth. And Shylock with his pound of flesh in Venice he did dwell And the ugly three with Cicero with their charm and their spell. What good was it, I hear you say, for working on the farm? Well, I suppose if it wasn’t any good it wasn’t any harm.
— Jack Maume
Happy Birthday Anna!
2 | SARAH THE LOVELY GIRAFFE
Sarah the Lovely Giraffe I saw a giraffe in the zoo one day Her name was Sarah she loved to play I fed her leaves right out of my palm But it turns out, she prefers ham! I’ve never seen a giraffe that loves meat But it doesn’t matter because she’s so sweet! I hope I’ll see her one day again But it doesn’t matter because I’m her friend — Mia Daly
Part 2 THE MAKING OF THE DALYS
Clockwise from left: Nuala, Pat, Pauline, Jimmy, Deirdre and Tommy Not pictured: Kitty, Anne, Joan, Nelly and Nora
Introduction I N T HI S PA RT , W E ’ RE LO O KI N G A T T HE E A R LY D A L Y S T O R Y . In the following chapters we trace the origin of the surname, early Ó Dálaighs, the golden age of the family from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, to the very different Ireland after the N orman and Cromwellian invasions, with the proud Ó Dálaighs becoming the less prosperous Dalys . Along the way, we learn about our supposedly divine origins, and a very diverse range of characters: across time, we get a mixture of poets, monks, Crusaders, soldiers, nobles and– inevitably! –rebels, hotheads and oddballs. Throughout, we see a steady stream of poems and verse, written and inspired by Daly figures – fitting for a bardic clan. A number of these, or snippets, are reproduced here. They show a family that can charm the birds from the trees, mock a man so harshly he flees his home, and one who met a grisly end for his biting tongue – certainly not the last Daly to get into trouble for his (or her) wit! In the Daly coat of arms we see the reflection of our mixed and turbulent history, with its rich mix of symbolism, rooted deep in the past, and alternative mottos denoting different attitudes amongst the Dalys to colonisation ; and measures taken to adapt to the new reality . Together, the chapters give us a better sense of our past, ready to understand the modern Dalys in the following part. Enjoy!
3 | ORIGINS AND MEANING OF THE SURNAME
Origins of Irish Surnames Ireland, interestingly, was one of the first countries in Europe in which a system of hereditary surnames emerged, with the first few surnames beginning to take form as early as the ninth and tenth centuries. It was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, that the majority of Irish surnames seem to have been adopted and this is certainly true of the Ó Dálaighs, whose first recorded bearer of the surname was Cú Connacht Ó Dálaigh, a famous poet, who died in 1139. As with many other European countries, this hereditary surname system seems to have been a spontaneous development which grew naturally out of a situation where a rising population made the former practice, first of using single names, then ephemeral surnames based on male ancestors or those based on nicknames, inadequate as identifiers.
Macs and Os The first Irish surnames were formed simply by attaching the prefix ‘Mac’ to the father’s Christian name (mac, of course, meaning ‘son’) or the prefix ‘O’ to that of a grandfather or even earlier ancestor – o or ua being the Irish word for grandson, or, more loosely, male descendant. Although many examples of Mac and O names seem to litter the Annals and lists of bishops, etc., from the fifth century onwards, and denote descent from a father or grandfather, these were of the ephemeral surname type which lasted only one generation and so were not hereditary. For example, although Turlough mac Airt was ‘Turlough, son of Art’, his own son was Conor mac Turlough, or ‘Conor, son of Turlough’.
The Brian Boru connection Older Irish traditional belief held that it was the High King of Ireland and self-proclaimed ‘Emperor of the Irish’, Brian Boru, who introduced the system of hereditary surnames to Ireland, but, as we have seen, this process had begun long before he rose to power in the south in the tenth century. However, many of the most common Irish surnames can be traced to Brian Boru, or at least have some connection to him.
Brian himself had no hereditary surname, although he is sometimes known as Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig – again, an ephemeral name denoting descent from his father, Cennétig mac Lorcain. The Boru part of his name is in no way to be regarded as a surname either and was added to his name after his death. Boru is the anglicised form of the Irish ‘Bóruma’, and this posthumous addition may have been a reference to Béal Bóruma, a fort north of Killaloe in Co. Clare which was a stronghold of Brian’s clan in the kingdom of Thomond, or related to the Old Irish bóruma, meaning ‘of the cattle tribute’, referring to his position as a powerful overlord to whom others owed tribute. Forty years after the death of Brian at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, however, his descendants had widely begun to refer to themselves as ‘Ua Bhriain’ and thus the hereditary surname of O’Brien was born. A myriad of other surnames also grew out of the descendants of Brian Boru, for example the Kennedys (Ó Cinnéide), whose eponymous ancestor was Cinnéide (Kennedy), Brian’s nephew. As the years passed, many other great Gaelic surnames also arose from within the ranks of the O’Briens, not least among them the O’Mahonys and MacMahons who can both trace the dawn of their lines to Mahon O’ Brien, grandson of Brian, who died in 1129. The continuing division and sub-division of the most powerful Gaelic families in this manner likely accounts for the great proliferation of Gaelic surnames that exist today. Other Gaelic familes which are not directly related to Brian Boru can also be seen to have some connection with him. For instance, the sept of Ely O’Carroll (Tipperary and Offaly) derive their name Ó Cearbhaill from Cearbhall (‘stag’), lord of Ely, who was one of the leaders of the victorious army at the Battle of Clontarf, although he fell on the battlefield.
A not-very-realistic portrait of Brian Boru by the Argentine artist Ciruelo Cabral
Surnames of a different origin Although the earliest surnames appear to be simply derived from the Christian name of a male ancestor, after a time other types of surnames were adopted, still with the prefixes Mac and sometimes O.
Devotion to a saint: Some surnames came to include the words giolla or maol, both of which usually mean ‘follower’ or ‘servant’, often in the sense of a devotee of a particular saint. For example, today’s Gilmartins and Martins (Mac Giolla Mhártain) and Mulrennans (Ó Maoilbhreanainn) are connected to St Martin and St. Brendan, respectively.
Father’s occupation: These surnames were perhaps the most numerous of these later names and examples include modern Hickeys (Ó hÍceadha), where ícidhe means ‘doctor’ or ‘healer’, and MacGowans, from Mac an Ghabhainn, meaning ‘son of the smith’. MacInerney is another name of this type, its original Irish form, Mac an Airchinnigh, meaning ‘son of the erenagh’. The word erenagh denotes steward of church lands, originally an ecclesiastical office but later in the hands of laymen and hereditary. As might be expected, therefore, this surname came into existence in a number of unrelated families in different parts of the country. Mannix is yet another example, being the usual form in English of the Gaelic surname Ó Mainichín (derived from manach – a monk). Presumably this derives from a time when holy men in Ireland could still disrobe for purposes a little more enjoyable than putting on a hair shirt. However, these ancient monks must not have enjoyed themselves too much as the name Mannix has never been numerous and is now scarce, being rarely found outside the counties of south-west Munster (their original territory was in the south-west of Co. Cork).
Nickname/Distinguishing characteristic: These types of names arose less often but include well-known names such as Treacy (Ó Treasaigh), from treasach, meaning ‘warlike’, and Fennessy (Ó Fionnghusa), from the words fionn (‘fair) and gus (‘vigour’ or ‘action’), possibly meaning ‘descendant of the vigorous, fair-haired man’. Also, the common practice of adding an epithet denoting some personal characteristic to the Christian name and surname eventually led in some cases to the loss of the surname proper and the substitution of the epithet for it. This is how some Gaelic surnames arose without the distinctive Mac or O, for example bán (‘white’) became Bane, ruadh became Roe, láidir (‘strong’) Lauder, etc.
Placenames: One kind of name, common in English, which is extremely rare among Irish names is the toponymic, deriving from the name of a place. This may reflect the fact that, for the Gaels, who you were related to was far more important than where you came from. However, there are a few, including Meade (“Meathman”), Lynagh (“Leinsterman”), Moynagh (“Munsterman”), and Walsh (“Welshman”). Funnily enough, Galway or Galwey doesn’t derive from Galway in Ireland but from Galloway in Scotland.
SURNAMES WITH UNCERTAIN ORIGINS It can sometimes be difficult to determine the exact origin of an Irish surname. Take the following examples:
Dawson Some Irish Dawsons stem from an English family that was prominent in counties Monaghan and Tipperary from the mid-17th century. However, occasionally Dawson has a Gaelic not an English origin. In Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal, for example, the same family has been known both as Dawson and Durrian. Durrian is normally a variant of Doran, which is, in Irish, Ó Deoráin. A similar thing can be said of the surname Lee: as it is also a very common surname in England it is impossible to say in the absence of a pedigree, or at least a well-established tradition, whether a family of the name in Ireland is Gaelic in origin or of planter stock.
Ryan Although Ryan is one of the most common surnames in Ireland, vastly outnumbering their kin the Mulryans, and is almost always presented in the Irish form as Ó Riain, the original name encompassing both is actually Ó Maoilriain.What the ‘Rian’ in the surname is has never been satisfactorily explained. Rian, like the name Niall, seems to be so ancient that its meaning was lost before records began.
Keohane The origin of the Keohane surname is a particular noodle-scratcher. The great Irish etymologist Edward MacLysaght records it in the forms (Mac) Keo(g)hane and Kohane and states that it is derived from Mac Eocháin, which became corrupted to Ó Ceocháin. Who Eocháin was or when he lived he does not say, although other sources offer the tiny refinement that Eocháin is the short form of the name Eochaidh from which the surname Keogh is derived. Far less reliable sources (on d’internet) suggest that the name is “…clearly a variant of something else, which may be Kinnane, Kinneen, or Keenan. These surnames are believed to derive from the ancient Gaelic word ‘cano’ meaning wolf cub, although there are some who suggest that it comes from ‘coinin’ meaning rabbit...[However,] it is much more likely that the chief would be called 'wolf' than ‘rabbit’!’ There is one claim about the Keohanes we can lay to rest though: MacLysaght states that the name is ‘peculiar to west Cork.”
Since he first wrote those words in the 1950s, at least one branch of the clan has extended their reach beyond the banks of the River Shannon.
The Ó Dálaigh Surname Theories on the origins of the Ó Dálaigh surname There are many theories relating to the origins of the Ó Dálaigh name, three of which are presented here. These all agree that the name Ó Dálaigh means ‘descendant of Dálach’ but put forward very different cases for where this name comes from or who this Dálach was.
1) ‘Assemblyman’: one widely held theory holds that the personal name Dálach derives from the same root as dáil, meaning assembly (as in today’s Dáil Éireann). According to this view, then, Dálach means ‘one who is present at assemblies’, i.e., an assemblyman or councillor, and so is a surname of the ‘father’s occupation’ type. Further evidence is advanced to support this view. For example, the first recorded Ó Dálaigh, Cú Connacht Ó Dálaigh (who we’ve encountered already) was described as “The first Ollamh of poetry in all Ireland” (ollamh is still the title given to university professors in Modern Irish) and many later members of the family were poets and scholars of great renown. This is significant in that the ollamh of Gaelic Ireland had a place of honour at the tribal dáil as a man of learning and a poet.
2) Pupil of St. Colmán: Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh of Cork (who died in 1387) asserted a descent for the family from a 6th-century Dálach, who was a pupil of the saint and poet Colmán, the patron of the cathedral town of Cloyne. Dálach is said to have become a bishop of the early Irish Church.
3) Descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages: This is perhaps the most colourful explanation of the origins of the ancestral Dálach. It is often claimed that this Dálach was a descendant of one of the sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who the annals say reigned as Ireland's high king from A.D. 379 to 405. However, before we can assess the true significance of this for the heritage of the Ó Dálaighs, we must first take a brief look at who Niall was and how this relates to the heritage of Gaelic families as a whole.
Niall of the Nine Hostages Niall (supposedly pronounced “Nall”) Noígíallach is said to have earned the ‘nine hostages’ part of his name from the royal hostages he took from kingdoms he had subdued and forced to pay tribute, which included
the five provinces of Ireland (Meath), various parts of Britain, and even northern France. Many other tales are told about Niall, some linking his raids on Britain with the kidnapping of St. Patrick, for instance, while it is also claimed that he was the first to use the term ‘Scotia Minor’ to refer to what we now know as Scotland. Of course, these types of stories belong to the realms of myth and legend rather than history and although he is presumed to have been a historical figure much that we think we know about him was actually written centuries after his death, in many cases to inflate his legendary status to keep in line with the growing political importance of the dynasty he founded – the Uí Néill (‘descendants of Niall’). Even the date of his death is disputed, with many modern historians claiming that he lived almost half a century later than the traditional sources state, dying closer to the year 450 A.D. Modern science has thrown an interesting piece of evidence into the mix, however. In 2006, geneticists at Trinity College Dublin published the results of a DNA study based on the Y-chromosome, which is passed down through the male line from father to son. This research concluded that as many as 21 per cent of men in the northwest of Ireland (and 8 per cent in the general population) could be traced to a single common ancestor who lived around 1700 years ago. Could this be the elusive Niall of the Nine Hostages? Unfortunately, as it turns out, the answer may be “no”, with further analysis leading to the conclusion that this extremely fertile common ancestor belongs to an older time than Niall.
Burial of Niall of the Nine Hostages
The Uí Néill & the other great clans of Ireland Whatever the truth about Niall, the most important thing is that those Gaelic families which claimed him as a common ancestor were deemed to be related. This reveals a simple truth about the Gaels’ perception of their heritage in general. Although the Gaelic families continued to divide and produce new surnames in the early second millennium, they all still acknowledged a wider system of affiliation based on an older clan system. Thus, the vast majority of Gaelic surnames could be said to belong to one of around five main clans which controlled different parts of the island, with the Uí Néill in Ulster and the midlands, the Uí Briúin in Connacht, the Fir Domnann in Leinster, and the Eoghanachta and Dál gCais in Munster.
The Uí Néill: the Ó Dálaighs and their relatives The earliest records of the Ó Dálaigh family place them in the region of Tethba in what is now Westmeath, and so they belong to the southern Uí Néill (their immediate clan being the Corca Adaimh), which held sway in the midlands. This means that some of the Ó Dálaighs’ closest kin are the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, who are also of the southern Uí Néill; two families that would rise to become the most powerful in Ulster, establishing kingdoms in Tyrone and Tirconnell (present-day Donegal and Fermanagh) respectively. Relatives among the northern Uí Néill include the Gallaghers, who claimed descent from another son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, one Conall Gulban, and proclaimed themselves to be the most senior and most loyal of his descendants, the Cenél Conaill. Their territory once extended across large parts of Donegal, where many Gallaghers can still be found today.
Eoghanachta & Dál gCais Just like the Uí Néill, the members of some of the other great clans also traced their lines to a single common ancestor, with the Eoghanachta and Dál gCais, for example, both claiming descent from the third century king of Munster, Oilioll Olum. This king was said to have had two sons, Eoghan and Cormac Cas, and when he died North Munster (Thomond) was inherited by the latter who gave rise to the Dál gCais, while South Munster (Desmond) was bequeathed to Eoghan who gave rise to the Eoghanachta.
Dál gCais: The Dál gCais, whose kingdom Thomond incorporated Co. Clare and a great swathe of north Munster, included families like the O’Carrolls and the O’Kennedys, as well as the pre-eminent O’Briens. Another Dalcassian family was the Hogans, whose eponymous ancestor Ógan was descended from an uncle of Brian Boru. The Hogans occupied the extreme north-eastern part of Thomond and their chief lived at Ardcrony, near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. Indeed, the vast majority of today’s Hogans are still to be found in
their ancestral Dalcassian lands in counties Tipperary, Clare and Limerick. There are, however, also a number of Hogans in Co. Cork whose origin is thought to be different from the Dalcassian Hogans.
Eoghanachta: Within each of the great clans there tended to be one family which through war and politics became more powerful than the others for a period of time and the leaders of some were accorded the status of royalty. Examples include the O’Connors in Connacht, the O’Neills in Ulster and the O’Briens in Thomond in Munster. In south Munster, though, the undisputed masters were the MacCarthys, whose name Mac Cárthaigh is derived from Cárthach, ‘lord of the Eoghanacht’, who died in 1045. The MacCarthys have been described as “the most eminent by far of the noble families of the south” (and Co. Cork still accounts for 60 per cent of their number). Their kingdom, Desmond, was created in 1118 when Munster was split into north and south, with Thomond simply meaning ‘North Munster’ (from the Irish Tuadh-Mhumhain) and Desmond ‘South Munster’ (from the Irish Deas-Mhumhain).
The Ó Dálaighs of Munster: a separate origin from within the Eoghanachta?: Although the Westmeath origin of the Ó Dálaigh surname is best known, from a very early date families of the name were prominent in Co. Cork, and especially in the area around the peninsula of Muintir Bhaire, or Sheep’s Head, in west Cork. The Ó Dálaighs who settled in Munster seem to have been given an alternative descent from the Eoghanacht kings of Cashel, in particular from Aenghus the king of Cashel who was supposedly baptised by St. Patrick. However, this pedigree is less well attested than that deriving from Niall and there is no clear indication that the Munster branch of the Ó Dálaighs were considered to have had separate origins from the others. Thus, this may merely represent a shrewd attempt by this branch of the family to integrate themselves with the local dynasties they served as poets.
Muintir Bhaire (Sheep’s Head) today
Mythological Origins of the Ó Dálaighs A Descent from the Gods Like many of the Gaelic dynasties, the Uí Néill claimed a deeper descent from a divine ancestor. As members of the Uí Néill, then, the Ó Dálaighs could claim to be descendants of the mighty Cú Roí Mac Daire, a king of Munster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology who is also often referred to as a sun-god or a god of lightning. In the Ulster sagas he is portrayed as a giant warrior with superhuman abilities, magical powers, and as a master of disguise. His name translates as ‘hound of the battlefield’ and many tales tell of his violent encounters with that more famous ‘hound’ of Irish mythology, Cú Chulainn. In one of these, Cú Roí abducts a princess, Bláthnat, who is in love with Cú Chulainn, in the process driving his great rival into the ground up to his armpits and cutting off his hair before making his escape. Cú Chulainn has the last laugh though, pursuing his foe to his stronghold in the highlands of the Dingle Peninsula where he slays him on the slopes of Caherconree Mountain.
View of Dingle Bay from the reputed site of Cú Roí’s fort
Ó Dálaighs : the children of Adam In the eleventh century, Irish monks compiled the Lebor Gabála Érenn (‘The Book of the Taking of Ireland’), which was an ambitious fusion of Irish mythology and genealogy which also sought to place Ireland in line with the nations of the ancient world as well as with Biblical tradition. It tells us that all mankind is descended from Adam through the sons of Noah. Fénius Farsaid (descendant of Noah’s son Japheth, and the forebear of the Gaels), a prince of Scythia (the area north and east of the Black Sea, which includes the Ukraine today), is described as one of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel and whose son marries the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh. His descendants leave Egypt at the same time as the Israelites (the Exodus) and settle in Scythia. After some time they leave Scythia and spend 440 years wandering the Earth, undergoing a series of trials and tribulations akin to those of the Israelites, who spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Eventually, they reach Iberia by sea and conquer it. King Milesius of Spain (whose name is simply the Latinised form of the Irish Míl Espáine, or ‘Spanish soldier’) is held to be the ancestor of all the Gaels. After his uncle Íth spots Ireland from a great tower in Galicia, he sails to Ireland on an exploratory mission, only to be murdered. The seven sons of Míl then lead an invasion force to avenge Íth’s death and take Ireland from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Along the way, due to the magic and trickery of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, most of Míl’s sons perish, leaving only Eremon and Eber alive at the time of the eventual conquest, with the former becoming the ruler of the northern half of Ireland and Eber the southern half. It was from either of these two sons, then, that the Gaels could claim descent, with the Eoghanachta and Dál gCais, for instance, holding Eber to be their ancestor while the Ó Dálaighs, as Uí Néill, traced their line of descent to Eremon, who is said to have died in 1684 B.C.
Depiction of King Milesius and his Court
Page detail from the Annals of Inishfallen
4 | THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE Ó DÁLAIGHS: 12 TH -17 TH CENTURY
Early Ó Dálaighs The First of the Name The first recorded Ó Dálaigh, Cú Connacht Ó Dálaigh, was “The first ollamh of poetry in all Ireland” and was also known as Cú Chonnacht na Sgoile (‘of the school’) as he presided over a bardic school in Co. Meath, not far from the territory traditionally belonging to the parent sept of the Ó Dálaighs in Co. Westmeath. With Cú Connacht we see the beginning of a great bardic dynasty and not long after his death at the monastery of Clonard in Co. Meath in 1139 there were members of the family which had achieved even greater renown. Both Tadhg Ua Dálaigh (who died in 1181) and Máel Íosa Ua Dálaigh (whose name means ‘Follower of Jesus’ and who died in 1185) were described as “Chief poet of Ireland and Scotland”. Although Máel Íosa was also lord (ard taoiseach) of the minor midland kingdom of Corca Raidhe, it is Tadhg who holds more lasting significance as the father of Aenghus Fionnabhrach Ó Dálaigh, who lived around the year 1200, who is considered to be the common ancestor of all Ó Dálaighs alive today.
The Ó Dálaighs spread throughout Ireland From their ancestral home in the midlands, the various branches of the family issuing from Aenghus spread throughout Ireland as the thirteenth century progressed, becoming the official poets to the leading families on the island including the O'Connors of Connacht, the O’Byrnes of Leinster, the O'Loughlins of Clare and many others, while the early Cork branch had already come to serve the MacCarthys in Munster. The spread of the Ó Dálaighs was not simply due to their wide fame as wordsmiths and thinkers though. Beginning in 1169, a shadow had begun to fall across the isle of Ireland as the first waves of an invading force crashed on her eastern shores. The Normans had arrived. These invaders quickly penetrated the island’s interior, bloodily wresting great tranches of territory from the Gaelic lords and soon overran the Ó Dálaighs’ ancestral territory of Corca Adaimh in Westmeath, which may have hastened their migrations to Gaelic-held territories elsewhere. However, not all of the Ó Dálaighs were scattered from their ancestral Tethba during the early periods of the Norman invasions as we still see Ó Dálaighs proudly reigning as chiefs of Corca Adaimh in the fourteenth century.
King Henry II, who led the first Norman invasion of Ireland,landing in Waterford
NORMAN NAMES: A LASTING LEGACY The Normans were, of course, not the first major foreign force to arrive in Ireland: their predecessors, the Vikings, had begun to establish a presence on the island as early as the early ninth century, and we can detect their influence in a number of Gaelic names. The MacAuliffes, for example, who are a branch of the MacCarthys, derive their name Mac Amhlaoibh from the gaelicised form of the old Viking personal name Olaf. However, the Normans had the most lasting impact on Ireland, having given Ireland some of the most common surnames in use today. These include Condon, a family name mostly found in Co.Cork as well as south Tipperary. Indeed, the north-eastern division of Co. Cork is still called the ‘barony of Condons’. Walsh and Roche are also Norman names and are among the most common in Ireland. Roche is French in origin, being derived from de la roche (‘of the rock’) and is especially prevalent in Munster and Wexford, where most of the original Roche settlers were located. They are particularly associated with Co.Cork on account of the predominance of a powerful family of Roches in the neighbourhood of Fermoy where a large area of territory was long known as Roche’s Country. As we’ve already seen, Walsh simply means ‘the Welshman’ and so, as might be expected from their name, the Walshes did not all spring from one or two known ancestors, as the name was given independently to many of the newcomers. Also, because ‘Welshman’ is Breathnach in Irish, the name was sometimes anglicised phonetically as Brannagh. Other surnames are also often, if not always, of Norman descent. The Brownes of Galway, for instance, are descended from a Norman, le Brun, who came to Ireland at the time of the Norman invasion. However, others, such as the Brownes of Killarney, stem from an Elizabethan Englishman. However, In both cases the Brownes established themselves through intermarriage with powerful Gaelic families. Morrissey is another name that is most often of Norman descent. Although the name can be Gaelic, from Ó Muirgheasa (muir, ‘sea’, and geas, ‘action’) – deriving from a sept who once held territory on the southern side of Sligo Bay, it is now believed that most Morrisseys in Ireland today (which are mostly found in Munster, particularly counties Waterford, Limerick and Cork) are descended from a very powerful Norman family called de Marisco, The de Mariscos adopted the patronymic Mac Muiris and in due course this became in many cases Morrissey. Of course, a whole host of other surnames in Ireland also derive from the Normans including the Barretts, the Prendergasts (which has been widely corrupted to Pender), the Powers (which is derived from the old French word povre from the Latin pauper, meaning ‘poor’ and was first written le Poer) as well as the Fitzgibbons, one branch of which became particularly associated with Co. Limerick. Of course, many Norman surnames have the prefix ‘Fitz’, which is simply the Norman form of the Irish ‘Mac’ with fils in French meaning ‘son’.
The Golden Age of the Ó Dálaighs Norman invasions: Differing fortunes among the Gaels The invasions by the Normans can be seen to have affected some Gaelic families more than others. The O’ Kennedys, for example, don’t seem to have been too badly affected as from the eleventh to the sixteenth century they were lords of Ormond in Co. Tipperary. Nearby, however, the Ely O’Carrolls, although retaining their Gaelic way of life and distinct independence until the end of the sixteenth century, seem to have had their extensive territories in Co. Tipperary wrenched from them by the powerful Norman Butlers, eventually becoming restricted to the district around Birr in Co. Offaly. The Normans were not the only ones to be feared at this time in Ireland, however, and their arrival seems to have done little to dull the enthusiasm of the Gaels to vie with one another for power and territory. The Ó Maoilriains (Ryans), particularly, appear to have been on the rise, establishing themselves in the rich pasturelands of the Golden Vale spanning the border of counties Limerick and Tipperary, and many of the family still cleave to their ancient stronghold. In the course of this territorial takeover, the Ó Maoilriains displaced the Ó Cathaláins (Culhanes) in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, who had been chiefs of the barony of Owney-beg in east Co. Limerick, which was the centre of their power in Munster. In the fourteenth century they also pushed the ruling families of the O’Heffernans out of the barony of Owney in Co. Tipperary, although the rank and file remained undisturbed and it is in counties Tipperary and Limerick they are most numerous today.
The Rise of the Ó Dálaighs The Ó Dálaighs didn’t escape too lightly during the Norman invasions, their ancestral territory in Westmeath being overrun, while subsequent invasions didn’t leave them entirely unscathed either, with the Annal of 1415 stating that “The Saxons came into Ireland this year, namely, Lord Furnival. And he despoiled many of the poets of Ireland, to wit, Ua Dalaigh of Meath and Aedh Mac Craith junior and Dubthach Mac Eochadha and Maurice Ua Dalaigh.” However, when viewed against some of the other Gaelic families during the middle ages, the Ó Dálaighs seem to have been remarkably successful, from the twelfth to the seventeenth century producing a steady stream of renowned poets, bishops, as well as some gifted musicians.
They are widely considered as having the greatest name in Gaelic literature, being hailed as “The chiefs of high Corca Adhamh, O’Dalaigh of lasting renown.” A number of them held the post of Ard Ollamh (Chief Poet of Ireland); the Ard Ollamh ranked with the High King of Ireland in the social hierarchy, and maintained his own court. More than one member of the Ó Dálaigh family held both this post and the post of Chief Ollamh of Scotland, and the chief poet of the family was known as “The Ó Dálaigh” in the same manner that the Prince of Thomond was called “The O’Brien”. The senior members of the family were also chieftains, their lands including the minor ‘kingdoms’ of Corca Adaimh in Westmeath, Corca Raidhe (Corcaree) in Meath, and Muintir Bháire in Cork.
The pen is mightier than the sword: the power of the bard The noble bards of Ireland were accorded great prestige and were accounted filid or ‘men of skill’; in social rank they were placed below kings but above all others. The praise of a skilled poet was very greatly valued as it enhanced social and political prestige. However, part of the prestige that attached to the Irish bardic ollamh was derived from fear; a leader satirised in a glam dicenn (satire-poem), by a very able poet, could find his social position badly undermined. Very talented poets were also believed to possess the power to raise boils on the face of the target of their satires or inflict other bodily harm (early Irish society placed great store on the physical appearance of leaders). An aeir, or satire-poem, could be of two kinds: either intended to merely insult or ridicule in a general manner; or of a much more virulent personal nature intended to imprecate or curse its target. The bards were so insolent that their notoriety spread to England, where it was said “The Irishmen will not sticke to affirme that they can rime either man or beast to death.” During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, laws were introduced to curb the use of satire to foment rebellion, targeting counties Cork, Limerick and Kerry in particular. Describing Bards (among others) as “Idlemen of lewde demeanor”, the laws failed to understand the central place that bards occupied in Irish society. —John O’Donovan, The Tribes of Ireland (translation)
THE ‘MEN OF SKILL’ ‘The Irish Ovid’: Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh (d. 1244) Donnchadh was the first and most famous of a line of poets in north Clare on the shores of Galway Bay. In recording his death, in 1244, the Annals of the Four Masters describes him as "a poet who never was and never will be surpassed". He has been called the 'Irish Ovid'. His poems indicate that he was born in Meath and he was probably the abbot of the monastery of Boyle in Roscommon; he wrote a large number of religious poems, and he was certainly buried in the abbey there. According to tradition preserved in the north of Co. Clare, Donnchadh Mór was the head of the Ó Dálaighs of Finavara in the north of the Burren, where they were hereditary poets to the Ó Lochlainns. The Ó Dálaighs occupied a rock seat near the coast, by Pouldoody Bay, termed the ‘Brehon's Chair’ – used for open air courts in ancient times. Today a hexagonal monument stands outside Finavara by Pouldoody Bay as a monument to Donnchadh Mór, opposite the supposed ruined poetry school of the Ó Dálaighs, and on top of the mound where members of the clan are said to be buried.
Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh (d.1387) Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh of Cork was Chief Ollamh of Ireland and one of the most important bards of the fourteenth century, with his principal patrons being the McCarthys of Desmond, the O’Briens of Thomond and the Earls of Desmond. He was considered a model composer by later poets. In 1351 a convention of poets and men of learning was held by the chieftain Uilliam Buide Ó Ceallaigh (the Nollaig na Garma); this occasion was commemorated in Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh’s poem ‘Filidh Éireann go haointeach’. In ‘Filidh Éireann go haointeach’, Ó Dálaigh’s ironic commentary on the dual nature of the bard’s role in colonial Ireland became a frequently cited verse: I ndán na nGall gealltar linn Gaoidhil d’ionnarba a hÉirinn Goill do shraoineadh tar sál soir I ndán na nGaoidheal gealltair
In poetry for the Foreignors We promise to the expel the Gaels from Ireland In poetry for the Gaels it is promised To drive the Foreignors over the sea eastwards — The Field Day Anthology of Irish Verse (NYU Press, 2002)
H A RP
OF
C N O C I’C H O SG A IR
You who bring sleep to eyes long sleepless, Sweet subtle, plangent, glad cooling grave.
Excellent instrument with smooth gentle curve, Trilling under red fingers, musician that has charmed us, Red, lion-like of full melody.
You who lure the bird from the flock, You who refresh the mind, Brown spotted one of sweet words, Ardent, wondrous, passionate.
— Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh
A Traditional harp
THE MEN OF MISCHIEF Aonghus Ruadh Ó Dálaigh of Meath (d. 1347) Aonghus Ruadh, the great-grandson of the famous Donnchadh Mór, is a great example of the devastating power of the bard in medieval Ireland. Reputedly his satire-poems on a fellow chieftain were so scathing that his victim emigrated from the Irish midlands to Clare in Munster to escape them. “Aengus Ua Dalaigh the Red (namely; son of Donnchadh, son of Aengus, son of Donnchadh Mor), a sage without defect, died.” Annal of 1347.
Cearbhall Óg Ó Dálaigh (fl. 1620) Cearbhall Óg, who was from Pallas, near Gorey in Co. Wexford, was something of a ladies’ man and composed many dánta grádha love poems, three of which, Seachrán Chearbhaill (‘The Rambles of Cearbhall’), Eileanóir a Rún (‘Eileanóir My Treasure’), and its English language-version Eileen Aroon, are still considered iconic songs among sean nós singers today. Eileanóir a Rún was written for Eileanóir Chaomhánach, the daughter of Sir Morgan Kavanagh of Poll an Mhóintigh, Wexford. It is said that she eloped with Cearbhall the day she was about to marry another man. Cearbhall had arrived at the wedding to play music at the wedding feast, and fell in love with her, composing the song ‘Eileanoir a Rún’ to win her over. The chorus translates as: O young fair maiden you have the nicest and sweetest kiss As long as I live my affection will be for you For I’d gladly drive the calves with you, Eileanóir my love. She had a gift that she could revive the cold corpse from death The taste of her little kiss was sweeter than the cuckoo at dawn She had another gift I’ll not mention, she is the love of my heart, my first love.. — Eileanóir a Rún
‘Irish Bard’, plate from Joseph C. Walker, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1818)
The Dark Side of the Ó Dálaighs Standing alongside the great poets mentioned above in the annals and other records are other luminaries of the Ó Dálaigh name who achieved great power or renown. These include ecclesiastics like Lughaidh (Louis) Ó Dálaigh, who is recorded in The Annals of Ulster in 1337 with the lines: “Lughaidh (Louis) O'Daly, Bishop of Clonmacnoise died after a well-spent life.” Tadhg Ó Dalaigh (also known as Thaddaeus and Nicholas O'Daly) was a later bishop, the Bishop of Achonry (a diocese which includes parishes in counties Roscommon, Mayo and Sligo) from 1436-1442. He died in Rome before 15 October 1442. In the realm of music, Ruaidrí mac Donnchad Ó Dálaigh, a celebrated harpist, died in 1469. The Ó Dálaighs were not without their darker characters, however, two of whom deserve special mention.
Aonghus Ruadh na nAor Ó Dálaigh (1550–1617) Aonghus, who lived in Ballyovrone, Co. Cork, known as the “Red Bard” or “Angus of the Satires”, was employed by Sir George Carew and Mountjoy to lampoon the Irish chieftains and instigate enmity between them. The resulting satirical poem ‘The Tribes of Ireland’ met with such a hostile reaction that he was stabbed in revenge by a servant of O'Meagher, one of his victims.
Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh (fl. 1213) One thing that can be said of most of the Ó Dálaighs we’ve met so far is that they certainly believed the pen to be mightier than the sword. At first glance, Muireadhach Albanach (‘Scottish Muireadhach’) seems to be no different, being one of the six brothers of the famous Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh and, according to The Annals of the Four Masters of Ireland c. 1213, ollamh (high poet) of Domhnall Ó Domhnaill (lord of Tirconnell, who died in 1241). However, soon it becomes quite clear that our friend Muireadhach, although handy with a pen, was still fond of the sword. Or, to be more precise, the axe. One day, King Domhnall’s tax-collector Fionn Ó Brolacháin came calling and in the course of his visit received a fatal blow from an axe. Whether the man had been insolent, as Muireadhach claimed, or was just unfortunate to have encountered a murderous poet who didn’t like paying his taxes, this incident resulted in Muireadhach fleeing Sligo and leaving Ireland altogether. He was a bit put out by what he saw as unnecessary
fuss too, in a poem dismissing his murder as his victim was a mere commoner and therefore of no account, a telling indication of the rigid stratification of traditional Irish society: Trifling is our difference with the man, A shepherd was affronting me; And I killed that clown; O God! Is this a cause for enmity? Nevertheless, it was in Scotland that Muireadhach made his name. He served as the court bard to the Mormaer of Lennox. Muireadhach Albanach is important for the cultural history of Scotland because he is the alleged founder of the family of hereditary Scottish bards known to history as the Mac Mhuireadhaich or “MacVurich” family. He also roamed much farther afield, participating in the Fifth Crusade (where, presumably, his axe-swinging practice came in handy) and travelled to Acre (in present-day Israel) and Damietta (in present-day Egypt), as well as other places, like Rome. In 1228 he was apparently allowed to re-enter Ireland. If it was the sword that got him into trouble with King Domhnall, it was from the pen he would find redemption; offering a praise poem to the O’Donnell on his return which was so well received that he was granted land and cattle by him as token of forgiveness. In his last years, following the death of his wife, he finally embraced the quiet life and entered a monastery with his brother Donnchadh Mór.
Crusaders capturing the Tower of Damietta, Egypt
NAME MAP OF IRELAND 1300S
This map was recently reconstructed from a wide variety of sources by researchers.
Take a good look and see if you can find any Dalys!
(You might need a magnifying glass‌)
NAME MAP OF IRELAND 1300S
We’ll give you a clue – there’s one in the south…
5 | 17 TH CENTURY: FALL OF THE Ó DÁLAIGHS
Patrick Sarsfield’s army at the Battle of the Boyne, 1690
The Flight of the Earls After ruling for centuries, the power of the Uí Néill was finally shattered after their defeat in the Nine Years War in 1603, and many of heads of the families left for Catholic Europe in 1607, in the famous Flight of the Earls. The end of the prominence of the Gaelic-speaking nobility of Ireland, epitomised by the Flight of the Earls, in the early 17th century spelt disaster for those bardic families, such as the Ó Dálaighs, that depended on their patronage. Although poets such as Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh could be found still writing love poems in the 1620s and others were also plying their trade well into the later seventeenth century, other poets of the family had already begun to fully appreciate the demise of Gaelic society in the immediate aftermath of the Flight of the Earls.
The Lament for a Vanishing Ireland Lochlann Óg Ó Dálaigh, who lived in Munster around the year 1610, wrote poetry lamenting the eclipse of the native society and culture of Ireland. In his powerful poem ‘Cait ar ghabhader Gaoidhil (‘Where have the Gaels gone?) he answers his own question with line ‘In their place we have a proud impure swarm of foreigners.’ This poem paints a bleak picture of 17th-century Ireland, deploring the departure of the Swordsmen of the Gael, the effects of the Tudor plantations and the suppression of the Catholic religion. Modern readers of the poem tend to pick up on the most dramatic parts, such as Ó Dálaigh’s description of the invading “Saxons and Scotch” as “an arrogant, impure crowd”, and the “egregious changes upon Ireland”, including the clearing of ancient forests and usurpation of seats of power. However, there are subtler points to note, too. Seemingly unremarkable words in the poem to modern eyes, such as ‘acre’ (‘achraibh’), denote the creeping power of the invader, with imperial land measurements replacing native measurements. In this way, colonisation of the language mirrored ongoing territorial dispossession.
W HERE
HAVE THE
Where have the Gaels gone? What is the fate of the mirthful throngs? I catch no glimpse of them within sight of the green land of Gaoidheal.
I do not see the dark-eyed throng around the heights of fortified assembly-places; their tumult is not audible to me as I traverse Ireland’s plain.
I marvel what can be their condition, the heroes of the bright, pure fortresses:
G AELS G ONE ?
It is no ancient faery incantation, no deceitful mist of magic that has quite concealed from us the choice scions from the bright dwelling of the Gaels.
As it turned out the worse, woe´s me for the plain of Raoile’s protecting band: the sons of kings from the pleasant green house of Breagh are being made into exiles.
They have been given billeting far and wide, away from the bright, smooth Ireland;
I have found the mansions of Conn’s Ireland,
the palaces of kings of the Eastern lands
but I cannot find The Companies of her halls.
are made well-known to the race of Mil.
They have dispersed from us in all directions,
We have in their stead an arrogant, impure crowd,
the young warriors of Leinster, the heroes of Munster, the fierce-bladed denizens of Maeve’s plain, and ancient Eamhain’s warband of noble race.
of foreigners’ blood, of the race of Monadh there are Saxons there, and Scotch.
They divide it up amongst themselves, this territory of the children of noble Niall, without a jot of Flann’s milky plain that we don´t find becoming (mere) ‘acres’.
A congregation of rustics in the home of Saints, God´s service under the shelter of bright branches; (?) quilts of clergymen become cattle’s bedding, the hillside is wrenched into fields.
Here is an analogy for the land of Banbha:
Assemblies (are held) in places of hunting,
a golden chessboard under base chessmen;
hunts upon illustrious streets, belts of the hedges
for some time our land has been found destitute of its bright complement of Gaels.
We have witnessed egregious changes upon Ireland -
of cultivation over the plain’s face, without a meet for racing over its cheeks.
They destroy the hostels of noblemen,
it is right to enumerate them (or to bewail them) -
they build with despotic vigour
which would have been wondrous at any previous
a line of white(washed) multipillared courts
time upon the sparkling-watered land of Laoghaire.
all about the deer-bereft flank of Ireland.
Heavy is the shame! We have come to see
No-one of the blood of Gaoidheal sees anything
seats of government being made desolate,
at which to rejoice; he hears no voice
the produce wasting in a stream, dark thickets of the chase become thoroughfares.
Irish lady and young girl Lucas de Heere c.1570
he considers full-sweet - och! the extent of their humiliation I (have to) relate.
They find no sweetness in devotion to poetry, the sound of harps or the music of an organ, nor the tales of the kings of Bregia of the turreted walls, nor the numbering
The sons of Israel of the bright weapons, when His wrath was kindled against them, many’s the plague with which He visited His fury (upon them) to chastise them in the midst of all.
of the ancient generations of their forefathers. He used to send, moreover The oppressiveness of the judgements passed upon them, it steals away their souls from them; the battle-fierce heroes of Lughaidh’s plain,
it is an old tale - much destruction upon the great race of Maccabaeus, whenever they transgressed against His testament.
they most resemble half-dead corpses. However far each of these peoples progressed The expulsion of the Gaels of the field of Banbha, although its vaunt is claimed for a foreign battalion, it is the wrath of God scourging them before all -
towards meriting the wrath of the King on High, pure repentance for their sins procured forgiveness for them thereafter.
that is the (real) cause of their expulsion. Repentance now, after that fashion They are not the only ones to have been destroyed; Many’s the race for whom there was decreed ill, as a result of the wrath of God in Heaven, whereat the shafts of His wrath burst.
alas that the sons of Mil do not do that, to cast off from them His anger, to remove the true anger of the King on High.
The stock of the Gaels of the bitter conflicts, till they may reach the virtuous state of repentance, (let) their protection be placed in (the hands of) the Creator of the Elements, in order to avert the wrath of the Lord.
The vengeance of God is the reason for it. The men of Scotland, the youths of London have settled in their place. Where have the Gaels gone?
Irish soldiers fighting on the Continent Albrecht D端rer, 1521
The Cromwellian Invasions The overthrow of the Gaelic lords in the early seventeenth century was followed by more turmoil and strife a few decades later with the outbreak of a rebellion in 1641 culminating, ultimately, with the arrival of Oliver Cromwell in Ireland and the brutal suppression of Irish forces. Although the Irish armies in Ulster did not formally surrender until April of 1653, the war had truly come to an end in the May of the year before with the surrender of the other provinces under terms signed at Kilkenny. The leader of the forces in Connacht was one Captain Edmund Daly. Under the terms of surrender, the Irish troops were allowed to go abroad to serve in foreign armies not at war with the Commonwealth of England, with most ending up in France or Spain. For those left behind, however, retribution was swift, with many losing land in the Cromwellian confiscations. For instance, the MacInerneys of Co. Clare lost their ancestral estate at Ballycally, which is still a townland in the parish of Kilconry today (this is in the barony of Bunratty, between Ennis and Quin). However, the MacInernerys as a whole were not displaced for the 1659 census shows that there were still some 30 families of MacInerney in Clare. Indeed, there are still many MacInerneys to be found in the parish of Kilconry today. Of course many other families also suffered from Cromwell’s wrath, not least among them the Ó Dálaighs. One tradition still extant claims: “That Cromwell's adventurers left just one tree standing at the O'Dalaigh's ancestral seat at Corca Adaimh to hang the chief of the O'Dalaigh if he endeavored to renew a residence there.”
The Battle of the Boyne (1690) The defeat of the Irish at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 finally crushed the remaining opposition to foreign rule in Ireland and was followed by further confiscations and repression. The O’Kennedys, who had already lost much of their land under Cromwell, lost a great deal more under the Williamite confiscations. Several of the family were officers in James II’s Irish army and fought at the Battle of the Boyne, and as a result of their loyalty to the Stuart and Catholic many were declared outlaws. These, when they did not go to the Continent
to become the forerunners of the famous Wild Geese, disdaining to work as labourers for the new “upstart” proprietors, had to seek a dangerous living as rapparees and tories: as such they usually met a premature death. The terms ‘rapparee’ and ‘tory’ had originally been applied to guerilla fighters in the Williamite wars and those of the 1640s, respectively, but later the name was also given to bandits and highwaymen in Ireland – many former guerrillas having turned to crime after the war ended. The ranks of tories remained filled throughout the post-war period by displaced Irish Catholics whose land and property was confiscated in the Cromwellian Settlement and we can expect that there were many Ó Dálaighs among them. In the 1690s, during the Glorious Revolution, the label “tory" was insultingly given to the English supporters of James II, to associate them with the Irish rebels and bandits of a generation earlier (this is why the Conservative Party in the UK is still referred to informally as the Tories today). The Gaelic families were not the only ones to suffer under their new overlords, however, as those of Norman descent such as the Barretts were also expropriated for supporting King James. Even the Condons, who for centuries after their arrival had remained proud of their Norman descent had, by 1641, become as Irish as any other family and met the same fate.
Map of Ireland under the Act of Settlement 1653
The Ó Dálaighs’ Fall from Grace With the loss of land in the wake of rebellions against English rule and in the Plantations of Ireland, most branches of the Ó Dálaighs became, to a greater or lesser extent, impoverished. An example of this is the fate of the Dalys of Muintir Bháire in Co. Cork, relatives and descendants of Aonghus Ruadh na nAor Ó Dálaigh); they lost the last of their land in the aftermath of the fall of James II, and were reduced to the state of struggling tenant farmers. One prominent exception to this trend was the Daly family of Dunsandle, which became part of the Protestant Ascendancy though its members often espoused the extension of Catholic rights. Generations of this family served as mayors of, and MPs for, Galway, and were also raised to the peerage as barons of Dunsandle. The Dunsandle Dalys claimed descent from Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh and incorporated the Red Hand of Ulster into their coat of arms to record their ancient Uí Néill connections. Ultimately, the Dalys of Dunsandle retained their wealth and political prominence (achieving great wealth and power in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), but at the cost of losing the faith and culture their ancestors long upheld.
Ó Dálaigh changes to Daly: Repression and Anglicisation Beginning with the reign of the English King Edward IV (1465), the law demanded that every Irishman living within the territory known as the ‘Pale’ take an English name and comply with other English customs or forfeit his possessions. Most families resisted and it wasn't until the close of the seventeenth century, after constant persecution and ridicule that the Gaelic forms nearly disappeared. In many cases the Anglicised forms were actually closely related to the basic Gaelic surnames minus the ‘Macs’ or the ‘O’s’ as in the case of the name Daly. The final doom of the Gaelic surnames came as a result of the widespread establishment of the English language among the Irish. This circumstance caused the English form of names to be taken for granted and considered as natural. The O’Carrolls, O’Kennedys,
O’Heffernans, O’Kellys, and countless others dropped the ‘O’ from their names, although ‘Mac’ names fared a little better. As happened with many other surnames, Ó Dálaigh was anglicised in a variety of ways, including Daly, Daley, Dailey or Dawley. Anglicisation, then, gave rise to many new surnames which were in fact derived from a single Gaelic one, and this can also be seen clearly in the case of the Ó Cathaláins (Culhanes). Although the anglicised form Cahalane came to be mainly used in counties Kerry and Cork, in some places the name Ó Cathaláin had first been shortened to Ó Cathláin, which then gave rise to Culhane in English. The Culhane name is still almost peculiar to Co. Limerick, the original homeland of the Ó Cathaláins of Munster. In the case of the Ryans, the surname had already undergone significant change before the mid-seventeenth century, in the great majority of cases being shortened to Ó Riain. Anglicisation only served to continue this process of diminution, with the ‘O’’ being dropped in most cases. Of course, sometimes the dropping of the Mac or O could prove to muddy the origins of a particular name. This can be seen with the name Coughlan, which can derive from either Mac Cochláin or Ó Cochláin, a name which seems to be related to the Irish word cochal, meaning ‘cape’ or ‘hood’. Considering that the Mac Coughlans’ ancestral territory was in Co. Offaly while the O’Coughlans were found in Munster, it is probably safe to assume that the Coughlans, who are still common in Co. Cork today, are originally O’Coughlans.
Dunsandle Castle, seat of one of the few Daly lines to prosper after the seventeenth century
Details from the Daly stone at Killimordaly Castle Co. Galway.
6 | DALY HERALDRY AND MOTTO
Oak tree
Hound
Red Hands
Lion
Motto
Coat of Arms: General Description Let’s pause for a minute to look more closely at the family’s coat of arms, which reflect the mythology surrounding the name’s origins. The royal emblem of the lion stands for ‘Fierce Courage’ and can also represent a great warrior or chief, in this case probably King Conaire, yet another mythological ancestor of the Ó Dálaighs. Our old friend Cú Roí Mac Daire is represented by the hound bounding above the helmet, while the oak tree at the top of the crest is a symbol rooted in pre-Christian belief, where reverence for the oak was associated with kingship and many ruling familes would have had at least one sacred tree outside the family’s ring-fort.
The Red Hand of Ulster The severed red right hand is probably the most significant symbol in the coat of arms is a feature of many of the heraldic crests of Uí Néill families. The red hand symbol is today probably more recognisably associated with the Loyalist tradition in the North but in reality its origins lie firmly with the ancient Gaels. There are at least three explanations of where it comes from. The first relates to the name of the son of Bolg or Nuadu, the Sun God of the Celts, and by some accounts the divine progenitor of all Celts. This son was known as Labraid Lámhdhearg (Labraid of the Red Hand). The second relates to Nuada, king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who had his right hand severed by Sreng during a great battle with the Fomorians (who, according to Irish mythology, were another race which inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Gaels). No imperfect man being allowed to hold the throne, Nuada was forced to abdicate in favour of Bres. However, a silver hand was fashioned for him and the power of ancient magic was used to cause flesh and sinew to grow back around the prosthesis. When Bres died, Nuada again assumed his royal place. The third explanation is somewhat more fanciful. The story tells of a pact among the seven sons of Míl Espáine, that the ruler of the new land would be whoever among them first touched the soil of Ireland. As the flotilla approached the shore, one of the sons took his sword, cut off his right hand and threw it to land,
thus becoming the ruler. It is sometimes said that this son was Eremon but, if so, he seems to have gotten a raw deal as his brother got to keep both of his hands and the south of Ireland. Another version of this tale relates it to a boat race held to determine who would fill the vacant throne in Ulster and that it was none other than Niall of the Nine Hostages who severed his own hand and cast it ashore. In this view, the hand is most likely red to represent the fact that it would have been covered in blood.
Colours of the Coat of Arms The colours on a coat of arms are also considered significant and are referred to by very specific names in heraldic tradition. Those on the Ó Dálaigh coat of arms are: gules (red), which stands for ‘Warrior, Martyr, Military Strength’; sable (black) represents ‘Constancy, Grief’; gold denotes ‘Generosity’; while argent (silver or white) stands for ‘Sincerity, Peace’.
Motto Almost without exception the armorial motto of the Ó Dálaighs has been featured as “Deo et Regi Fidelis” (“Faithful to my God and King”), which was adopted by those members of the clan who wished to signify their loyalty to the reigning English monarchs. However, the Ó Dálaighs had used a Gaelic motto prior to the adoption of “Deo et Regi Fidelis” – “Láidir Agus Mir”, meaning “Swift and Strong”, which was found to have existed among the Ó Dálaighs of Galway and seems to be far older. Considering that a motto was originally a war cry or slogan, and also that it is, in fact, an optional component of the coat of arms which can be added to or changed at will, most Dalys today should feel free to revert to the earlier motto. Indeed, “Láidir Agus Mir” is clearly descriptive of the Ó Dálaigh crest whereas the usual one “Deo et Regi Fidelis” is neither descriptive of the crest nor of the (mostly) disloyal family of the Ó Dálaighs.
Nuada, king of the Tuatha DĂŠ Danaan by Jim Fitzpatrick
Part 3 MODERN DALYS
Introduction T H E S T O RY O F M O D E RN D A LY S I S A V E RY M I X E D O N E . We’ll see in the following chapters how turbulence, repression and reduced status in Ireland from the sixteenth century – especially due to the Penal Laws – led to increasing emigration of Dalys, with notable Dalys being found first in Europe, and, by the nineteenth century, spread across the globe. In the following chapters we track these developments, and also look at Dalys who remained in Ireland, before looking at twelve notable Dalys in the modern era. Like the previous Part, we see a real motley crew. For every pious man there is a rogue; for every pillar of society, an outlaw. Sometimes it’s hard to decide which is which. I’m sure you’ll see traits of all the family in the people briefly described here – ‘briseann an dúchas’, you might say! Building on the last Part, and through these very different Daly figures, we get a sense of Irish history as a whole, the experience of empire, and the different sides various Dalys fell on; from governing portions of the British Empire, to fighting in the War of In dependence, to presidential office in the Republic. We also get a sense of the diaspora, across Canada, Australia, the United States and the Caribbean. We finish by focusing on our own family history, with notes on the family lines of the Dalys and Maumes, reproductions of the Daly household census returns of 1901 and 1911, the family tree, and a collection of photos. Once again, we see a silver thread o f poetry through our family history, from the laments for Anthony O’Daly and James Daly – executed by British forces exactly a century apart – to the beautiful poem written in honour of Mama’s father, Tom Maume. From the very earliest Ó Dálaighs to the present day, it's a striking and beautiful part of our heritage. And look out for physical similarities between some of the Dalys here and family members today – they can be very strong…!
7 | SCATTERED TO THE FOUR WINDS: EMIGRATION FROM THE 17 TH -20 TH CENTURY
Early Daly Emigrants: Back to the L and of Míl Espáine From the Daly family’s very early days, the big figures among the Ó Dálaighs had been travelling far from Ireland as poets, bishops, and even crusaders, while some of the quieter figures also left Ireland for a variety of reasons, including, for instance, Tadhg Camchosach Ó Dálaigh (fl. 1375) who moved to the Continent and became a Franciscan monk. From the early seventeenth century onwards, however, true large-scale emigration began and one of the first lands the Ó Dálaighs, like many other Irish emigrants, turned to was the land of the legendary Míl Espáine – Iberia. One of the greatest of these early emigrants was Dominic Ó Dálaigh, who played a pivotal role in the history of Portugal in the first half of the seventeenth century. His biography is provided in Section 10, but we also include in this section two short biographies of other Dalys who made a big impact in the Latin world. Indeed, although Portugal was certainly one part of the story, it was Spain which was the true draw. The belief that the Gaels were descended from Míl Espáine and his Spanish followers was current in Spain as well as Ireland, and as a result the Irish in Spain were given all the rights and privileges due to Spanish subjects. Many set deep roots in their adopted homeland with Kennedys becoming Quenedys, etc., and the same was certainly true of the Dalys. The first wave of emigrants to land in the Canary Islands in the 1650s, for instance, gave rise to descendants in the following centuries who became great maritime traders and left an indelible mark on the society and culture of the islands and beyond.
Map of Europe 1600
Dionisio O’Daly (18th Century) In La Palma (the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands), in the old district of the capital Santa Cruz, the main street and most beautiful thoroughfare is called Calle O’Daly, honouring Dionisio O’Daly, an Irish merchant who (together with local lawyer Anselmo Perez Brito) initiated the first free public elections in Spanish history of local administrators (in 1773), this later leading to the emergence of a democratic state. Prior to this, perpetual rulers were the norm. Don Dionisio was also responsible for the opening of the first state-sponsored school in the Canaries in 1797.
Calle O’Daly Santa Cruz, La Palma
Warriors on foreign soil Irish soldiers had been fighting on foreign battlefields and in the service of foreign powers since the sixteenth century. Again, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was on foreign battlefields that many of the Irish emigrants distinguished themselves. The degree to which this is true is illustrated by the fact that today there are units with ‘Irish’ names in many foreign armies, including those of the U.S., Spain, South Africa, Venezuela, not to mention those in the British army. There are over 30 units in the French army, including Kilmallock’s Dragoons. Vast numbers of Irishmen served with distinction in the Spanish military in mainland Europe and especially in the Spanish Netherlands. Their descendants also rose to high ranks in Spain’s possessions farther afield.
Demetrio O’ Daly (1780-1837) Demetrio O’Daly was the first Puerto Rican to reach the rank of Field Marshal in the Spanish Army. He was awarded the Cruz Laureada de San Fernando (Laureate Cross of Saint Fernand), the highest military decoration awarded by the Spanish government. He represented Puerto Rico as a delegate to the Spanish Courts. In some ways he seems to mirror his slightly earlier contemporary Dionisio O’Daly as among his many accomplishments was the introduction of a Bill to the Spanish legislature which established free commercial trade and public education in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, San Juan, his hometown (where he was born in Puerto Rico) has named a street ‘Calle Demetrio O'Daly’ after him.
Making it in North America There are records of Dalys arriving in North America from the 1660s onwards, and like the Irish emigrants elsewhere, war never seemed to be far away. Those Dalys who arrived in Nova Scotia in Canada in the 1740s and 1750s, for example, were thrust into a precarious situation where the natives were still attempting to throw off the yoke of British rule and frequently attacked the colonies. In the following century, Irish emigrants arriving in the U.S. were faced with even worse danger as many men who landed during the American Civil War were immediately conscripted into the Union army. Altogether, around 200,000 Irishmen took part in the Civil War (fighting on both sides) and there were surely some Dalys among them. The end of the war in 1865 did not signal a return to peace either as many soldiers were employed to subdue the Native American tribes during the great western expansion. At Custer’s Last Stand in 1876 alone, 37 Irishmen lost their lives and 47 were injured, but fortunately no Dalys seem to have taken part in this debacle. Of course many Dalys, like the rest of the Irish emigrants to the U.S., contributed greatly to the social, political, cultural and ecomic development of that country as did their immediate descendants. There is even a Daly City in California (population c. 100,000), named after John Daly, a businessman originally from Boston.
Daly City, California Aerial view
A Complex Daly History in the Caribbean The history of Irish migration to the Caribbean also stretches back to the mid-seventeenth century when many of the expropriated Catholic families were sent as slaves to work on plantations on Barbados and other islands. Many eventually made their way to the island of Montserrat also, where the Irish language was spoken up to around 100 years ago. There are still many Daleys on the island today, although at least some of these are the descendants of freed slaves who gained the surname from their planter masters. The complex mixture of racial identity and fusion of cultures seen on the island is somewhat encompassed in the term ‘Black Irish’ which is applied to many of the inhabitants. Dalys became planters on other Caribbean islands also and there is a Daly’s Cove in Jamaica, named after one of their Irish homes. A biography of one of the Caribbean Dalys – Marie Maynard Daly – is provided in the next section.
Dalys Leaving their Mark on the W orld The above is just a taste of how Dalys have spread across the globe. As well as Europe, Latin America, North America and the Caribbean, you can find memorials to the Daly name in various other countries, such as Australia. There are, of course, plenty of Daly landmarks in Ireland too: see the next section.
The mighty Daly River Northern Territory, Australia
Daly’s Bridge, Sunday’s Well, Cork Known as ‘the shaky bridge’
9 | DALYS WHO REMAINED IN IRELAND
The Gaelic Revival: Return of the Macs and O’s With the emancipation of Catholics in 1829 the gate was opened for the revival of interest in Gaelic culture in the late nineteenth century and Robert Daly (1783-1872), Protestant Bishop of Cashel, and John O’Daly (1800-1878) were both early contributors to this Gaelic revival. This resulted in the widespread resumption of use of the prefixes ‘O’’ and ‘Mac’ and for some, such as the Kellys, this re-adoption has been quite marked, the number of births registered as O’Kelly rising from about one in every 130 in 1890 to about one in every 20 today. However, in a number of cases, including that of the Dalys, the Kennedys, the Heffernans, etc., the ‘O’ did not make much of a comeback and many have stuck with the shortened form. The Dalys, it would appear, are here to stay.
Daly Numbers and Strongholds Daly has long been one of the most common surnames in Ireland and today is among the thirty most common names in the country. The Primary Valuation property survey of 1847-64 (‘Griffith’s Evaluation’) , for instance, shows the name as “very numerous”, counting 3861 households with the name, and much fewer households with variants, e.g. Daily (3), Daley (13), Dauley (4), Dawley (102) and Dawly (10). Dalys according to that survey are found in all counties, but the largest concentrations are in Cork (860), Westmeath (232), Kerry (227), Offaly (190), Meath (178), Galway (167) and Limerick (157). As we’d expect from the above, Ó Dálaigh remains rare. See the map overleaf for a full breakdown. There are also a large number of Daly placenames across Ireland: see the list following the map overleaf. We also encounter a number of very interesting home-grown Dalys in the Biographies section, coming next.
Cork Westmeath Kerry Offaly Tyrone Meath Galway Monaghan Limerick Clare Waterford Tipperary Dublin Cavan Roscommon Armagh Mayo Dublin city Kildare Wexford Laois Donegal Kilkenny Longford Derry Leitrim Belfast city Sligo Antrim Fermanagh Carlow Wicklow
860 232 227 190 187 178 167 158 157 148 132 107 97 90 88 81 65 64 59 51 49 48 45 41 35 34 27 21 16 14 14 13
— Dalys households across Ireland
Griffith’s Valuation, 1847-64
A NCIENT AND M ODERN R ESIDEN TIAL T ERRITORIES THE D ALYS /Ó D ÁLAIGH IN I RELAN D
OF
BALLYDALY-Co. Cork (townland near Millstreet). BALLYDALY-Co. Roscommon (townland ten miles west of Longford). CASTLEDALY-Co. Galway (townland near Loughrea). CASTLEDALY-County Westmeath (village east of Athlone). CORCA ADAIMH-County Westmeath (ancestral territory of the Ó Dálaighs). DALY'S BRIDGE: Spanning Counties Cavan and Meath (built in 1762). DALYSTOWN-Co. Galway (a demesne near Loughrea). DALYSTOWN-Co. Longford (townland northeast of Longford town). DALYSTOWN-Co. Meath (townland north of Enfield).
Standing stones Dalystown, Longford
DALYSTOWN-Co. Westmeath (townland south of Lough Ennell). DRINADALY-Co. Meath (townland southwest of Trim). DUNSANDLE-Co. Galway (estate of the Dunsandle Ó Dálaighs, including a 15 th-century castle and woods). FINNEVARA-Co. Clare (demesne in the ancestral Ó Dálaigh lands in the north of the Burren). KILLIMER-Co. Galway (townland east of Loughrea). LISSADILL-Co. Sligo (townland near Lissadell House). MUINTERVARA-Co. Cork (parish and ancestral home of the Cork Ó Dálaighs, near Skibbereen). NOHOVADALY-Co. Cork (no present-day record found). TUBBERDALY-Offaly (may relate to a stone house built in the 1650s which is still in use). TULLINADALY-Co.Galway (a townland around five miles north of Tuam).
9 | BIOGRAPHIES OF NOTABLE DALYS: 1560 S -PRESENT
Dominic Ó Dálaigh | Diplomat | 1569-1662 Dominic Ó Dálaigh, 1596–1662 (also known as Daniel O’Daly). Dominican priest, diplomat and historian, was born at Kilsarkan, near Castleisland in Co. Kerry into the Kerry branch of the Ó Dálaigh family. Instead of following the hereditary bardic profession he entered the Dominican Order in Galicia under the religious name Dominic de Rosario. He was Rector of the University of Louvain and established an Irish College of Dominicans in Lisbon. Due to Spanish commitment to Catholicism, Spain and Spanish-ruled Portugal drew in Irish Catholic exiles in the early 17th century. Dominic Ó Dálaigh’s work establishing religious communities in Portugal was partly to serve exiled Irish nobles, and partly to provide clergy and pastoral resources for the Church in Ireland. In doing so, he deftly navigating the tense diplomatic relations between Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, and ensured that political changes in Lisbon would not compromise his work: this explains, why, when the coup d’état occurred in 1640 and the house of Braganza, in the person of João IV, was restored to the Portuguese throne, Ó Dálaigh calmly switched allegiance from Madrid to the Portuguese province of the Dominicans. He became an advisor to the new queen regent, Luisa de Gusmão, and Portuguese envoy to Louis XIV. He later became involved in the English Civil War, as envoy to Charles I in about 1642. Ó Dálaigh was set the task of assisting the beleagured Stuart king, fighting the armies of the English and Scottish parliamentsby uniting the various royalist factions in Ireland into an effective opposition to the parliamentarians. Ó Dálaigh made his assistance conditional on royal concessions regarding civil and religious liberties for Irish Catholics but, when these were not forthcoming, he withdrew from the negotiations, missing the chance to become involved in the constitutional experiment of the Confederation of Kilkenny in the 1640s. Although a staunch royalist and consistent supporter of the Stuarts, there is evidence that he supported a free and independent kingdom of Ireland, probably under some loose form of Stuart authority; a stance which provoked appalled comment from the Duke of Ormonde in 1650. In 1662 he became bishop of Coimbra, but died in Lisbon on 30 June 1662 as bishop-elect and president of the state council of Portugal. He was buried in the Dominican college where his monument is preserved. His works include Initium, incrementa et exitus familiae Geraldinorum Desmoniae comitum (The Geraldines, Earls of Desmond), published in Lisbon in 1655; he was a descendant of the Geraldines on his mother’s side..
Coimbra, where Dominic ร Dรกlaigh is buried
Anthony Daly | Whiteboy | d. 1820 Under two centuries after Lochlann Óg Ó Dálaigh lamented the passing of native Gaelic society (see above), Ireland had witnessed the failed Rising of 1798, the Act of Union in 1801, the spread of ‘absentee landlords’ across the country, and a progressive enclosure of the commonages on which, for centuries, the people had grazed their cattle.
Whiteboys dealing with a landowner
Catholic emancipation was still some decades away, and subsistence tenant farmers lived under the thumb of middle-men and the established Church; in constant fear of eviction, and oppressed by rack-rents and excessive tithes.
In response, secret agrarian societies such as the Whiteboys (Buachaillí Bána) were formed. Using violent tactics against landlords and tithe collectors, they agitated for fair rents and security of tenure on their farms. Daly, a journeyman carpenter, was a leader of the local Whiteboys in Rahruddy, a townland west of Loughrea. After an attack on a local landowner, he was arrested because of his known membership of the Whiteboys. Although widely believed to be innocent, he was hanged for attempted murder on the Hill of Seefin, near Craughwell, as an example to the local community. On his way from the court in Galway to Seefin for the hanging – sitting on his own coffin in a horse-drawn cart – people called out to him, in Irish, to jump down and that they would hide him. Even some of the soldiers, it is said, called out that they would only fire into the air if he ran, but he declined, fearing reprisals against locals. Daly’s death has been memorialised in a number of works. Antoine Ó Raifteirí (‘Is mise Raifteirí, an file’), who witnessed Daly’s hanging, composed a poem to lament his death – ‘Antoine Ó’Dálaigh’. Samuel Barber composed a significant choral work, ‘Anthony O Daly’, lamenting his death, based on Ó Raifteirí’s poem, while James Stephens wrote a ‘reincarnation’ of the poem (see overleaf). Most recently, John Steinbeck wrote about him in his short nonfiction work, The Ghost of Anthony Daly.
A NTHONY O’D ALY
Anthony!
Anthony!
Since your limbs were laid out
After you
the stars do not shine!
there is nothing to do!
The fish leap not out
There is nothing but grief!
in the waves! On our meadows the dew On our meadows the dew
does not fall in the morn,
does not fall in the morn,
for O Daly is dead!
for O Daly is dead!
Not a flow'r can be born! Not a word can be said! Not a tree have a leaf! — by James Stephens (1882-1950)
Hill of Seefin Co. Galway
from Reincarnations, published 1918 (as a ‘reincarnation’ of Raifteirí’s lament)
Sir Dominick Daly | Imperial Governor | 1798–1868 Some Dalys did better out of the Empire. In the year of the 1798 rebellion, Dominick Daly was born in Ardfry, Co. Galway. After studies in Oscott College, Birmingham, in 1823 he became secretary to the LieutenantGovernor of Lower Canada, Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton. In 1827, he was appointed provincial secretary for Lower Canada. From 1840 to 1841, he was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada. After the Act of Union in 1840, he was required to be elected and ran successfully in the Canada East riding of MÊgantic in 1841. In the same year, he was appointed provincial secretary of Canada East and a member of the Executive Council. When the council resigned en masse in November 1843 in a dispute with Governor Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, Daly chose to remain, which was viewed as a betrayal by Reformers, who were agitating for republican and responsible government, and in a power struggle with Metcalfe over governance of Canada. As a result, Daly was left as acting head of government for several weeks. In 1844, he became provincial secretary for both Canada East and Canada West. The following year, he was challenged to a duel by Reformer Thomas Cushing Aylwin; shots were fired but no one was injured. When Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin came to power in 1848, Daly was removed from the Executive Council. He returned to England and served on a commission of inquiry. In 1852, Daly returned to the colonies, appointed lieutenant-governor of Tobago, and to the same post in Prince Edward Island in 1854. Knighted in 1956, he resigned in 1959. In October 1861, he was appointed the next Governor of South Australia and died in office in 1868 in Adelaide.
Prince Edward Island
John Daly | American Outlaw
| 1839–1864 From a gentleman, to a true Old West outlaw. Born in New York, Daly wound up in Nevada in late 1862, at about 25 years of age, with a trail of dead men behind him (up to 10 in California alone), to make his living off of the gold rush, one way or another.
A gang of outlaws in the 1850s
He was soon engaged by the Pond Mining Company in the small town of Aurora as a hired gun, along with ‘Three-Fingered Jack’ McDowell, ‘Italian Jim’, William Buckley and a number of others, to protect its interests against its rival, the Real Del Monte Mining Company. Together they formed the ‘Daly Gang’, which, despite the name, was run by ‘Three-Fingered Jack’.
By autumn 1863, Daly and several of his men had been appointed deputy city marshals of Aurora. The Daly gang ruled the roost; shaking down honest merchants, bullying locals and operating a saloon, where gunfights, beatings and murder became commonplace. In 1864, a local paper, The Esmerelda Star, is quoted with saying “No sooner had the Marshal been sworn in than the worst villains that ever infested a civilized community were appointed policemen, and with but few exceptions they were composed of as hard a set if criminals ever went unhung.” The gang terrorised the Nevada gold fields between Aurora and Carson City for over two years, beating and lynching anyone who resisted. They operated with impunity until they murdered William R. Johnson in 1864, for killing one of their associates, Jim Sears, while he was attempting to steal a horse the previous year. Slitting Johnson’s throat and setting him on fire, they then left the gruesome sight for all to see. When one law-abiding citizen threatened to tell the local authorities the identities of the killers, the gang took quick action, cutting the throat of the would-be informer and throwing the body of their victim into the muddy street to rot.
Locals had finally had enough, and 600 men quickly formed a vigilante group—the ‘Citizens’ Protective Association’. Within a week of the murder, on 5th February 1864, they attacked the gang’s saloon, dragged McDowell, Daly, Buckley, and another out, and locked them up while they quickly constructed a gallows. At half-past 1 o’clock, a small cannon that stood beside the gallows was fired, the rope was cut, and all four men were hanged outside Armory Hall in Aurora.
Aurora, Nevada Evelyne Boynton Grierson Painting–oil on canvas
Malachy Bowes Daly | Lt. Governor, Nova Scotia | 1836–1920 Born in Quebec City, the son of Sir Dominick Daly (see above), Malachy (Mally) Bowes Daly followed his father’s footsteps into Canadian politics, becoming the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia; and the first Catholic to hold the post. Having been called to the Bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1864 (the year John Daly, above, was hanged), Daly was a private secretary to his father, who was then Lt. Governor of Prince Edward Island, and private secretary to three successive governors of Nova Scotia; Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Sir Charles Hastings Doyle, and Sir William Fenwick Williams. A Liberal-Conservative, in the 1878 federal election he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons, and represented Halifax until 1887, acting as Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees of the Whole of the House of Commons from 1885-1887. From 1890 to 1900, for two terms, he was the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. Outside politics, he was a renowned cricketer, playing twice for Canada’s national cricket team in 1874, and scoring the first century in Canadian cricket in Halifax during the 1858 cricket season. He was also fortunate to survive an enormous ammunition explosion at Halifax harbour on 6 December 1917 which killed 3,000 people, when the French ship SS Mont Blanc, carrying 4000 tons of high explosive, collided with the SS IMO– causing the greatest man-made explosion before the splitting of the atom. Daly, lucky to be merely knocked off his feet by the blast, wrote an interesting account of the aftermath. On retiring from office in 1900, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (K.C.M.G.). He died in Halifax on April 26, 1920, in his eighty-fifth year.
Halifax explosion victims’ funerals 1917
Edward ‘Ned’ Daly | Battalion Leader, 1916 Rising | 1891–1916 Our only proper Limerickman here, Ned Daly was born at 26 Frederick Street (now O’Curry street) in Limerick, the only son of ten children, and the younger brother of Kathleen Clarke – wife of Tom Clarke. He spent a short spell as an apprentice baker in Glasgow, before returning to Limerick, and then to Dublin where he worked in a wholesale chemists, living in Fairview with Kathleen and Tom Clarke. An active member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), in November 1913 Daly joined the newly founded Irish Volunteers, and soon reached the rank of captain. He was a keen student of military manuals and the professionalism of his company, in missions such as the Howth gun-running of 1914, earned him the admiration of senior officers in the Volunteers. In March 1915, he was promoted to the rank of commandant of the 1st Battalion. When the Rising came, Daly’s battalion, stationed in the Four Courts and areas to the west and north of the city centre, saw the most intense fighting. He surrendered his battalion on 29 April and, in the subsequent trial, argued that he was simply following orders, but was executed by firing squad on 4 May 1916, at the age of 25–the youngest person to be executed in the Rising’s aftermath. The men in his battalion spoke of him as a good commandant; an opinion shared by a British officer that Daly’s battalion had captured.
Artist’s impression of a postRising execution by gunfire at Kilmainham Gaol, 1916
Memorial to those executed in the Easter Rising Kilmainham Gaol
James Daly | Leader of the 1920 Punjab Mutiny | 1899–1920 Four years after Ned Daly’s execution, thousands of miles from Dublin, and with the War of Independence yet to kick into high gear, rebellion against the British Empire claimed another Daly. This time, it was a mutiny of Irish soldiers, belonging to the Connaught Rangers regiment, in India in 1920. The rebellion began in June 1920, with a small number of Irish soldiers in the British army’s Jullundur barracks in the Punjab refusing to perform their duties as long as Ireland was governed by martial law and subject to the ravages of the Black and Tans, which had recently been recruited to bolster the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in Ireland. The soldiers had been receiving a drip-feed of reports of atrocities committed by this new force, and other units of the Connaught Rangers quickly joined in. Matters escalated when a number of soldiers, led by James Daly, whose brother William was also a Connaught Ranger, stormed the armoury in their barracks at Solan near the Tibetan border, in an attempt to seize the weapony contained there. The action failed, and two of the mutineers, Patrick Smyth from Drogheda and Peter Sears from Mayo, were killed. On 28 June, in a highly symbolic act, the mutineers lowered the union jack in the Jullundur garrison and replaced it with the tricolour, then a symbol of the Rising. The rebellion, however, only lasted three days before the mutineers were outnumbered and overpowered. Eighty-eight of those who surrendered were court-martialled. Nineteen were sentenced to death, but only James Daly actually faced a firing squad. The 21 year old from Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath, was the last British soldier to be executed for mutiny. In 1922, after the creation of the Irish Free State the Connaught Rangers regiment was disbanded and the imprisoned mutineers were amnestied. Many of the regiment’s former members went on to join the Free State Army. In 1936 the government of Eamon de Valera offered pensions to the surviving mutineers, thus equating them with soldiers of the War of Independence. On the 50th anniversary of the mutiny, in 1970, the bodies of Daly, Smyth and Sears were repatriated to Ireland and a memorial to the mutineers was erected in Glasnevin cemetery. A stained glass window in Galway cathedral also commemorates the event, as well as a re-worked song, popular with Republicans (overleaf).
L AY H IM A WAY
ON THE
H ILLSIDE
The grey dawn has crept o’er the stillness of morning, The dew drops they glisten like icicles breath, The notes of the bugle have sounded their warning, A young Connaught Ranger lay sentenced to death, No cold-blooded murder had stained his pure conscience, He called as a witness his maker on high, He’d simply been fighting for Ireland's loved freedom, Arrested and tried he was sentenced to die
CHORUS:
Lay him away on the hillside, Along with the brave and the bold, Inscribe his name on the scroll of fame, In letters of purest gold, My conscience will never convict me, He said with his dying breath, May God bless the cause of freedom, For which I am sentenced to death.
Imperial India
He thought of the love of his feeble old mother, He thought of the colleen so dear to his heart, The sobs of affection, he scarcely could smother, Well knowing how soon from them both he must part, He feared not to die though his heart was near broken, ‘Twas simply remembrance of those he loved well, His rosary he pressed to his heart as a token, The prayer cheered his soul in the felon's lone cell
To the dim barrack square, the doomed hero was hurried, In the grey of the dawn ere the sun rose on high, With head held erect, undaunted, unworried, The gallant young soldier went proudly to die, I blame not my comrades for doing their duty, Aim straight for my heart, were the last words he said, Exposing his breast to the point of the rifles, The smoke cleared away, the young soldier lay dead.
1920 Mutiny Memorial Glasnevin Cemetery
Carroll John Daly
| Crime Fiction Novelist | 1889–1958 While Ireland was in turmoil, Carroll John Daly was growing up in Yonkers, New York. By all accounts he was a strange man: neurotic, agoraphobic and suffering a severe fear of dentists. However, with the help of a sympathetic wealthy uncle who encouraged his writing efforts, he became a successful writer of crime fiction, and has been credited with creating the first hard-boiled story, ‘The False Burton Combs’, published in Black Mask magazine in December 1922, followed closely by ‘It’s All in the Game’ (Black Mask, April 1923) and the private investigator story ‘Three Gun Terry’ (Black Mask, May 1923). His 1927 book, ‘The Snarl of the Beast’ (1927) has the distinction as being acknowledged as the first private eye novel ever published.
Daly’s main character, New York private detective Race Williams, first appeared in ‘Knights of the Open Palm’, published on 1 June 1923 in Black Mask and was a star attraction in the pulps as late as 1955. During that era, Daly was considered the leader of the naturalistic school of crime writers. Yet, although Race Williams predated the October 1923 debut of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op character, the latter tended to overshadow Carroll’s work from the 1960s onwards. Daly’s Williams was a rough-and-ready character with a sharp tongue and established the model for many later hard-bitten private eyes. For an excerpt, see the panel overleaf. Novels •
The White Circle (1926)
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Murder Won’t Wait (1933)
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The Snarl of the Beast (1927)
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Murder from the East (1935)
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Man in the Shadows (1928)
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Mr. Strang (1936)
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The Hidden Hand (1929)
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The Mystery of the Smoking Gun (1936)
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The Tag Murders (1930)
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The Emperor of Evil (1937)
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Tainted Power (1931)
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Better Corpses (1940)
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The Third Murderer (1931)
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Murder at Our House (1950)
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The Amateur Murderer (1933)
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Ready to Burn (1951)
Excerpt
It’s the point of view in life that counts. For an ordinary man to get a bullet through his hat as he walked home at night would be something to talk about for years. Now, with me; just the price of a new hat—nothing more. The only surprise would be for the lad who fired the gun. He and his relatives would come in for a slow ride, with a shovel-ful of dirt at the end of it. I can take a joke, of course, but my sense of humor isn't fully enough developed along those lines. I have brains, I suppose. We all have. But a sharp eye, a quick draw, and a steady trigger finger drove me into the game. Also you might add to that an aptitude for getting out of trouble almost as quickly as I get into it. Under the laws I’m labeled on the books and licensed as a private detective. Not that I'm proud of that license but I need it, and I’ve had considerable trouble hanging onto it. My position is not exactly a healthy one. The police don't like me. The crooks don’t like me. I’m just a halfway house between the law and crime; sort of working both ends against the middle. Right and wrong are not written on the statutes for me, nor do I find my code of morals in the essays of longwinded professors. My ethics are my own. I’m not saying they’re good and I'm not admitting they're bad, and what’s more I’m not interested in the opinions of others on that subject. When the time comes for some quick-drawing gunman to jump me over the hurdles I’ll ride to the Pearly Gates on my own ticket. It won’t be a pass written on the back of another man’s thoughts. I stand on my own legs and I'll shoot it out with any gun in the city—any time, any place. Thirty-fourth street and Broadway, in the five o'clock rush hour, isn’t barred either. Race Williams—Private Investigator—tells the whole story. Right! Let’s go. — Race Williams Snarl of the Beast
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh | President of Ireland | 1911–1978 Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh fit a lot into his career, but it didn’t all go smoothly. He was Ireland’s youngest Attorney General (1946-48, and again in 1951-53) and in 1953 was appointed the youngest member of the Supreme Court, and then Chief Justice. When Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC), he became Ireland's judge on the European Court of Justice. When President Childers died suddenly in 1974, all parties agreed to nominate Ó Dálaigh for the post. However, his tenure as president proved to be contentious. His decision in 1976 to exercise his power to refer the Emergency Powers Bill (drafted following the assassination of the British Ambassador to Ireland by the Provisional IRA) to the Supreme Court, to test its constitutionality, aroused hostility in the government of the day. Shortly after President Ó Dálaigh had referred the Bill to the Supreme Court, and following the killing of a Garda, Minister for Defence Paddy Donegan, on a visit to a barracks in Mullingar, attacked the President for sending the Bill to the Supreme Court, calling him a “thundering disgrace”. Donegan offered his resignation but Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave refused to accept it. This proved the last straw for Ó Dálaigh, who believed that not only had Donegan “irrevocably broken” the relationship between the minister for justice and the president as commander-in-chief of the army, but had additionally failed to meet his constitutional obligation to regularly brief the President. He resigned on 22 October 1976, “to protect the dignity and independence of the presidency as an institution” and was succeeded by Patrick Hillery.
President Ó Dálaigh being sworn in as President, 1974
One of Lar’s presidential campaign badges
Lar ‘America First’ Daly | The Tireless Candidate | 1912–1979 From a president, to a presidential hopeful. Born in 1912, Lawrence Joseph Sarsfield Daly, known as Lar ‘America First’ Daly, was a fringe American politician who ran (usually unsuccessfully) for a variety of political offices, including the presidency, about 30 times – often campaigning wearing an Uncle Sam suit. Daly was a Libertarian who had a habit of taking rather extreme positions. He favoured legalised gambling, opposed public education, and called for major tax cuts. In foreign policy he was a staunch isolationist, but advocated war with the USSR and invasion of Cuba. From the 1930s to the 1960s he ran for both the Democratic and Republican parties: for Governor of Illinois (1956 and 1964); primaries for the Mayor of Chicago (1959, 1963 and 1967); primaries for US Senator for Illinois (1966, 1970 and 1978); and for US Representative for Illinois, in a special election in the 7th District in 1973, as a Republican. The last election he won, but was defeated in the subsequent general election. Most famously, he was the ‘Tax Cut’ and ‘America First’ candidate in the 1960 presidential elections, which pitted him against John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. He is best known in the US today for using the Federal Communications Commission’s ‘Equal Time Rule’ to force radio and television news broadcasts to give him equal coverage with JFK and Nixon during the 1960 campaign, which had a major impact on later presidential campaigns. Stories about him tend to emphasise the silly side, and the fact that people didn’t take him seriously. In one way, he didn’t make it easy: He began using the name ‘Lar’ because he thought it would win him some Swedish votes. He promised while running for Governor of Illinois in 1956: “my first act in office will be to paint the Governor’s mansion red, white and blue—with my own money! Moreover, the official Governor’s portrait will be me dressed in my Uncle Sam suit. What could be more fitting and patriotic to display on the walls of government office buildings throughout the state?” He lived in a simple, brick one-story home with an American eagle on the front mailbox and a red, white and blue garage, and drove a red, white and blue Ford station wagon. During the 1970s he began appearing without the Uncle Sam suit, with rumours spreading that he’d had to pawn it. But there was much more to him than a buffoon. Married, with six children, he operated a business that sold bar stools, under the one-man corporate title of the American Stool and Chair Company. When he was only five, his mother had died, and he and his brother John spent a year in an orphanage before moving to
Chicago with their father. Even as a child, he showed himself to be a shrewd businessman, selling fruit and vegetables for a tidy profit. In his first campaign, in 1932, he had actually won, being elected a Republican ward committeeman. But it was discovered he was only 20 years old, and not eligible for the job. He next ran for Cook County Superintendent of Schools in the 1938 Democrat primary. Close friends bemoaned his more outlandish antics, emphasising his razor-sharp mind, his comprehensive knowledge of the election laws, his affable personality and ease in making friends. People who knew him well liked him. He played the fiddle and loved to entertain friends at parties. He was also said to be a good public speaker, with a rich, baritone voice. In an interview after his passing, a friend said of him, “Lar Daly isn’t a comedian at heart. I think people got the wrong impression because he wore that Uncle Sam suit. I was always against it. It wouldn’t inspire patriotism. Patriotism died around 1776 in the United States. Maybe if he didn’t wear the Uncle Sam suit; maybe if he toned down some of those ideas; maybe if he cow-towed—went along with certain political leaders—he might have been elected to some political office. The friend stared a minute in space and then shook his head as if in despair. “But then I guess he wouldn’t be Lar Daly.”
Pattern for a homemade Uncle Sam costume 1930s
Marie Maynard Daly | Pioneering Scientist | 1921 – 2003 Amongst all these white men, there’s Marie M. Daly, the first African-American woman in the US to obtain a Ph.D in chemistry, and whose ground-breaking work enhanced our understanding of how the body works. Born on 16 April, 1921, in Queens, New York, Daly was raised in a family that emphasised the value of education. Her father, Ivan C. Daly, had emigrated from the West Indies as a young man and enrolled at Cornell University to study chemistry. However, he was forced to quit his studies due to a lack of funds, and took work in New York as a postal clerk. Her mother, Helen, had spent long hours reading to her during her childhood, and fostered Marie’s love of books; in particular, those that centred on science and scientists, such as The Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruff. After receiving her B.S. and M.S. in chemistry at Queens College and New York University, she completed her Ph.D in chemistry at Columbia University – the first African-American woman in the US to do so. Her career path was aided by the fact that, during her doctoral studies the Second World War was at its peak, and employers were looking for women to fill the vacant positions left by men sent overseas. Daly’s research interests were always focused on the inner workings of the human body. Having first analysed how proteins are constructed in the body, and also worked on a research team which analysed the structure of DNA years before the Nobel-winning work by Watson and Crick. In 1955 she returned to Columbia to research the causes of heart attacks. This pioneering work revealed the relationship between high cholesterol and clogged arteries opened up a new understanding of how foods and diet can affect the health of the heart and the circulatory system. Throughout her career, Daly championed efforts to get students from minority backgrounds enrolled in medical schools and graduate science programs.. Appointed a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she retired from Albert Einstein College in 1986, and died in New York City, aged 82, on 28 October 2003. As one of the Caribbean Dalys, discussed above, we can’t know whether she is descended from Dalys shipped from Ireland, or whether her slave ancestors adopted the surname from their owner.
Columbia University New York
Thomas Aquinas Daly | Contemporary Painter | b.1937 Thomas Aquinas Daly (born 27 March 1937) is an American contemporary landscape and still life painter. Educated as a graphic artist at the University at Buffalo, he spent 23 years working in the commercial printing business before leaving it in 1981 to devote his full attention to painting. His work focuses on themes of land and nature, often featuring sportsmen and hunters. Combining strong design with a sophisticated appreciation of light, colour and movement, his luminous, expressive watercolors and oil paintings are recognised as successfully bridging the gap between sporting and fine art. His work has been displayed in numerous solo exhibitions at galleries, museums and universities throughout the United States, and he was awarded the Grand Central Art Gallery’s Gold Medal by President Gerald Ford at the opening of his 1987 show in New York
Detail from A Nice Bull Oil. 11" x 15", 15" x 19"
A Deer Hunter from Otter Lake Watercolor, 11Ÿ" x 16ž"
10 | OUR FAMILY HISTORY
Introduction In this last section we get to the most important part of the Daly story: us! Having learned of our (supposed) divine origins and followed the changing fortunes of Ó Dálaighs and Dalys throughout history and across the world, we can now look at our own family story with the benefit of context. You will have noticed that certain names besides Daly have been highlighted in the text: these are all names in our family tree, going back quite a few generations. Unfortunately we don’t have as much information on Ned Daly’s line as we do on Mama’s, but together, and with notes kept by various members of the family (especially Paddy Fennessy) we have a decent picture of the family tree, going back at least to the early nineteenth century.
The information below was transcribed from notes kept by Jack Maume and Paddy Fennessy. Many thanks to Jack for keeping the information, Paddy for preserving it, and Libby for procuring it!
The Dalys Edmund Daly married Eliza Culhane about 1856. They lived on a farm in Maiden Hall, Klmallock, Co. Limerick. They had 3 children, James, Honora and Daniel. Honora and Daniel never married. James Daly married Annie Mannix and moved to a farm in Garrienderk, Kilmallock. Annie’s parents were John Mannix and Mary Roche. James and Annie had one child only, a son, Edmund b. 1901. Edmund (Ned) married Gretta Watson in 1929. She died 1940. They had 3 daughters, Nora, Joan, Nellie. Edmund Daly remarried in 1944 to Kitty Maume, Gurtacurrig, Kilfinane, Co. Limerick. They had 6 girls and 2 boys - Anne, Kitty, Pauline, Patricia, Jimmy, Nuala, Deirdre and Tommy.
Daly Family Census Return 1901
Daly Family Census Return 1911 – listing Ned Daly
From left: Anna, Pat, Nelly, Kitty, Nora, Pauline, and Jimmy in the pram Looks like Pat is a big fan of Nora here!
Maidenhall 1958
Clockwise from left: Nuala, Pat, Pauline, Jimmy, Deirdre and Tommy Jimmy looks like he’s up to something‌
The Maumes Kitty Maume (Mama), Mick and Jack
The Maumes Around the years 1823-25, the then Earl of Kingston was building a magnificent castle in Mitchelstown. He was also laying out a big demesne with parks and plantations, so that he had to dispossess a great number of his tenants. Many of these he set in marginal land, in the slopes of the Ballyhouras and the Galtees. John Maume and his wife Catherine Condon were tenants in a farm in Shraherla a few miles east of Mitchelstown. Many of their children were already scattered. Kit Maume was married to Patrick Kelly in Glenroe. We shall be hearing more about her later on. Then there was a Mrs McCarthy and a Mrs O'Brien, and a Mrs Hayes. Also Garret who married into a farm in Oldcastletown. The old folks were gone and now Tomás and his sister Mary had to get out and move to Gurtacurry and start a new homestead. Soon when the house was built, Tomás married a local girl names Elizabeth Gallagher and his sister Mary married a local farmer , Pats Dwane. Tomás and Elizabeth had a big family - Jack, who became my father's father. Garrett, not married, got sudden death at 40. Bill went to America. Mary, America. Liz - married a police-man, Millea. Kit married James Magner Ballyvesteen. Julia married Dave Dwane, Mitchelstown. Pats Dwane and his wife Mary Maume had three in the family. Mick, Tom and Elizabeth. Jack Maume, my grandfather and Mick Dwane, first cousins, married two sisters from Ballsurdane, Ellen Coughlan - Mrs Maume. Joan Coughlan - Mrs Dwane. Jack Maume and his wife Ellen Coughlan had eight in the family. Tom my father married Kate Hogan and had four children. Pad who died a young man. Will who lived in the little slate house - never married. Liza married Nicholas Fleming, four daughters. Mary – Mrs Hanly - no family. John Australia married. Son and daughter. Garreth Australia. Married - no family. Dick Australia. Eugene Geary – our local poet, wrote the following about my father
Mitchelstown Castle
P OEM
FOR
T OM M AUME
The years have passed since death did end The earthly life - this worthy friend, Of mine - and many others who Mourned his loss - for he was true, And zealous for old Ireland’s cause Since he opposed the Land-Lord laws Many puns, he solved in “Di” And solvers few with him could vie Upright-Honourable everywhere — Eugene Geary
Jack Maume’s genealogy notes
From left: Anna, Kitty, Pauline It’s not like Kitty to be so shy!
A decent chunk of the Daly family in one place Clockwise: Grace, Aidan, Emma, Leo, Louise, Melanie, Mama, Jean, David, Anna, Aoife, and Maeve (looking mischievous as always)
The Family Tree Overleaf we have a family tree, based on the information we have about the Dalys and the Maumes. It’s a simplified tree, with no reference to siblings, such as James Daly’s sister and brother, Honora and Daniel. It also departs from convention in the way it’s laid out: we’ve used colour coding and other design devices to save us from using endless lines and to save space. Also to save space, we’ve listed only as far as Ned Daly’s children with Gretta Watson and Mama (Kitty Maume): we reckoned that people will know the story once we get to this level. A big omission in the family tree here is Gretta Watson’s forebears: we didn’t get time to gather information on her ancestors, and so we’ll have to save that information for the second edition! A bigger version of the family tree has been made up as a poster, so don’t worry too much about the small size of the tree here.
If you can’t tell a second cousin from a ‘first cousin-once-removed’, you can ask Libby or Mia: they have it all figured out!
Pauline, Kitty, Anna & friends
DALY FAMILY TREE
Jimmy and Tommy caffling in the yard
The Birthday Boy and Girl
THAT’S IT! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!