Cunningham, McGonigle, Conaghan, Cunning
McDevitt, McDaid, McDade, McGaughey
O'Friel, Friel, Freel, (O'Farrell)
Galbraith & other "Plantation" names
McLoughlin, O'Loughlin, McGloughlin, Laughnane, McLaughlin
O'Boyle, Boyle
This name is said by McLysaght to mean, "having profitable pledges". The septs territory was originally of Tir Eanna Boigheannach and covered from Donegal Town right around to Kilmacrennan along the west coast. They became gradually isolated by the territory splitting up into Tir Ainmireach (about Ardara) at one corner and the Three Tuatha at the end opposite (about Falcarragh and Kilmacrennan) in the 13th Century with the O'Donnell sept, their lords, filling in the area between. The O'Donnell's squeezed them even further in the 14th Century when they were introducing their gallowglass supporters the McSweeneys. As Chiefs of Tir Conaill the O'Donnells gave away two of the Three Tuathas (i.e. except for Clochaneely) to the Fanad and Doe branches of this family which came from ...
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McBride
The names McBride, Kilbride come from the Gaelic Mac Giolla Bhride, "Devotee of the cult of St. Brighid (or Bridget)". St. Brighid is one of the three Patrons of Ireland. Her cult was initially of the Irish Midlands where it was confined to the Counties of Kildare, Offaly and Roscommon. Her great shrine was at Kildare where there are still monastic remains. The cult early spread to Co. Down where Giolla Bhride was a name of the Chiefs of the Modharnai who absorbed a Midlands sept transferring therein the ninth century carrying the cult with them. In Donegal it appears there was another St. Brigid altogether but whose ...
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Crampsey
Crampsey, Crashy, Boner, Bonar, Bonnar are names which altogether when totalled are quite high on the list of Co. Donegal names but while perhaps not of the top ten the names are particularly evocative of the County and are included for that reason. McLysaght gives it little attention and then only under Kneafsey, a form unknown in Donegal. McCrampsey, O'Crawsey are also believed absent today. Formerly the name approximating to these forms was usually spelled Crampsey in Co. Donegal but by far the more usual was Bonner or Boner and is so today. On the face of it the Gaelic Cnamsighe seems to connotate something like ...
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Cunningham, McGonigle, Conaghan, Cunning
Cunningham is not always the old Irish O'Coineagain (which is a Munster sept) or MacCoineagain (a Connacht sept). McLysaght states the Cunningham who bore arms, were members of families who were in the company of several landed Scottish proprietors of the Plantation in their many branches. There may be an intermingling of the Irish and Scottish families here. This is most probable in the case of a sept originally named Mac Dhonnagain from Co. Down who changed their name to Cunningham. Although it is not adverted to by McLysaght, there is considerable affinity between the Inishowen name of ...
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McDevitt, McDaid, McDade, McGaughey
McDade, Cavey, Davis, (but not Davitt) are Anglicised versions of MacDhaithi or MacDaibhid. They were a principal sub-sept to the O'Dochartaigh Chiefs. When the O'Dochertaig's seat was at Ard Meidhir (Admiran Ballybofey) they shared the Barony of Cinel Enna (Raphoe) and Inis Eoghain (Inishowen) in the 13th Century with their sub-septs. Other under-kings to the O'Dohertys in Inishowen were Mac Lochlainn, O Maolfabhail and O Duibhdhiorma. Neither of these last two have forms directly recognisable today though Deery may be O Durbhdhiorma as well as Ui Daighre. Mulvehills (Lavelles) do not appear today in any of the Inishowen directories but appear in past voters' lists. The names of McDevitt and MacLochlainn have submerged many of the lesser families though a few have struggled to maintain a separate identity. In the 13th Century David O'Doherty "Chief of Tyrone" had lorded it for a while over even the ...
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O'Doherty, Doherty
The name was initially confined to Inishowen where the sept were sub-chieftains of the territory rendering fealty sometimes to the overlords of Tir Conaill, sometimes to those of Tyrone and sometimes to the Norma Earl of Ulster as one or other took control from time to time. Their original seat was at Ard Meidhir (Admiran Ballybofey) from which they governed Cinel N-Eanna a territory extending to Newtowncunningham but they often shared it and much of Inishowen with O Maolfabhail, O'Gormley, O'Kane, McDevitt, O'Duibhdhiorma and MacLochlainn. Finally battle was joined with O'Donnell who took over as Taoiseach in the 14th Century. The O'Dohertys were politically astute and played off one master against another while keeping as much land as they could (i.e. they were "dochartach") gradually acquiring the whole of ...
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O'Donnell
This name is to be distinguished from McDonald, the latter being of Scottish origin and deriving, in Ireland, from a settlement of the sept in East Ulster (14th C.). O'Donnell is associated mainly with County Donegal (Tir Conaill though many would claim Inishowen also). They came into prominence in the 14th Century as Chieftains of Cine/Conaill replacing Ua Cannanain and Ua Maol Doraidh the leading families of the territory formerly. There are other O'Donnells elsewhere in Ireland. These are descended from some progenitor having the name Donnell (Domhnaill in Irish) which was widely used. The Donegal O'Donnells claim preference because of their large influence upon the history of the North West and by particular reference to the heroic exploits of the young Red Hugh O'Donnell (d. 1602) against the English armies of Queen Elizabeth.
The Domhnall who gave his name to the family of Donegal was ...
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O'Friel, Friel, Freel (O'Farrell)
Though not a family great in numbers today, it is one having a lengthy lineage and connection with the O'Donnell and McSweeny leaders in history. They were also important ecclesiastics for centuries being coarbs of the monastery of Raphoe and St. Adamnan (or Eunan). This meant that while one of the family was available they had first refusal of the Abbacy in the monastery there. They were also erenaghs of the monastic lands of Kilmacrennan i.e. they held these lands under the Brehon Laws on behalf of the Prior. This was also a hereditary post and had the privilege of offering the O'Donnell his mystic wand (symbol of his command over his sub-chieftains) during his inauguration, at the local site of Carraig a' Duin.
According to McLysaght, the name is seldom met with outside Donegal yet there are today 45 Friels and 5 of the "O" form in the Dublin Telephone Directory and not surprisingly 95/11 in the Northern Ireland Directory. Some of the latter (not to say in Ulster as a whole, Donegal having been equally affected by the Plantation) may be ...
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Galbraith & other "Plantation" names
While Cunningham is mostly of Scottish origin it was thought desirable to include one that is purely so. If not in great numbers today, there were once many of the name Galbraith in Counties Donegal and its selection should not need any apology. Other introduced during the 17th Century Jacobean Plantation include the following:
Alexander, Alcorn, Brown, Campbell, Caulfield,
Colhoun, Fullerton, Hamilton, Harte, Hayes, Hunter,
Irwin, Johnston, Lowry, McClintock, McCrea, McGill,
McGuinness, Mclvor, McNight, McNutt, McLean, Magee,
Orr, Patton, Porter, Ramsey, Rankin (E), Robinson,
Roulston, Scott, Sproule, Spear, Spence, Stewart,
Taylor, Travers, Vaughan, Wilkinson, Wilson, Young and many others.
The native Irish adopted many of these names extensively. Watters, for instance, may sometimes be a form of...
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Gallagher, O'Gallagher
The most authoritative account of the Gallagher family is given by An tAth
P. O'Gallachair in "Donegal Annual" 1973. He states it is one of the names most frequently found in Co. Donegal not to say the country as a whole. He gives Cinel Ainmireach as their origin. It was through a branch of this ancient family of Conal Gulban - that of Maolcobha - the Gallagher branch descended. Little occurs in the Annals concerning them. The Gallaghers were erenaghs of the monastery of Screen, Co. Sligo and of Carrick (near Kilcar) of Kilbarron near Ballyshannon (before the family of O'Cleary took it over in early 10th C.) and of Conwal, Letterkenny. Even while the family fortunes were low the name O'Gallagher is found turning up frequently amongst the wives recorded for the O'Donnell sept. An tAth O'Gallagher provides many obscure annalistic references to the O Gallagher sept. Many of them were connected with ...
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McLoughlin, O'Loughlin, McGloughlin, Laughnane, McLaughlin
Ardgal Ua Lochlainn was "Lord of Aileach" in 1059. Though thought to have had some connection with the Vikings of Lough Foyle because of the name similarities ("Lochlainn" being the Gaelic for Viking") they were more probably descendants of a Maolsheachlainn Ua Maele-Ruainidh a High-King of Tara formerly Lord of Aileach in the lOth Century and an ancestor of the aforementioned Ardgal. Lochlann is a corruption of this longer form. The family were indeed Ua Lochlainn originally only becoming McLochlainn in the 13th Century. The O'Loughlins of today have mostly a Co. Clare origin (Lords of the Burren). The "O" form was adopted by a few families of Inishowen (They should, if they wished to be pedantic, call themselves O'Melaghlin, an honourable sept of Co. Meath now rare. They considered themselves descendants of the High-King Malachy, Brian Boru's collaborator). The McLoughlins were sub-kings to the O'Neills but were ignored when ousted from their Lordship of Inishowen by O'Doherty in the 15th Century. This exclusion was part of a settlement of the mutual claims of the great families, the O'Neills and the O'Donnells over disputed territory in Inishowen and Cinel Maon. The family of McLoughlin were officers to the ...
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McSweeney, Sweeney, Wheeney
It is evident that the Clann Shuibhne were Scottish mercenaries in the pay of McDonald amongst others and descended from a Norse family having their seat at Castlewean in Cantire. They adopted as Christians the unusual St. Catherine of Alexandria as Patron. Her feast day is on evidently an important day for the pantheon of the Norse Gods. They came to Ireland as Mercenaries to the McDonalds and O'Donnell chiefs in the 14th Century and as protectors to the wife of Domhnaill Og 0 Domhnalll, Chief of Tir Conaill, son of Domhnall Mor. (Gofraidh the name of the preceding taoiseach to Domhnaill Og was his half-brother - and had a common McSweeney fore name). The McDonalds settled their group at Clones from which they gravitated to Sligo, some to Munster later. The Sligo Branch were to link up with ...
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