On April 15, 1912 the Belfast built RMS Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg, killing over 1,500 passengers and crew on board. This was one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history and among those on board were many Irish. This is an extract from the book “The Irish Aboard the Titanic” by Senan Molony which tells the tales of the people who were on board the night the ship went down. This book gives those people a voice. In it are stories of agony, luck, self-sacrifice, dramatic escapes, and heroes left behind.

Ticket number 35851.

Paid£7 14s 8d.

Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.

From: Rhyne, Esker, County Longford.

Destination: 230 East 55th Street, New York city.

Katie Gilnagh survived because of a white lie. When she finally gained the upper deck, she was told that lifeboat No. 16 was too full and she could not go. As the boat began to descend, Katie cried: ‘But I want to go with my sister!’ The crewman hesitated and suddenly relented. She could get in.

‘God help me, I told a lie,’ she told the New York Daily News on the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking in 1962. ‘At first they didn’t want to let anyone else into it because it was overcrowded. I said that I wanted to go with my sister. I had no sister aboard. They let me get in, but I had to stand because we were so crowded.’

Katie did have a sister in New York – who was inconsolably arranging for a Requiem Mass when Katie walked through the door.

Besides the lie, Miss Gilnagh had also lived because of her beauty and the effect it had in winning sympathy and securing help. On two separate occasions men acted to ensure that Katie made progress to the upper decks.

During the crossing she had occupied compartment Q161 on E deck, all the way aft on the starboard side, five decks down from the boats. Her cabin partners are believed to have been sisters Margaret and Kate Murphy, and Katie Mullen, all fellow County Longford travelers. All four were saved on boat No. 16, launched from the port side.

Relatives tell that a week before sailing, a gypsy woman called to the Gilnagh house and was being turned away by her father, Hughie, when Katie demanded that her fortune be read. She was told she would soon be crossing water and there would be danger, but that she would come to no harm. The palm reading cost her sixpence.

Author Walter Lord, in "A Night to Remember," described how years later Gilnagh told of attending a party in steerage on the Sunday night of the disaster. At one point a rat scurried across the room. The boys gave chase and the girls squealed with excitement. Then the party was on again. Lord describes what happened for Katie after the berg impact:

Katherine Gilnagh, a pert colleen not quite sixteen [sic], heard a knock on the door. It was the young man who had caught her eye earlier that day playing the bagpipes on deck. He told her to get up – something was wrong with the ship …

At another barrier a seaman held back Kathy Gilnagh, Kate Mullins and Kate Murphy. (On the Titanic all Irish girls seemed to be named Katherine.)

The report goes on to recount the story of how James Farrell got them through the gate (see James Farrell) and then continues:

Even then, Kathy Gilnagh’s troubles weren’t over. She took a wrong turn … lost her friends … found herself alone on the Second-Class promenade, with no idea how to reach the boats. The deck was deserted, except for a single man leaning against the rail, staring moodily into the night. He let her stand on his shoulders, and she managed to climb to the next deck up. When she finally reached the boat deck, No. 16 was just starting down. A man warned her off – there was no more room. ‘But I want to go with my sister!’ Kathy cried … ‘All right, get in,’ he sighed, and she slipped into the boat as it dropped to the sea – another Third-Class passenger safely away.

Gilnagh described James Farrell as her ‘guardian angel.’ He appears to have reached the upper decks, according to an Irish Independent report from May 15, 1912 about a letter written home by Katie concerning the ‘sad fate of fellow-passengers from her district’:

(She) states that James Farrell of Clonee was very kind to her and another girl. As they were leaving the ill-fated vessel he gave her his cap to cover her head, and shouted ‘goodbye forever.’

Read more:My grandmother was supposed to be on the Titanic. Here's what she did instead (PHOTOS)

An Irish Post article from May 25, 1912 records:

A County Longford survivor

Among the passengers who were saved from the ill-fated Titanic was a young lady named Miss Katie Gilnagh, of Killoe, County Longford, whose photo we reproduce. She has written to her parents in Longford giving a graphic narrative of her experience.

In her letter she states that she and another girl named McCoy were the last two girls taken on the last boat, and a young man who had previously got into the boat was taken out of it. She further states that she was wearing a small shawl on her head which got blown off, when a person named Mr James Farrell of Clonee, gave her his cap.

As they were being lowered, he shouted: ‘Goodbye for ever’ and that was the last she saw of him.

Katie may have been identified aboard Carpathia by fellow survivor Lawrence Beesley in his 1912 book "The Loss of the SS Titanic":

Among the Irish group was one girl of really remarkable beauty, black hair and deep violet eyes with long lashes, perfectly shaped features, and quite young, not more than eighteen or twenty; I think she lost no relatives on the Titanic.

Joyously welcomed by sister Molly in New York, Katie was photographed to reassure the family back home. She sat on a chair, smiling sweetly, as Molly stood protectively alongside.

Katie was born in Rhyne, County Longford, on October 13, 1894, appearing in the 1901 census as the second eldest child of parents Hugh (35) and Johanna (33) Gilnagh. Katie was aged just six, and had an elder sister Mary (7), the selfsame Molly who was waiting anxiously in New York eleven years later. Four other children listed were Ellen (5), Thomas (3), Bridget (2) and one-year-old Elizabeth.

Katie was initially assisted by the Jewish Emigrant Society in New York and was aided to the tune of $100 by the American Red Cross, which described her as an Irish domestic servant, 17 years old. She later married John J. Manning from Roscommon. Heartbreak came to Katie with the death of her brother William in 1917, while her adoring sister Molly died in 1933. Katie also lost her husband before they could grow old together. He died in April 1955, not yet 60.

She went back to Ireland only once, in 1962, on the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking, and crossed the Atlantic for only the second time in her life – this time on an airliner. Her nephew Johnny Thompson recalls that a soothing voice which came over the intercom had the opposite effect on Katie: ‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Smith … ’ Horribly alarmed and distressed, Katie had to be brought to the cockpit to verify that it wasn’t the same Captain Smith who was in charge on her first Atlantic journey.

Earlier that year, as a 67-year-old grandmother, Katie had attended a 50th anniversary memorial service at the Merchant Marine Institute in South Street, Manhattan. She told the Daily News of her memories of the sinking:

When we had gotten away from the ship I could see its lights but it was so dark I didn’t know what was happening. The man in the boat kept saying ‘I can see it sinking.’ Then I did see it sink. It went down bow first. The water crept up to the portholes, extinguishing the lights. When it went under it made a loud frightening noise. About eight hours later we were rescued by the liner Carpathia. My relatives thought I was dead, and when I got to my sister’s house they were preparing for my funeral.

She told her family that there had been epithets about the pope on steel girders about the Titanic, written by the ‘Orangemen’ among the Belfast builders, but made no claims about seeing them herself.

Unlike other Irish survivors, Kate was not haunted by memories of Titanic and talked freely to those interested. She believed that she was spared for a reason and was intent on enjoying the years given to her after 1912. However, she never set foot on a ship again. Even when seeing off friends and family she would only ever go as far as the gangway. She died on March 1, 1971 aged 76. Her death certificate gave a date of birth at odds with Irish records (October 29, 1895), making her 75 years old.

1911 census– Rhyne, Killoe, County Longford.
Hugh (46), farmer. Wife Johanna (44).
Married 18 years, ten children, nine surviving.
Mary (18), Kate (17), Ellen (15), Thomas (14), Bridget (12),
Elizabeth (11), Margaret (9), Johanna (7), Hugh (5).

“The Irish Aboard the Titanic” by Senan Molony is available online.

Read more: Photos of the Titanic survivors after the great Belfast ship sank

* Originally published in 2012.

Last year, 2016, marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the rebellion for Irish independence that changed the course of Ireland’s history when it began on Easter Monday, 1916.

Here are some important facts of the Rising with you—some well-known, others more obscure.

If you have an interesting story to tell about the history of the Rising or you would like to share your thoughts on the centenary events, please make them heard in the comments section, below. 

1. The seven members of Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council who planned the Rising were Thomas Clarke, Seán McDermott, Patrick Pearse, EamonnCeannt, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly, and Thomas MacDonagh. All were executed after the Rising.

2.MacDonagh and Plunkett were poets. Pearse was a poet and writer as well as a schoolteacher.

3.Connolly was born in Scotland but made Ireland his home. He also lived for long stretches in the US.

4. Thomas Clarke also lived in the US for long periods starting the Brooklyn Gaelic Society in 1902. He was English-born.

5.EamondeValera, who participated in the Rising and later became a prominent figure in Irish politics, was born in New York and therefore an American citizen. This fact e saved him from being executed with his brothers in arms, though historians disagree on this point.

6.DeValera went on to break away from the government following the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty that implemented partition in Ireland. He would form Fianna Fáil, serve as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and later, as President of Ireland. 

7. Before his execution, McDermott wrote, "I feel happiness the like of which I have never experienced. I die that the Irish nation might live!”

8. WB Yeats wrote his famous poem “A Terrible Beauty” after he heard about the rising. “All changed, changed utterly a terrible beauty is born.”

9.The Easter Rising made the front page of The New York Times eight days in a row.

10. Joseph Plunkett married his fiance, Grace Gifford, at KilmainhamGaol eight hours before his execution.

11. She wore her widow’s mourning clothes the rest of her life.

12. The IRB Military Council declared themselves the "Provisional Government of the Irish Republic" and signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

13. It is the only proclamation of its era that mentions women equally, beginning “Irishmen and Irishwomen.”

14. While Germany and England clashed in WWI, the IRB Military Council hoped to get German military backing during the insurrection through an American-Irish Republican Group called Clan na Gael, whose members had already established a relationship with German officials.

15. The IRB Military Council initially planned to begin the insurrection on Good Friday, April 21, 1916, but eventually decided on Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916.

16. After hearing the news that a ship carrying German weaponry was captured, the Military Council decided to carry out the insurrection on Monday, April 24, 1916, in an emergency meeting held on Sunday morning, April 23. 

17. A countermanding order by EoinMac Neill, head of the Irish Volunteers, after a German gunship bearing arms to Ireland, was intercepted caused mass confusion and resulted in many volunteers missing the Rising.

18.IRB Military Council member and President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, Patrick Pearse, read the newly drawn up Proclamation, which outlined the establishment of an independent Irish Republic, to a small crowd at the steps of Dublin’s General Post Office on Monday, April 24, 1916.

19.The Proclamation itself outlined who was responsible for igniting the rising and referenced the Irish Republic’s potential ally of Germany. These details of the proclamation, considered to be treason, ensured certain death by firing squad for the leaders of the Irish Republic if independence was not obtained.

20. The proclamation called for the Irish abroad to rally to the cause especially the “Exiled children in America.”

21.The Rising began when members of IRB, Irish Volunteer Force, and Irish Citizen Army successfully took over the preselected buildings around Dublin with little resistance.

22. The buildings included the General Post Office, the Four Courts, Jacob’s Factory, Boland’s Mill, the South Dublin Union, St. Stephen’s Green, and the College of Surgeons. Both military strategy and position were the factors that came into play in choosing which buildings to occupy.

23.The General Post Office became the main headquarters of the rebellion, with five of the seven members of the Military Council/Provisional Government of the Irish Republic serving there.

24. The British authorities only had 400 troops to about 1,000 Irish rebels when the rising began and therefore couldn’t go on the offensive until reinforcements arrived.

25. By Friday, April 28, 1916, the number of British troops rose to about 19,000 while the Irish Republic groups had only amassed 1,600 fighters due to mass confusion over the date of the Rising.

26. The British troops were commanded by Brigadier-General William Lowe.

27.Ashbourne, Co. Meath was the only town other than Dublin to see significant fighting during the Easter Rising.

28. Among those in junior positions in the GOP was 24-year-old Michael Collins, who served by Connolly’s side.

29. Connolly, the commander of the Dublin Brigade, was injured early on in the fighting. The position of highest in command then passed on to Pearse.

30. Connolly was so badly injured that he was carried to his execution on a stretcher and then tied to a chair to face the firing squad.

31. The Rising's failure outside of Dublin was due to the capture of a ship loaded with Russian rifles acquired by Germany in the war.

32. British officials had intelligence about the ship coming from Germany and captured it before any guns reached the shore of Banna Strand outsideTralee.

33. In charge of the gun-running from Germany was Sir Roger Casement, a top British foreign service official, who was later executed.

34. Casement’s “black diaries,” purportedly from his time in the Belgian Congo and Peru, allegedly revealed he was gay and were used against him at trial. They were kept classified by the British government until 1959.

35. In Dublin, the deadliest battles took place at Mount Street Bridge.

36. A British strategic attack that included artillery strikes on the main rebel stronghold, The General Post Office, led to an unconditional surrender on Saturday, April 29 by Irish Republican leaders, who had escaped the burning building for nearby Moore Street.

37. The order to surrender, from Pearse, was carried by a nurse, Elizabeth O’Farrell, to the other strongholds, which were still under rebel control.

38. It read: “In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the commandants of the various districts in the City and County will order their commands to lay down arms.”

39. The Irish rebels suffered 64 casualties.

40. 132 British officers perished.

41. With battles primarily taking place in densely populated areas, the civilian death toll of the Rising was said to be as high as 254 people, and over 2,000 civilians were injured.

42. The Easter Rising was considered a betrayal at first by many Irish citizens, and the 1916 leaders were spat at on their way to jail. It was only when the executions began that the national mood changed.

43. Sixteen leaders of the rising were executed while about 3,000 more were arrested in connection to the groups.

44. Many of the leaders believed in the effectiveness of a "blood sacrifice" to inspire Irish nationalism. Blood sacrifice was a very common theme of the times from the First World War. The severe punishment of "death by being shot" served to those leading the rising inspired both Irish nationalism and British resentment, just as the Military Council hoped.

45. Songs were sung for those who laid down their lives, funds were started for their families, more republican flags and badges began appearing, recruitment to the British Armed Forces dropped, and Irish nationalism as a whole was rejuvenated.

46. Women played a key role in the Rising, with over 200 members of CumannnamBan, the women’s auxiliary branch of the Irish Volunteers, fighting for Irish independence.

47.Countess Constance Markievicz, who had been second in command to Michael Mallin in St. Stephen’s Green, was initially sentenced to death along with the other leaders of the Rising. Her sentence was changed to life in prison “on account of the prisoner’s sex.”

48. The unrest became so bad after the Rising that the British sent in the Black and Tans, a dreadful group of former prisoners, misfits, and felons to try and quiet the rebellion.

49. In 1917, the British government granted amnesty to those who had fought in the Rising and all remaining prisoners were released.

50. The Easter Rising was a major factor in SinnFéin’s victory in the 1918 parliamentary elections and subsequent decision to not sit in the United Kingdom’s Parliament.

If you have an interesting story to tell about the history of the Rising or you would like to share your thoughts on the centenary events, please make them heard in the comments section, below. 

* Originally published in April 2015.

Ever wondered about the history of your Irish surnames or your family name's meanings? Irish surnames and Irish last names are one of the most intriguing parts of our culture and to find your last name origin or from where or what your last name originated is to tell you a lot about the Irish people you are descended from. 

With the help of IrishCentral, you can now take your Irish last name or the surnames you know you are descended from and find these last names' origins in one easy guide. If you have more information about your last name's origin or any last name meanings, feel free to share it with us in the comments section, (We're sure we have some last name origen - iuses among our readers!)

The following is a comprehensive list of the 300 most common Irish surnames and the names' meanings. You can find the next two parts here if your Irish last name doesn't appear on the first list: 

• For Part II, H - M, click here
• For Part III, N - W, click here

Ahern, O’Ahern, Hearne– These Irish last names have their origins in Co. Clare, where the family held a seat as a Dalcassian sept from before the year 1000. With the disruptions of the Strongbow invasion of 1172, they migrated southward to Cork and Waterford. In Waterford, the name is predominantly Hearn/Hearne.

(Mac)Auliffe – The Irish last name MacAuliffe is particular to Co. Cork and is scarcely found outside Munster. The MacAuliffes are a branch of the MacCarthys.

MacAleese - MacGiolla (the last name's meaning is "son of the devotee of Jesus"). This Irish surname is of a prominent Derry sept. There are many variants of the name such as MacIliese, MacLeese, MacLice, MacLise, etc. The best known by this spelling, the painter Daniel MacLise, was from a family of the Scottish highlands, known as MacLeish, which settled in Cork.

Allen - This last name is usually of Scottish or English origin but sometimes in Offaly and TipperaryÓ hAillín has been anglicized Allen as well as Hallion. Allen is found as a synonym of Hallinan. As Alleyn, it occurs frequently in medieval Anglo-Irish records. The English name Allen is derived from that of a Welsh saint.

Barrett – The surname Barrett came to Ireland with the Anglo-Norman invaders at the end of the twelfth century. To this day, the surname is most frequently found in Co. Cork.

Barry - de Barra - The majority of these Irish last names are of Norman origin, i.e. de Barr (a place in Wales); they became completely Hibernicized. Though still more numerous in Munster than elsewhere the name is widespread throughout Ireland. Barry is also the anglicized form of Ó Báire and Ó Beargha (meaning spear-like according to Woulfe), a small sept of Co. Limerick.

O’Beirne– Although the pronunciation of this name is very similar to O’Byrne, there is no connection between the septs. O’Beirne has its origins almost exclusively in Connacht.

Bodkin – This non-Irish sounding name is intimately connected with Galway, with the Bodkins being one of the fourteen “tribes” of the city. The name was originally spelled Boudakyn, then Bodekin, before eventually finalizing at Bodkin.

O’Boland– The old form of this name, Bolan or O’Bolan, is almost obsolete, though occasionally found in Ireland. There are two distinct septs of the name, both of which have origins in County Sligo.

O’Boylan – The O’Boylan sept of Oriel, which sprang originally from the same stock as the O’Flanagans of Fermanagh, were, in medieval times, located in a widespread territory stretching from Fermanagh to Louth.

O’Boyle – Boyle is Ó Baoighill in modern Irish, the derivation of which is possibly from the Old Irish word "baigell", i.e. having profitable pledges. Modern scholars reject the derivation baoith-geall. It is thus, of course, a true Irish surname.

(Mac)Brady – In Irish, the name is Mac Bradaigh, so it should correctly be MacBrady in the anglicized form. The prefix Mac, however, is seldom used in Irish last names in modern times; the modern use of the prefix O instead of Mac with this name is erroneous. The MacBradys were once a powerful sept belonging to Breffny.

O’Brallaghan – Few Irish surnames have been more barbarously maltreated by the introduction of the English language into Ireland than Ó Brollachain. For some extraordinary reason, it was generally given as its anglicized form, the common English name Bradley. Though in a few places, notably County Derry, it is quite rationally still O’ Brallghan.

O'Breen, MacBreen – Presently the Breens are widely distributed around Ireland. They are usually called simply Breen, though originally there were both MacBreens and O’Breens. The Mac Braoins (Irish form of the name) were an Ossory sept seated near Knock-topher in County Kilkenny; after the Anglo-Norman invasion they were dispersed by the Walshes and sank in importance.

Brennan - Ó Braonáin - (The word "braon" has several meanings, possibly sorrow in this case). The name of four unrelated septs, located in Ossory, east Galway, Kerry, and Westmeath. The name of the county Fermanagh sept of Ó Branáin was also anglicized to Brennan, as well as Brannan.

O'Brien – The Old Irish name used by the O’Brien family in Ireland was O Briain, which means descendant of Brian. The name's origins are first found in Thomond, a territory comprised mostly of Co. Clare with adjacent parts of Limerick and Tipperary. Before the 10th Century, the sept was a Dalcassian Clan known was the Ui Toirdealbhaigh, which achieved prominence with the rise of their ancestor Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland.

MacBride, Kilbride– MacBride is Mac Giolla Brighde in Irish, i.e. son of the follower or devotee of St. Brigid. The name is found most frequently in Ulster, particularly in Co. Donegal and Co. Down.

O’Broder, Broderick, Brothers– Broderick is a fairly common indigenous surname in England. However, very few Irish Brodericks are of English extraction, with the surname also deriving from the Gaelic "O' Bruadair." Broderick affords a good example of how names evolved and were Anglicized over the course of two centuries of English domination in Ireland.

Butler: Anglo-Norman name later Earl of Ormond. Lord FitzWalter later Butler accompanied British forces to Ireland in 1169 to secure Anglo-Norman lands. The family received Irish titles for their service. Later connected to Ormond line in the Kilkenny, Tipperary area

O'Byrne– This name in Irish is O Broin, i.e. the name's meaning is "descendant of Bran" (an earlier form of Broen), King of Leinster, who died in 1052. With the O’Tooles, the O’Byrnes were driven from their original territory in modern Co. Kildare at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, and settled in the wilder country of South Wicklow in roughly 1200.

MacCabe - Mac Cába - An anglicized form of the Irish MacCába, which comes from cába, meaning cape or hat. In the Middle Ages, the Irish O'Reilly and O'Rourke families of Leitrim and Cavan brought fighters from Scotland to build their forces. Many of these gallowglass men were MacCabes from Inis Gall in the Hebrides. They are believed to have worn distinctive hats. Having regards to their origin it is more likely to be from a non-Gaelic personal name.

(Mac)Caffrey– The MacCaffreys are a branch of the MacGuires of Fermanagh. The townland of Ballymacaffrey near Fivemiletown on the Tyrone border marks their homeland. The great majority of people with this name today belong to families in Fermanagh and Tyrone.

O'Cahill– In early medieval times the most important sept of O’Cahill was that located in County Galway near the Clare border. The head of which was Chief of Kinelea, but by the middle of the thirteenth century, their former position as the leading family in Kilmacdaugh had been taken by the O’Shaughnessys.

Callaghan - Ó Ceallacháin - The eponymous ancestor, in this case, was Ceallacháin, King of Munster (d. 952). The sept was important in the present Co. Cork until the seventeenth century and the name is still very numerous there. The chief family was transplanted under the Cromwellian regime to east Clare, where the village of O’Callghan’s Mills is called after them.

MacCann, Canny– In Irish Mac Anna (son of Annadh) it has become, by the attraction of the C of Mac, Mac Canna in Irish and MacCann in English. The MacCanns occupied a district of Co. Armagh which was originally run by the O’Graveys.

O’Cannon– Cannon is a common English surname derived from the ecclesiastical word canon. It is also the anglicized form of the name of two quite distinct Irish septs, one stemming from Galway and the other from Donegal. The original Gaelic form of the name is Ó Canain, from the word 'cano,' which means wolf cub.

Carey– The O’Kearys (Irish: O Ciardha), later used the anglicized form, Carey. They belonged to the southern Ui Niell and were lords of Carbury (Co. Kildare) until dispersed by the invasion of the Anglo-Normans.

O’Carolan– The Irish surname O’Carolan claims descent from the O’Connors, Kings of Connaught, in Donegal, where Carlan (from the Irish ‘carla’ and ‘an,’ meaning ‘one who combs wool’). The name O'Caloran was first found in Co. Limerick.

Carroll– The name Carroll was first found in counties Tipperary, Offaly, Monaghan and Louth. It has undergone many variations since its genesis. In Irish, this surname appeared as Cearbhaill, derived from the name of Cearbhal, the lord of Ely who helped Brian Boru lead the Irish to victory in the Battle of Clontarf.

MacCartan (Carton)– The Irish surname MacArtain became, in English, MacCartan, or sometimes Carton. This is an example of the error often found with Mac names beginning with a vowel, where the letter C of Mac was carried forward to form the start of the name proper (i.e. – MacCann, MacCoy etc.). The name is derived from the common Christian name Art, of which Artan is a diminutive.

MacCarthy– No Irish Mac name comes near MacCarthy in numerical strength. The abbreviated form Carthy is also very common, but MacCarthy is a name which has generally retained the prefix. It is among the dozen most common names in Ireland as a whole, due to the very large number of MacCarthys from Co. Cork, which accounts for some 60% of them. From the earliest times, the name has been associated with South Munster or Desmond.

O'Casey (MacCasey)– There were originally at least 6 six distinct and unrelated septs of O Cathasaigh, the most important of these in early times were found in Co. Dublin. However, O'Caseys were also found in Fermanagh, Limerick, Cork and Roscommon. In its ancient Gaelic form, the name is O Cathasaigh, from the word "cathasach" which means 'watchful.'

(Mac)Clancy– Clancy is a Mac name: the initial C of Clancy, is, in fact, the last letter of the prefix Mac, so it would have been MacLancy. Clancy also happens to be an alternative form of the name "Glanchy," which was common in the seventieth century and is still occasionally found.

O'Coffey– This name is O Cobhthaigh in Irish, pronounced O'Coffey in English: it is likely derived from the word "cobhthach", meaning victorious. Coffey is one of those surnames that has not often retained the "O" prefix. Coffey has several distinct septs that date back to the medieval times, two of which are still well represented in their original homeland. These are the Coffeys in Co. Cork and Co. Roscommon.

(Mac)Coghlan, O'Coughlan– There are two quite distinct septs of Coughlan, one being MacCoughlan of Offaly and the other O'Coughlan of Co. Cork. In Irish, it has appeared as Mac Cochlain or Ó Cochlain.

O'Connor - Associated with the areas of Derry, Connacht, and Munster. An anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Conchobhair. Many claim descent from a10th-century king of Connacht of this name. In Irish legend, Conchobhar was a king of Ulster who lived at around the time of Christ and who adopted the youthful Cú Chulainn.

MacColgan– In early medieval times, Colgan had the prefixes O and Mac. There are two distinct septs of this name – one originating in Co. Derry and the other stemming from Offaly. Those in Derry claim descent from the O'Connors.

Collins, Colin - In Ireland, the meaniing of this last name is often the anglicized form of Coileain, prefixed by Mac or O, and found mainly in the western part of the country. In this case, the name translates as "the young hound." Also derived from the Greco-Roman name Nicholas.

O'Colman– Though families called Coleman are known to have settled in Ireland in as early as the thirteenth century, having come from England, where the name is common, Coleman in Ireland almost always denotes a Gaelic origin. The main sept of Coleman, O Colmain, originated in Co. Sligo.

O'Concannon– The name Concannon is rarely found outside the territory of its origin, which is Galway. All 21 recorded births registered for this name in the last available statistical return took place in Co. Galway or in contiguous areas of adjacent counties.

Condon– The northeastern division of Co. Cork, close to the adjoining counties of Limerick and Tipperary, is called the barony of Condons. This was named after the family of Condon that was in control of most of the area, with their principal stronghold being the Castle of Clogleagh near Kilworth. They may indeed be described as a sept rather than a family.

MacCormack - Cormick, Mac Cormaic - Formed from the forename Cormac. This name is numerous throughout all the provinces, the spelling MacCormick being more usual in Ulster. For the most part, it originated as a simple patronymic; the only recognized sept of the name originated in the Fermanagh-Longford area. Many of the MacCormac(k) families of Ulster are of Scottish origin, being a branch of the clan Buchanan-MacCormick of MacLaine.

Dalton– Though this name is not Irish in origin, it is on record in Dublin and Meath as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, the family having been established in Ireland following the Anglo-Norman invasion. Its Norman origin is more apparent in the alternative spelling, still sometimes used – D’Alton, or, of Alton, a place in England.

O’Daly– O’Daly is said to be the greatest name in Gaelic literature. Other septs may have produced one or two more famous individuals, but the O’Dalys have a continuous record of literary achievement from the twelfth to the seventeenth century and, indeed, even to the nineteenth. There have been no less than thirty O’Dalys distinguished as writers between 1139 and 1680.

Darcy, O'Dorcey, MacDarcy– This name is often spelled, D'Arcy. This is historically correct in the case of the families who descend from Sir John D'Arcy, Chief Justice of Ireland in the fourteenth century. There are the Darcys of Hyde Park, Co. Westmeath and it is reasonable to assume that the D'Arcys of the east midlands of Ireland are of that stock.

O'Dargan, Dorgan– The Irish last name Ó Deargáin, the root of which is "dearg" (red), has taken the anglicized form Dargan in Leinster, and Dorgan in Munster. The latter is almost confined to Co. Cork (Ballydorgan) while respectable families of Durgan have long been living in the midland counties. As a Gaelic sept they were of little importance so they seldom appear in the Annals, the "Book of Rights," the Fiants, the "Topographical Poems," "An Leabhar Muimhneach," or any of the usual sources of genealogical information.

O'Davoren– Formerly a flourishing Thomond sept, the O'Davorens have dwindled to small numbers but are still found in Clare and the adjoining county of Tipperary. They are described as the formerly learned Breton family seated at Lisdoonvarna, where they had a literary and legal school, among the pupils of which was Dald MacFirbis, the most distinguished of the celebrated family of Irish antiquaries.

O'Dea– O'Dea is a name associated (in the past and present alike) almost exclusively with County Clare and areas like Limerick City and North Tipperary, which immediately adjoin it. It is not a common name elsewhere – even in County Clare, it appears infrequently outside the part of the county where it originated.

O'Delany, Delaney– Delany is a surname rarely seen today with the prefix O, to which it belongs. It is Ó Dubhshláinte in Irish, Delany being a phonetic rendering of this – the A of Delany was formerly pronounced broad. An earlier anglicized form was O'Delany, as in Felix O'Delany, Bishop of Ossory from 1178 to 1202, who built St. Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny.

O'Dempsey, Dempsey– The O'Dempseys are of the same stock as the O'Connors of Offaly and were a powerful sept in the territory on the borders of Leix and Offaly known as Clanmalier, which lays on both sides of the River Barrow. They were Clanmalier's traditional chiefs. The name O’Dempsey originally appeared in Gaelic as O Diomasaigh, from the word ‘diomasach,’ and so the name's meaning is 'proud.'

McDermott– The McDermots are one of the few septs whose head is recognized by the Irish Genealogical Office as an authentic chieftain, that is to say he is entitled in popular parlance to be called The McDermott; and in this case this is enhanced by the further title of Prince of Coolavin, though of course titles are not recognized under the Irish Constitution the designation is only used by courtesy.

O'Devine, Davin, Devane– The name Devine is chiefly found today in the counties of Tyrone and Fermanagh. Up to the fifteenth century, the chief of this sept was Lord of Tirkennedy in Co. Fermanagh. Though the etymology of the name has been questioned, we may accept the view of so eminent a scholar as O'Donovan that it is in Irish Ó Daimhín.

O'Devlin– There was once a not unimportant sept of Ó Doibhilin, Anglice O'Devlin, in what is now the barony of Corran, Co. Sligo. As late as 1316 one of these, Gillananaev O'Devlin, who was standard bearer to O'Connor, was slain in battle. Their descendants have either died out or have been dispersed. The principal sept of the name belongs to Co. Tyrone.

Dillon– Although not a native Irish last name in origin, the surname Dillon may now be regarded as hundred percent Irish: when met outside Ireland it will most always be found belonging to a person of Irish origin. The Dillons came to Ireland at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion. Dillon has been an important name in Irish history and modern politics.

O'Dineen, Dinan, Downing– Today, the great majority of Dineens, who rarely if ever have the prefix O in English, belong to Co. Cork families, especially to the southwestern part once known as Corca Laoidhe. It was there that the sept originated.

Disney - Derived from a French place-name and originally written D’Isigny etc., the name Disney occurs quite frequently in the records of several Irish counties in the south and midlands since the first half of the seventeenth century.

O'Doherty– Doherty is an example of a surname in which the resumption of its prefix O during the recent century has been very marked. Comparing the statistics of 1890 with 1955, we find that in the former year in Ireland out of 465 births registered, fewer than two percent were O'Doherty. Alternative spellings such as Dogherty and Dougherty are rarely met with nowadays as well.

O'Dolan, Doolan– The name Dolan is fairly common today in Ulster, in the Catholic areas of Counties Cavan and Fermanagh, and in the Counties of Roscommon and Galway in Connacht. The latter is the place of origin of this sept which is a branch of the Ui Máine (Hy Many). In the census of 1659, the name appears principally in Counties Roscommon and Fermanagh (the portion dealing with Co. Galway is missing).

MacDonlevy, Dunleavy, Leavy– Dunleavy, to give its most usual modern form, may be regarded as a Mac surname (Mac Duinnshléibhe in Irish), though, in some early manuscripts, e.g. the "Topographical Poems" of O'Dugan and O'Heerin, the prefix O is used. In the "Annals of Loch Cé" the O prefix appears in the sixteenth century, but all of those mentioned before that are Mac.

McDonnell– Today the McDonnells are found widely distributed all over Ireland, and without, including the cognate McDonald in the count, the McDonnells in Ireland amount to nearly 10,000 persons with three separate, distinct origins. The Dalriadan clans of ancient Scotland spawned the ancestors of the McDonnell family.

O'Donnell– The O'Donnells have always been numerous and eminent in Irish life. They are of course chiefly associated with Tirconnaill (Donegal), the home of the largest and best known O'Donnell sept. But as the present distribution of persons of the name implies, there were quite distinct O'Donnell septs in other parts of the country, two of which require special mention: Corcabaskin in West Clare, and another, a branch of the Ui Main (Hy Many, in Co. Galway).

O'Donnellan, Donlon– the O'Donnellans were a sept of the Ui Máine. They belong, therefore, by origin, to the southeastern part of Co. Galway where the place name Ballydonnellan perpetuates their connection with the district between Ballinasloe and Loughrea. They claim descent from Domhallán, lord of Clan Breasail.

O'Donnelly– According to the latest statistics there are just short of 10,000 persons of the name Donnelly in Ireland today, which places this name among the sixty-five most popular in the country. Practically all of these may be regarded as belonging to the Ulster Donnelly sept – Ó Donnghaile of Cinel Eoghan.

MacDonogh, Dinghy– Like so many well-known Irish surnames, especially MacDonagh (Irish Mac Donnchadha, i.e. son of Donnchadh, or Donagh) the MacDonoghs are formed from a common Christian or personal name. MacDonagh is one that came to usage in two widely separated parts of the country.

O'Donoghue, Donohoe, Dunphy– Donoghue or Donohoe, more properly O'Donoghue, is one of the most important Irish surnames as well as the most common names in Ireland. In Irish, Ó Donnchadha's meaning is "descendant of Donnchadh", Anglice Donogh, a personal name. Several distinct septs of the name existed in early times.The original Gaelic form of the name Dunphy is O Donnchaidh as well.

O'Donovan– There are few families about which we have more information than the O'Donovans. The Genealogical Office has a verified pedigree of the eldest branch from Gaelic times, when they held a semi-royal position, up to the present day, and also the notes of Dr. John O'Donovan, one of Ireland's most distinguished antiquarians and a member of a junior branch of the same sept. All of these are available to the general public.

O'Dooley– The modern form of this name in Irish is Ó Dubhlaoich. The Four Masters write it Ó Dughlaich when describing their chiefs in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as Lords of Fertullagh, the southeastern end of Co. Westmeath. They were driven thence by the O'Melaghlins and the Tyrrells and migrated to the Ely O'Carroll country where they acquired a footing on the western slopes of Slieve Bloom.

O'Doral, Dorrian– The O'Dorians have been justly described as "the great Breton family of Leinster," but they are probably better known as traditional antiquarians who kept in their possession from generation to generation the three manuscript copies of the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick."

O'Dowd, Dowda, Doody, Duddy– This is one of the O names with which the prefix has been widely retained, O'Dowd being more usual than Dowd. Other modern variants are O'Dowdy and Dowds, with Doody, another synonym, found around Killarney. O'Dowd, which comes from O Dubhda, which means black or dark complexioned, was first found in county Mayo.

O'Dowling– The Dowlings are one of the "Seven Septs of Leix," the leading members of which were transplanted to Tarbet on the border of north Kerry and west Limerick in 1609. This transplantation did not affect the rank and file of the sept, who multiplied in their original territory.

O'Downey, MachEldowney, Doheny, Muldowney– The O'Downeys were of some importance in early medieval times, when there were two distinct septs of Ó Dúnadhaigh. That of Sil Anmchadha, of the same stock as the O'Maddens, several of whom are described in the "Annals of Innisfallen" and "Four Masters" as lords of Sil Anmchadha, who became submerged as early as the twelfth century. Their descendants are still found in quite considerable numbers in that county.

Doyle, MacDowell– Doyle, rarely found as O'Doyle in modern times, stands high on the list of Irish surnames arranged in order of numerical strength, holding the twelfth place with approximately 21,000 people out of a population of something less than 4 million. Though now widely distributed, it was once most closely associated with the counties of southeast Leinster (Wicklow, Wexford, and Carlow) in which it is chiefly found today, and in the records of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

O'Driscoll– Few families have been so continuously and exclusively associated with the territory of their origin as the Driscolls or O'Driscolls. They belong to Co. Cork. At first, they were concentrated in south Kerry, but pressure from the O'Sullivans drove them eastwards and they then settled near Baltimore in southwest Cork.

O'Duff, Duhig, Dowey– The name Duffy or O'Duffy is widespread in Ireland: it is among the fifty most common surnames, standing first on the list for Co. Monaghan. it is also very common in north Connacht. It is found in Munster to some extent, but there it often takes the form Duhig, while in parts of Donegal it has become Doohey and Dowey.

O'Duggan, O'Dugan– Dugan, in Irish Ó Dubhagain, is in some places given in English speech the Irish pronunciation of Doogan. The prefix O, dropped in the seventeenth century, has not been continued. Outside of Dublin, the name is almost entirely confined to Munster, especially Counties Cork and Tipperary, and Wexford. In the seventeenth century, it was very common in Co. Tipperary.

O'Dunn, Dunn– In Irish Ó Duinn or Ó Doinn – "doin" is the genitive case of the adjective "donn", meaning "brown". It is more often written Dunne than Dunn in English. The form O'Doyne, common in the seventeenth century, is now almost obsolete.

O'Dwyer– The O'Dwyers (in Irish Ó Duibhir, meaning a descendant of Duibhir) were an important sept in Co. Tipperary, though incomparable in power or extent of territory to the neighboring great septs. Their lands were Kilnamanagh, the mountainous area lying between the town of Thurles, and the county of Limerick. 

Egan, Keegan– In Irish, Egan is MacAodhagáin (from the Christian name Aodh, Anglice Hugh), and the surname is really MacEgan, though the prefix Mac is rarely used in modern times except by the family who claims to be head of the sept.

McElroy, (Mac)Gilroy, Kilroy– These Irish surnames are Mac Giolla Rua in Irish, i.e. son of the red (haired) youth. The sept originated in Co. Fermanagh where the place name Ballymackilroy was found: their territory was on the east side of Lough Erne.

MacEnchroe, Crowe – The very English-seeming name Crowe disguised the genuinely Irish surname MacEnchroe, which in its original form is Mac Conchradha. The form MacEnchroe is still in use but all of the members of this sept who live in its original territory, Thomond, are certainly called simply Crowe.

McEvoy, MacElwee, MacGilloway, MacVeagh– The MacEvoys were on of the "Seven Septs of Leix," the leading members of which were transplanted to Co. Kerry in 1609. The lesser clansmen remained in their own territory and Leix is one of the areas in which the name is found fairly frequently today.

Fagan– In spite of its very Irish appearance (-gan is one of the most common terminations of Irish surnames) Fagan must be regarded as a family name of Norman origin. At the same time, it must be pointed out that it is not an English name. It is derived from the Latin word Paguns. For many centuries it has been associated with Counties Dublin and Meath.

O'Fahy– Fahy (also spelled Fahey) is almost exclusively a Co. Galway name, though of course it is also found in the bordering areas, such as north Tipperary, and in Dublin. A sept of the Ui Máine, the center of their patrimony, which they held as proprietors up to the time of the Cromwellian upheaval (and where most of them still dwell) is Loughrea. Their territory was known as Pobal Mhuintir Uí Fhathlaigh, i.e. the country inhabited by the Fahys.

O'Fallon, Falloone– The last name Fallon or, as it is also written O'Fallon, has been closely associated with the counties of Galway and Roscommon. It originated as a last name due to a family seat in Galway in very ancient times. The Gaelic form is O Fallamhain.

O'Farrell, O'Ferrell – Farrell, with and without the prefix O, is a well-known name in many parts of the country and it stands thirty-fifth in the statistical returns showing the hundred most common names in Ireland. It is estimated that there are over 13,000 people with the name in Ireland; the great majority of these were born in Leinster, mainly in Co. Longford and the surrounding areas.

O'Farrelly, Farley– O'Farrelly – Ó Faircheallaigh in Irish – is the name of a Breffny sept associated in both early and modern times principally with Counties Cavan and Meath. The Gaelic poet Feardorcha O'Farrelly (d. 1746) was born in Co. Cavan.

O'Feeny– Apart from the quite definite fact that it is essentially a Connacht name, it is difficult to be precise in dealing with the surname Feeney. The reason for this is that in Connacht there are two different septs – Ó Fiannaidhe in Sligo and Mayo and Ó Fidhne in Galway and Roscommon.

O'Finn, Magian– The name Finn – it seldom has the prefix O in modern times – is chiefly found in Co. Cork today and this was equally true in the seventeenth century, as Petty's census shows. This is curious because it is usually a fact that names are still most numerous in the part of Ireland in which they originated.

O'Finnegan– There are two distinct septs of Finnegan or Finegan whose name is Ó Fionnagáin in Irish, which means the descendants of Fionnagán, an old Irish personal name derived from the word "fionn", i.e. meaning "fairheaded". One of these septs was located on the border of Galway and Roscommon, where there are two places called Ballyfinnegan – one in the barony of Ballymore and the second in the barony of Castlereagh.

Fitzgerald– The Fitzgeralds of Ireland, who are now very numerous, are said to all have descended from the famous Maurice, son of Gerald, who accompanied Strongbow in the Anglo-Norman invasion. Gerald was constable of Pembroke in Wales and was married to Nesta, Princess of Wales.

Fitzgibbon, Gibbons– In treating of the surname Gibbons in Ireland it must first be mentioned that this is a very common indigenous name in England and in the course of the several plantations of English settlers in this country from 1600 onwards, as well as a result of business infiltration, it is inevitable that at least a small proportion of our Gibbonses must be of English stock.

Fitzpatrick, Kilpatrick– This is the only surname with the prefix Fitz which is of native Irish origin, the others being Norman. The Fitzpatricks are Macgilpatricks – Mac Giolla Phádraig in Irish, meaning son of the servant or devotee of St. Patrick. First found in Kilkenny (which was then called Ossory).

O'Flaherty, Laverty– The O'Flahertys possessed the territory on the east side of Lough Corrib until the thirteenth century when, under pressure from the Anglo-Norman invasion into Connacht, they moved westwards to the other side of the lake and became established there. The head of the sept was known as Lord of Moycullen and as Lord of Iar-Connacht, which, at its largest, extended from Killary Harbour to the Bay of Galway and included the Aran Islands.

O'Flanagan– This surname is practically the same in both its Irish and anglicized forms, being in the former Ó Flannagáin, which is probably derived from the adjective "flann" meaning reddish or ruddy. It belongs to Connacht both by origin and location (i.e. present distribution of population).

O'Flannery– The name O'Flannery – or rather Flannery for the prefix O has been almost entirely discarded – is identified with two different areas. One sept of Ó Flannabrah was of the Ui Fiachrach, located at Killala, Co. Mayo; the other of the Ui Fidhgheinte was one of the main families of the barony of Connelloe, Co. Limerick.

Fleming– Fleming, as the word implies, denotes an inhabitant of Flanders, and this surname originated about the year 1200 when many Flemings emigrated to Britain, settling chiefly on the Scottish border and in Wales. Since then it has mostly been associated with Scotland. Nevertheless, it is fairly common in Ireland.

O'Flynn, O'Lynn– The surname O'Flynn is derived from the Gaelic personal name Flann; the adjective "flann" denotes a dull red color and means ruddy when applied to persons. Ó Floinn is the form of the surname in Irish.

O'Fogarty– The sept O'Fogarty was of sufficient importance to give its name to a large territory – Eliogarty, i.e. the southern part of Eile or Ely, the northern being Ely O'Carroll. Eloigarty is now the name of the barony of Co. Tipperary in which the town of Thurles is situated.

O'Foley, MacSharry– Foley is an old Irish surname about which some confusion has arisen because there is an important family of Worcestershire called Foley, which is usually regarded as English, though some think it was originally Irish. For example, it is the arms of this English family which is often ascribed to Gaelic Foleys.

Forde– It is impossible for any Irishman called Forde or Ford to know the origin of his people unless there can be a firm family tradition to aid him, or alternatively he knows that they have long been located in a certain part of the country. The reason for this is that at least three Irish septs with entirely different surnames in Irish became known in English as Forde or Ford.

Fox– In this note, we may disregard English settlers of the name Fox, one family of whom became extensive landowners in Co. Limerick and are perpetuated there in the place name Mountfox, near Kilmallock.

French, de Freyne– Originally Norman, the name was de Freeness, from Latin fracinus – an ash tree. When the Anglo-Normans began to settle in Ireland, they brought the tradition of local surnames to an island which already had a Gaelic naming system of hereditary surnames established. The Anglo-Normans had an affinity for local surnames (like French) which were formed from the names of the place where the person lived or was born.

O'Friel– O'Friel is a Donegal name. In Irish it is Ó Firghil (from Feargal); it is pronounced, and often written, Ó Fright, i.e. in English, phonetics O'Freel. This sept has a distinguished origin, descended from Eoghan, brother of St. Columcille.

Gaffney (Caulfield, O’Growney, Keveney, MacCarron, Carew)– Gaffney is one of those quite common Irish surnames about which much confusion arises. Not only is it used as the anglicized form of four distinct Gaelic names, but Gaffney itself has for some obscure reason become Caulfield in many places. It never appears today with either Mac or O as prefix: of the four patronymics referred to above two are O names and two are Mac.

O’Gallagher– The name of this sept, Ó Gallchobhair in Irish, signifies descendant of Gallchobhar or Gallagher, who was himself descended from the King of Ireland who reigned from 642-654. The O’Gallaghers claim to be the senior and most loyal family of the Cineal Connaill. Their territory extended over a wide area in the modern baronies of Raphoe and Tirhugh, Co. Donegal, and their chiefs were notable as marshals of O’Donnell’s military forces from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

O’Galvin– The O’Galvins are a sept of Thomond and are mentioned among the Co. Clare septs which took part in the Battle of Loughraska, otherwise called the Battle of Corcomroe Abbey, in 1317. They haven't appeared prominently in any branch of Irish public life since that time, but representatives of the sept have remained continuously in their original homeland and are still found in Co. Clare, and in greater numbers today, in Co. Kerry.

MacGannon– The name of the old Erris (Co. Mayo) family of Mag Fhionnáub is usually anglicized Gannon, without the Mac: in the spoken language in Irish it is often called Ó Geanáin but the equivalent O’Gannon is not used in English. Gannons are still more numerous in their original homeland in Co. Mayo than elsewhere.

O’Gara, Geary– The sept of O’Gara, Ó Gadhra in Irish, is closely associated with that of O’Hara. They have a common descendant down to the tenth century, Gadhra, the eponymous ancestor of the O’Garas, being the nephew of Eadhra (a quo the O’Haras). From then on they established separate chieftaincies, O’Gara taking the territory to the south of the barony now known as Leyney, Co. Sligo, with the O’Haras being to the north of them.

MacGarry, Garrihy, O’Hehir, Hare– MacGarry is one of those names which in the anglicized form takes its initial letter from the end of the prefix – in this case, Mag (a variant of Mac often used with the names beginning with a vowel or fh). In Irish, MacGarry is Mag Fhearadhaigh.

O’Garvey, MacGarvey, Garvin– Garvey is one of those surnames which in Irish have both the Gaelic prefixes, Mac and O. Mac Gairbhith belongs to Co. Donegal where it is common: it is Mac Garvey in English, the prefix being retained. The O, on the other hand, has been almost entirely discarded.

MacGee– MacGee is an Ulster name which is more usually written Magee (cf. MacGuire, Maguire, MacGuinness, Magennis, etc.). In Irish it is Mag Aodha, i.e. son of Aodh or Hugh, the Mac, as is often the case when the prefix is followed by a vowel, becoming Mag. It has been stated that our Ulster MacGees are of Scottish descent, having come to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the early seventeenth century.

MacGenis, Guinness, Magennis– The modern spelling of this name is usually MacGuinness or MacGenis but in the historical records in English, they are called as a rule Magennis, a form still to be found in some places today. In Irish, the name is MagAonghusa, which means 'son of Angus.' The name was first found on Co. Down in the province of Ulster – they held a family seat there from ancient times. 

MacGeoghagan– Geoghegan, usually nowadays without the prefix Mac, is a name which no non-Irish person will attempt to pronounce at sight; it has many synonyms, and one of these, Gehegan, is a phonetic approximation of the longer and common form. In Irish it is Mag Eochagáin, from Eochaidh, from the now almost obsolete, but once common Christian name, Oghy. It will be observed that the initial “G” of Geoghegan comes from the prefix Mag, a variant of Mac – the anglicized form of Mageoghegan was formerly commonly used.

MacGeraghty, Gerty– Geraghty is a Mac name, being Mag Oireachtaigh in Irish. Mac usually becomes Mag before a vowel so the initial G of Geraghty is really the last letter of the prefix Mac or Mag. There are no less than seventeen different synonyms of Geraghty in English, including MacGerity, Gearty and even Jerety. The Gaelic form derives from the word "oireachtach," which refers to a member of an assembly.

MacGilfoyle, Powell– Guilfoyle is Mac Giolla Phóil in Irish, which means son of the follower or devotee of St. Paul. It is sometimes disguised under the form Powell, an English surname adopted in its stead during the period of Gaelic depression. The prefix Mac, which properly belongs to it, is very seldom used here in modern times.

MacGillycuddy, Archdeacon, Cody– This name is well known to everyone who has made a visit to Killarney or even studied a map with the idea of doing so because the picturesque MacGillycuddy’s Reeks are the highest mountains in Ireland and are named from the Kerry sept who dwelled at their western base.

O’Glissane, Gleeson– In spite of its English appearance in its anglicized form, the name Gleeson, never found with the prefix O in English, is that of a genuine Gaelic Irish family. In modern Irish, it is Ó Gliasáin, earlier Ó Glasáin and originally Ó Glesáin. They belong to the Aradh and their original habitat was mac Ui Bhriain Aradh’s country, that is the area in Co. Tipperary between Nenagh and Lough Derg. But it should be emphasized that the Gleesons are not Dalcassians – they are of the same stock as the O’Donegans, of the barony of Ara, Co. Tipperary, who were originally from Muskerry, Co. Cork.

MacGorman, O’Gorman– This name is of particular interest philologically because although it is (with rare exceptions) really a Mac name it is almost always found today – when not plain Gorman – as O’Gorman. This can be accounted for by the fact that in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the native Irish were in complete subjection, the Gaelic prefixes Mac and O were universally allowed to fall into disuse, particularly in the case of some names like Gorman. Derived from the Irish word "gorm", which means blue.

O’Gormley, Grehan, Grimes– Like many of the similar independent septs of northwest Ulster, the O’Gormleys sank into obscurity after the Plantation of Ulster around 1609. In the fourteenth century they were driven by the O’Donnells from their original territory, known as Cinel Moen (their tribe name), which was in the modern barony of Raphoe, Co. Donegal; but their survival in their new country on the other side of the Foyle, between Derry and Strabane, from whence they continued to fight the O’Donnells, is evidenced by the frequent mention of their chiefs in the “Annals of the Four Masters” up top the end of the sixteenth century.

MacGovern, Magauran– The MacGoverns are better known in history as Magauran. Both forms are phonetic approximations of the Irish mag Shamhradhain, since MH is pronounced V in some places and W in others. The G of Govern thus comes from the last letter of the prefix Mag, which is used before vowels and aspirates instead of the usual Mac. The Gaelic form derives from the word 'samhra,' which means summer.

MacGowan, O’Gowan, Smith, MacGuane– The Irish surname MacGowan (not to be confused with the Scottish MacGoun) is more often than not hidden under the synonym Smith. In Irish, it is Mac an Ghabhain, which means son of the smith, and its translation to Smith (most common of all surnames in England) was very widespread, particularly in Co. Cavan where the MacGowan sept originated.

O’Grady– The O’Grady sept originated in Co. Clare and may be classed as Dalcassian, though the seat and territory of the Chief of the name had for several centuries been at Killballyowen, Co. Limerick, as well as Galway. The name in Irish is Ó Grádaigh or more shortly Ó Gráda so that the anglicized form approximates closely to the original. They were descendants of Olioll Olum, King of Munster.

MacGrath– Like several other names beginning with McG, Macgrath is often written Magrath (cf. MacGee, Magee, MacGennis, Magennis, etc.). In Irish, it is Mac Craith, the earlier form of which is Mac Raith or Mag Raith. Other synonyms still in use, especially in Ulster, are MacGraw, Magraw, MacGra etc. while the same Gaelic surname is found in Scotland as MacCrea, MacRae, and Rae. First found in County Clare, where they held a family seat from ancient times.

O’Griffy, Griffin, Griffith– Ó Gríobhta (pronounced O Greefa) is one of the many Gaelic surnames which have assumed in their anglicized forms those of British families of somewhat similar sound: in this case, the earlier O'Griffy has been almost entirely superseded by Griffin. Here some confusion arises because a Welsh family of Griffin did actually settle in Ireland soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion. There is no doubt, however, that the great majority of Irish Griffins are really O’Griffys of Gaelic stock and not descendants of the Welsh settlers.

MacGuire, Maguire– These are spelling variants of Irish Maguidhir. Uidhir is the genitive case of "odhar" meaning dun-colored; "mag" is a form of mac used before vowels. This is one of those names definitely associated with one county. The Maguires belong to Co. Fermanagh.

Don't see your surname listed in Part I of the top 300 Irish surnames? You may find it in the following two lists also looking at Irish last names, their origins and their meanings:

• For Part II, H - M, click here
• For Part III, N - W, click here

On February 14 the world, or at least a large part of it, celebrates love and the martyred early Christian saints named Valentinus, or Valentine, but did you know that Ireland has it’s very own Valentine who was blessed with the gift of healing. In fact this man from Waterford’s magic was so great he was summoned by King Charles II to court.

Born on February 14, 1629, in Affane, County Waterford, Valentine Greatrakes, also known as Greatorex or The Stroker, was an Irish faith healer who claimed to be able to cure diseases and pain by “stroking” the victim.

This gifted man was born to Protestant settlers, William Greatrakes and his wife Mary (née Harris). He was sent to Dublin to attend university however the Irish Rebellion of 1641 changed their plans and Valentine and his mother fled to England to stay with his great-uncle Edmund Harris. He also spent time with a German Minister John Daniel Getsius, in Devon, where he studied “Humanity and Divinity.”

After years away Valentine returned to Ireland and found the country in chaos where he spent a year in Castle of Cappoquin, in Waterford.

He enlisted in the English Parliamentary Army in 1649 and served as lieutenant in the regiment of Lord Broghill, campaigning in Munster against the Irish Royalist. After the Parliamentary victory he was named Justice of the Peace and Clerk of the Peace for County Cork but he lost this position with the Restoration of the monarchy, in 1660.

According to Valentine, the same year he went on tour to England, he began to feel a strange impulse to lay his hands on sick people and heal them. This started in 1662, around the same time he married his first wife, Ruth Godolphin.

In his pamphlet, published in 1666, Valentine said he experimented on several willing subjects, including his wife, with positive results. He claimed the ability to cure King’s Evil (scrofula, similar to TB), wounds, ulcers, among other afflictions.

On April 6 1665 Robert Phayre, a former Commonwealth Governor of County Cork, was living at Cahermore, was visited by Valentine. They had served together in 1649. Valentine cured Phayre in just a few minutes of an acute ague (similar to malaria).

Read more St. Valentine's Day stories from IrishCentral here

In August of the same year John Flamsteed, the famous astronomer, (then aged 19) travelled to Ireland to be touched by Valentine in an effort to cure his weakness of constitution, but sadly this did not work.

News of his skills soon spread all over Ireland. In 1665 he was summoned Bishop’s Court, in Lismore, where he was ordered to desist healing as he did not have a license.

Valentine was invited to England by his former commander Lord Broghill, to help his wife who had been suffering migraines. In 1666 he defied the Bishop’s ordered and travelled to England and although he was unable to help Broghill’s wife he decided to tour England offering to cure. As he traveled through towns and villages the sick were brought out to be cured by this faith healer from Waterford.

By the time he arrived to London word had spread and he was summoned to Whitehall to present himself at the court of King Charles II. He was brought in front of the King and attempted to heal those sick people in attended. Despite the fact that he failed the King determined that he was not being deceptive and allowed him to continue practicing.

Valentine remained in London for some time. In late 1666 he sent a letter to the philosopher, Robert Boyle, also a native of County Waterford, who was at the time President of the Royal Society of London. Boyle traveled to meet Valentine and observed him over several days recording the healing he saw in action, in his diary.

Sadly by the end of the year, 1666, Valentine’s healing talents had abandoned him.

He returned to Ireland and lived a quiet life as a farmer. Although he no longer healed he was never branded as a fake.

He married a second time to Alice Tilson and had three children. Valentine died on November 28 1682 and is believed to have been buried in Lismore Church or the Affane Church, next to his father.

Although not many people remember this Irish Valentine his antics in Ireland and England caused quite a public commotion at the time and gave rise to a novels, plays and discussions on his character. However when he lived, according to The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle of 1779 no one ever attempted to black his name. Despite all the religious leaders, royalty, scientists and people in high society he came into contact with they never accused him of being a fake.

Perhaps he was simple an honest Irish faith healer.

H/T:Hallamor.org.

Read more St. Valentine's Day stories from IrishCentral here

On this day (Feb 15) in 1874 the amazing adventurer, Ernest Shackleton, was born in Kilkea, near Athy in County Kildare. His life was simply legendary.

When you ask people to name an explorer of the Polar Regions, many will name Robert Falcon Scott, who led a doomed expedition to the South Pole. Few will mention Henry Ernest Shackleton, the Irishman merchant sailor turned polar explorer. Shackleton went on to become a knight of the realm, lead several Antarctic expeditions and climbed an active Antarctic volcano.

Born 1874 in County Kildare, Shackleton resisted his father’s attempts to get him to study medicine and instead joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 16. In this role, he quickly became a Master Mariner and built up the network of contacts that allowed him to undertake his many arctic expeditions later in life, including meeting other polar explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott.

It was on one such expedition with Scott, the Discovery Expedition of 1901, that an event occurred which increased Shackleton’s drive to succeed even further. Having already been sent home from the expedition for ill health, Shackleton was shocked to discover in 1905 that Scott had blamed him for the failure of the expedition. Scott had claimed Shackleton had been carried on the sled, a claim Shackleton vigorously denied in the many public lecturers he delivered until his death. The assertion led Shackleton to develop a drive to outdo Scott, whatever it took.

He got his chance in 1907 when he commissioned another expedition, The Nimrod Expedition, this time to be headed up and ran on his own terms. Although not conducted without issues (the expedition almost ran out of food, did not find the Pole and almost bankrupted Shackleton), it made him a national hero at the time, especially when his memoirs were published in 1909.

Now firmly established as one of the major polar explorers, Shackleton attempted to seek to fund yet more expeditions whilst delivering a number of public lectures. Although funds were occasionally hard to come by, (a report from the Berwickshire News and General Advertiser speaks about a rather humorous example) backers were found for all of his exploits.

Read more: 170-year-old mystery of famed Irish Arctic explorer solved

His biggest test came in 1914 though, with the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. When his ship Endurance was trapped by pack ice and then slowly sank in 1915, Shackleton and 4 others made an 800-mile journey in an open boat using nothing but a compass to navigate. Arriving at South Georgia as planned, his crew then scaled the mountains to reach a Norwegian whaling base to summon help. They managed this successfully, despite a massive storm that stranded them at sea for 3 days, and rescued the remainder of the crew without losing a single person. Upon returning to the UK, Shackleton even remembered to return the flag lent to him by the King for the Journey.

His Antarctic adventuring was to be his undoing, though. Having commissioned yet another expedition, and sailing south to lead it, Shackleton suffered a heart attack in his cabin in 1922. He died on the ship and was buried at South Georgia.

After his death, he slipped into obscurity for a full 50 years, before academics started talking about his remarkable courage. He is remembered today as an ideal leadership candidate by another of leadership courses, and a Polar Research Vessel is still in service that bears his name.

For more stories on tracing your Irish heritage from Findmypast click here.

These stunning pictures, taken by Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon-Alba during their trip to Ireland in 1913, are believed to be the first color photos of Ireland ever taken.

The French women were part of a world-wide project titled “The Archives of the Planet.” French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn created the project to compose a “kind of photographic inventory of the surface of the earth as it was occupied and organized by Man at the beginning of the 20th century.” His project captured some of the first color photographs taken in Ireland, the United States, Norway, Vietnam, and Brazil.

In 1931 Kahn was forced to abandon his project due to dwindling finances after he lost a fortune in the 1929 stock market crash. By then photographers had photographed World War I and taken 72,000 photographs from more than 50 countries.

Mespoulet and Mignon-Alba traveled throughout Connemara a native Irish-speaking region of County Galway and the Boyne Valley located in northeastern Ireland. They took photographs of everyday life showing women weaving and men building coracles, a type of small fishing boat. They also took photographs of historic sites such as Clonmacnoise and the round tower at Glendalough, which are still popular tourist destinations today.

Black and white photography had been around for decades, but color photography was cutting edge technology in the beginning of the twentieth century. The women, who were novice photographers, used this new technology developed by French inventors called autochrome color plates. Autochrome technology uses a glass plate coated with potato starch dyed red-orange, green, and blue-violet. The red of Galway girl Main Ni Tuathail’s traditional cloak is particularly striking in a couple photographs from Connemara. 

Dr. Gilles Baud-Berthier, Director of the Musee Albert Kahn said on the museum’s website, “These were not works of reportage or ethnography, nor an attempt to produce works of art. The aim was simply to record human beings in all their diversity, living humble lives worthy of respect. And from this respect would, Kahn hoped, arise the universal peace to which he aspired.” 

Several of Mespoulet and Mignon-Alba’s photographs depict thatch-roofed homes in Claddagh near the city of Galway. The houses were a typical home of Irish peasantry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Claddagh comes from the Irish “cladch” which means shore. Claddagh was a fishing community and its residents lived separately from Galway City. Claddagh residents retained their Gaelic customs, dress, and language in the 1930s, when most of the Irish island had modernized.

Much of Ireland had lost the Irish language after the Great Hunger in the middle of the nineteenth century. The houses shown in the photographs were razed in 1935 and a council housing scheme replaced them. Mespoulet and Mignon-Alba’s photographs helped capture an old Gaelic culture that was slowly disappearing. 

The women’s photographs show the peaceful rural towns of the island on the eve of the First World War. They did not visit Dublin or Belfast. Both cities had been more industrialized than the rest of the island by the beginning of the twentieth century. Belfast had a flourishing shipyard industry that had built the Titanic a year before Mespoulet and Mignon-Alba’s visit. James Joyce’s collection of short stories, Dubliners, depicting a variety of characters in the hussle and bussle of Ireland’s capital, was published the year after their visit. Had they visited these eastern cities, they would have seen a very different side of Ireland. 

Many of Albert Kahn’s photographs, including photographs of Ireland, are printed in "The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn: Color Photographs from a Lost Age" by David Okuefuna. Kahn’s color photographs are currently housed in the Musee Albert-Kahn just outside of Paris.

H/T:An t-Oilean, NLI.

* Originally published in 2012.

The death of baby Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who was born three weeks early and died from respiratory distress syndrome, would ultimately save the lives of millions of infants by bringing funding and attention to the study of neonatal care for pre-term babies. Author Michael S. Ryan, a registered respiratory therapist writes about how the death of JFK’s child in Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, A Brief Life that Changed the History of Newborn Care, published by MCP books. Jackie Kennedy’s first pregnancy in 1955 had resulted in a miscarriage. A year later, a stillborn baby girl, Arabella, was delivered by Cesarean section. Her third and fourth pregnancies delivered Caroline and John.

Baby Patrick was her fifth pregnancy. According to the Daily Mail, in June 1963, President Kennedy had made a diplomatic tour of Europe while Jackie spent her last trimester on Cape Cod's Squaw Island, a private island at the tip of Hyannis Port, the site of the Kennedy compound.

In case of an obstetric emergency, a back-up plan had been arranged at nearby Otis Air Force Base, but the goal was to get her to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington for the birth.

Jackie was taking five-year old Caroline and two-year old John Jr. for their daily horseback riding lessons in nearby Osterville. As the children headed for the stables, Jackie was suddenly paralyzed by pains in her back and stomach. Suspecting early labor, the First Lady told Secret Service agent Paul Landis to gather the children so they could return to the Squaw Island house where a chopper was ready to take her to the hospital at Otis Air Force Base.

She told the doctor accompanying her in the helicopter, “Dr. Walsh, you've got to get me to the hospital on time. I don't want anything to happen to this baby.”

“This baby mustn't be born dead.”

Jackie's obstetrician, Dr. John Walsh, told her, “We'll have you there in plenty of time.” 

JFK, who was in the Oval Office at the time, was informed that Jackie had gone into premature labor. Twenty-seven minutes later, his helicopter lifted off the south lawn of the White House for the flight to Andrews Air Force Base and the subsequent flight to Otis.

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was delivered by cesarean section at 12:52 p.m. He was thirty-four weeks old, measured seventeen inches, and weighed four pounds, ten and a half ounces.

Although, he moved his tiny arms and legs, his first cry was barely audible.He was placed in a pre-waiting incubator and covered with pre-warmed blankets. Baby Patrick was unable to establish a normalized breathing pattern, so doctors infused oxygen into the incubator.

One of the physician's notes read: “idiopathic respirator distress syndrome, translated as 'difficulty in breathing for reasons unknown.”

“That first breath taken at the moment of birth must expel the amniotic fluid contained within the lungs for them to fill with air.”

“To accomplish this, the just-born infant must instantly generate ten to fifteen times more inspiratory pressure than he would normally.”

“During a normal vaginal delivery, a baby, descending the vaginal canal, has a third of the amniotic fluid squeezed out of the lungs into the pharynx where it oozes out of the mouth or is swallowed.”

“The vigorous cry of a baby signifies the lungs have successfully made the conversion.”

“Patrick emitted no such cry.”

Summoned by medical personnel, Father John Scahill, the base chaplain, arrived with a small bottle of holy water and a prayer book to baptize Patrick.

Forty minutes after the baby’s birth, President Kennedy arrived and joined Jackie before going to see the newborn.

Dr. Walsh told Kennedy that Patrick was afflicted with hyaline membrane disease, now called Respiratory Distress Syndrome or RDS.

The baby's lungs were covered with a glassy membrane,but if he could stay alive for forty-eight hours, there was hope he could recover. The odds were fifty-fifty.

Dr. James Drorbaugh, a highly respected pediatric physician at Harvard Medical School, was called in. He observed the infant in critical respiratory distress and suggested Patrick be transferred to Boston Children's Hospital.

Jackie was to see her baby before he was transferred. The incubator was wheeled into her room and positioned so that he was facing his mother.

Jackie placed her hand inside the porthole window and stroked Patrick's light brown hair briefly. Her husband tried to comfort her, reminding her that John Jr. had breathing problems when he was born.

Before he left the hospital to accompany the baby to Boston, the President ordered the TV set removed from his wife’s room so that if the baby died, she would not learn about it on the news.

At Boston Children's Hospital, an intravenous catheter was put in place for fluid infusion.

The next morning, Patrick's condition appeared to be improving. Kennedy boarded a helicopter to visit Jackie before heading to the hospital.

By early afternoon, the infant’s breathing became more labored and doctors decided that the last resort was to move the baby to a hyperbaric chamber that could force a large amount of oxygen into his lungs.

The move was a gamble, as the treatment could cause blindness.

“This is a desperate and difficult situation and placement in the pressurized tank is a desperate measure,” Dr. William Bernhard, a Children's Hospital pediatric heart surgeon stated.

The Daily Mail reports: “The air in the basement of the medical building was pungent and musty and the large white-enameled tank resembled a wartime vehicle, a small submarine measuring thirty-one by eight feet.”

Three times the normal amount of pressure contained in the normal atmosphere was set for the tank.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy and JFK's special assistant, Dave Powers, joined in the President’s vigil in the basement room.

The tank “hissed, clanked and whined.” Patrick’s skin turned “a bluish color.”

The President spent the night on a couch in the boiler room, but he couldn't sleep. 

“We are losing,” Dr. Bernhard told the President.

Patrick's died at 4:04 a.m. on August 9, 1963. He was only thirty-nine hours old.

“He put up quite a fight. He was a beautiful baby,” Jack said.

Baby Patrick’s death put the spotlight on a lung ailment that had been killing tens of thousands of babies every year.

President Kennedy would sign into law a large grant that authorized $265 million ($2.1 billion in today's dollars) expenditure over five used, to be mostly used for newborn research.

The grant was sponsored by the National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development (NIHCD) that JFK, with the help of his sister, Eunice Shriver, had established a year earlier.

Today, a pharmaceutical drug called Exosurf that helps to treat respiratory distress syndrome.

President John F. Kennedy would be assassinated 15 weeks after the death of his son.

* Originally published in 2015.

At the start of St Patrick's Day week in 2016, we asked our readers: what’s the very best thing about being Irish?

Hundreds of you from all around the world sent in answers, ranging from a few brief nail-on-the-head insights to longer personal stories about what being Irish has meant to you or to your families at various points in life.

A few of our favorite comments and stories are below. Don’t see yours here or didn’t get a chance to submit? Tell us the best thing about being Irish in the comment section at the bottom of the page.

“The fact that we are a small country but our national day is celebrated worldwide. We are known for our friendliness, our humour and our never-give-up-attitude.”

- Siobhan Burke

“A profound sense of the ridiculous.”

“I was born and raised in Ireland and in 1966, at the tender age of 16, like thousands of other Irish people who could not find work at home, traveled to England to find employment. That was 50 years ago. I brought with me a huge sense of pride in my national identity and whilst I am very grateful to England for giving me a good job, my wife of forty five years and three wonderful children, I will always wear my Irish identity like a proud badge of honor. The music, song, poetry and dancing of Ireland are instantly recognizable throughout the world and I firmly believe that we are the friendliest and most honest people on Earth. There are 5 million people in Ireland yet 70 million people call it home. An old friend of mine once told me that you don't have to be back in Ireland in order to back Ireland and that is exactly what millions of the Irish diaspora do every day of their lives simply by the way they conduct themselves. So what’s the best thing about being Irish? Just being Irish of course."

- Chris Dalton, 66, writing from Northampton England

“The things I love most about being Irish: Being part of a rich culture based so strong in family and heritage. The Irish are some of the most fun people I've ever met. The Irish are strong, brave, hard working and I am proud to have inherited those traits. My father was born in Kerry and came to USA in 1920 after a round about way from London and Canada and finally to New York, so he has shown us courage, determination, and perseverance. I have taught my children the same values of family, fun/laughter, bravery, courage and hard work."

- Patricia O'Connor Heitz

“The privilege of living in the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine amongst friendly people.

- Silvio Borny

“My parents were Irish immigrants who met in Los Angeles, married and had 7 of us. Growing up Irish in America was always unique. A bit different than my American friends. My mother's easy "oh well" attitude about difficulties in life and my father's insanely quick wit and musical talents. Being in Ireland many times now, just experiencing the drop dead gorgeous landscape, the over-the-top friendly natives, their love of a good joke and a neighborly pub. The ancestry of the Irish, full of determination, strength of character, fierce pride of their own and not allowing ANYONE to completely enslave them even though they fought the bastards for centuries. Our love of music, dance, poetry, and deep spiritual contemplation that keep us very human, sassy and yet still humble.”

- Enda Veres, 59, Southern California

#BeingIrish is drinking 10 cups of tea a day

— Aine O'Brien (@Aine_OB) March 15, 2016

“The charm and wit.”

“Our witty sense of humor, our strength, our glorious green landscape, our lively spirit, our happy music, our loyalty, our fun-loving attitudes, our gift of storytelling and our beautiful people!”

- Shannon Wellnitz Ryan

“Learning our rich Irish history.”

“The innate ability to travel psychically whenever we choose. Very few cultures have this ability. We see the magic that exists. We are truly blessed.”

We adapt to everyone's society … and conquer hearts, not land … he Irish empire is made up of laughter and the "craic" … helping hands and giving spirits … Sure, what would you expect from the best people on the planet?........Sláinte!!!

- John D. Lupton

“Living far away!”

“I have a wonderful history which gives me a great sense of belonging. I have roots which keeps me strong when ill winds blow.”

“I have a German last name but am actually three-quarters Irish (OK, I know I'm 100% American, you know what I mean). The best thing about being Irish are the stories of sacrifice all of my ancestors made so that I might live a good life here in the US. The stories are told over and over again and on St Paddy's Day the embellishments become historic. March 17th is a day we all look forward to worldwide. A time to celebrate our Irish ancestry and ancestors, for the craic, dance, sing, listen to trad. and remember my mother Therese Ann Quinlan Huerter. That's the best thing about being Irish.”

- Bob Huerter, 55, Omaha, Nebraska

“The love of music and the singing and dancing that go along with it. While we tend to stress out too often, we love to laugh and most of us can talk to anybody.”

“The history of the people, being strong, being survivors, the beauty of the people inside and out.”

“Irish music and dance touches the soul and fills the heart like no others can.”

- Brigid Flaherty, 18, USA

“We have a good reputation,all over the world. We give importance to family and we keep or try to maintain our traditions.That’s my impression from Buenos Aires, Argentina and being 3rd generation Irish.”

“Realizing that I carry the hopes and dreams of my ancestors in my soul. I came to realize how true this is when listening to Irish music. Or when reading Irish history or seeing pictures of Ireland. Tears will well up in my eyes. It is then that I realize that my eyes are a window used by my ancestors too.”

- Patrick Finn - 2nd generation Irish-American now living in Reno, NV

“Our revolutionary past.”

“The best thing about being Irish is the warmth, wit and music in the speech, writing and song of our people. And our dark misery is beloved like no other on earth.”

- Molly Brauer, Tampa, FL

“I am not even irish but my wife has Irish heritage ,and we have been there four times and visited her relatives. Perhaps I am better positioned to offer an unbiased opinion. If I have to pick one word to describe the many fine qualities of a country with history, heritage, and a smaller charming enduring people and way of life, it is ‘spirit.’"

“We're the best of friends and the worst of enemies!”

“What's best? Hard to narrow it down but there are highlights. It's being able to explore 10,000 years and more of heritage in the landscape and culture. It's everything from the farming traditions of my childhood home in Co Tyrone to the Kilnaruane standing stone near our house in Co. Cork. It's the traditions of saga and literature, from the evening craic to the Long Room. Although I have had a wonderful life after moving to Canada, the annual journey home (always a totally non-commercial group visit) for two to three weeks of exploration is the highlight of every year.”

- Vanessa

“Our fight and determination to make good of ourselves , our resilience, and our generosity of spirit. Our beautiful country. I could go on, I feel blessed to be Irish.”

-Breda J. Bergin

“The wonderful sense of humor and finding some joy and fun in everyday situations.”

“I am South African with an Irish grandfather, whom I never met! My daughter lives in West Cork, Republic of Ireland, having met and married an Irish fellow a few years ago. Therefore, I visit often, have strong ties to the country and love it and the Irish people dearly!”

“Our pub culture!”

“To be Irish, it's in your heart and soul. You can take the girl out of Ireland but you can never take Ireland out of the girl. I was born in Kildare 1958 and moved to Canada in 1965.I left a price of my heart in ireland, that I can't get back and I don't want it back, because it belongs there.”

- Geri Branton, Canada

“The best thing about being Irish. Being part of the world wide Irish 'tribe' with our strong links to home and to our ancestors, who fought against all the odds to survive and preserve our customs and traditions.”

- Mike Moloney, Manchester, England

“I have great pride in the contributions the Irish have made to the U.S. Considering it's such a small country- it's quite extraordinary. I love that we have such pride in our heritage and are known for our strength, kindness and humor!

- Ann, New York

“The heritage of undaunted courage, the knowledge that my progenitors have passed on the strength and determination to endure and overcome deep adversity, and the traditions of love of music, literature, philosophy, science and, most of all, love of God and fellow man. So what's the best thing about being Irish? The genes.”

You never get a straight answer when you ask an Irish person for directions. #beingIrish#IrishWeek2016https://t.co/ouX3tRv8Rf

— The Irish House Pub (@IrishHouseNOLA) March 14, 2016

“The best thing about being Irish would include being a nation of people who like to laugh and of course have a bit of Craic.”

“The best thing about being Irish is our tenacity. It's what made my family and what I am most grateful for. Telling us "you can't do this" only made us tighten our belts, spit on our palms and charge out there to prove them wrong … time after time after time. Thank God I'm Irish, I couldn't have survived without it!”

- Kate McLaney

“My dad was Irish through and through. He made many trips to Ireland, took Irish history classes at the local community college. He was in an Irish heritage group and took Gaelic language classes. I grew up listening to Tom Clancy and others before we went to church on Sundays. That was the connection my Dad instilled in me. He wanted to take me to Ireland this month, but passed away in Jan. Love you, dad.”

@IrishCentral We think the best thing about #BeingIrish is the #Music! But we may be a bit biased! ���������������� #IrishMusic#irishmusicparty

— Music Generation SD (@MusicGenSD) March 14, 2016

“The deep appreciation of music, story, family, friends, laughter and right to decide our own destiny.”

“Visiting family in Co. Kildare. Great Irish friends and Irish organizations celebration St. Patrick's Day alone with marching in our two parades here in Buffalo, New York. My wife's great-grandfather Michael Quinn from Tralee, Co. Kerry started the first St. Patrick's Day Parade here in Buffalo, New York.”

- Norm Hamilton, Lancaster, New York

“The best thing about being irish is the strong familial bonds, the stubbornness that I get from my ancestors has seen me through the worst of times. If I wasn't Irish then I would not be me. Being Irish defines who I am. And I LOVE who I am.”

“The best thing about being Irish is there are only two kinds people in world: Irish and those who wish they were.”

- Janie McAndrew

“The best thing about being Irish, to me, has to be my constant stubbornness, determination, generosity, resilience, my free spirit, and pride in my beautiful country and its people.”

- Kerri O'Reilly

“We are a spirited, loyal, generous of spirit, hard-working society. I'm so very proud to be Irish for my son's and future grandchildren heritage is safe. God has blessed us with hearts full of grace and courage.”

- Regina Maguire

“Our generosity of spirit and high ideals, our heroism, our poetry, music, literary, sporting, business, environmental and scientific achievements for such a small country, our pilgrims, scholars and explorers. Our beliefs and imagination and ability to dream and achieve those dreams, our ability to overcome Famine and War and place ourselves high on the world stage.”

- Linda Dolan

“We don't take ourselves too seriously. The Irish are a super friendly nation. We have great accents. We are the land of saints & scholars. We are hugely creative. We have the craic. . .the list goes on and on and on.”

- Rebecca Carroll

“A fighting spirit! Never ever give up! A true love of family & a deep connection to where you come from.”

- Linda Macmillan

“For me, it's patriotism. It's pride in the place that made me. I'm not just Irish. I am Ireland. I'm a walking, talking, living piece of land, culture, and rich history. As is every other person with a strong connection to their mother-country.”

- Aaron Beck

 * Originally published in 2016. 

Before there was Mother Teresa of Calcutta, there was Mother Margaret of New Orleans. Also known as the ‘Angel of the Delta,’ ‘Mother of Orphans’ or the ‘Celebrated Margaret,’ Haughery dedicated her adult life to tending to the poor and hungry of Louisiana, with a particular focus on the needs of orphans.

Born Margaret Gaffney into poverty in Tully, Co Leitrim in 1813, her parents relocated with their three youngest children to the New World in 1818 after a succession of bad summers left their land even harder to farm than before.

The journey to America took six months, leaving passengers despairing of ever seeing land again as their daily rations were cut back till finally they were only given a single a cracker a day to eat.

The ship eventually docked in Baltimore, but unfortunately their life did not get much easier. Margaret’s father – like many immigrants from rural Ireland – found city life hard to adapt to and work difficult to find. Nevertheless, he secured work as a carter and had nearly saved enough money to pay the fare for his three oldest children to make the journey from Leitrim to Maryland when he fell ill with yellow fever. He and Margaret’s mother both died within a matter of weeks and all their worldly belongings were burned to prevent the spread of the disease with the exception of the family Bible, which was found 27 years later and returned to Margaret.

Aged only nine, Margaret found herself all alone in the world. Her sister Kathleen had died not long after their ship docked in Baltimore and her brother Kevin disappeared without a trace. However, a Welshwoman who had made the voyage with the Gaffney family took pity on her and took her in. Most likely Margaret worked for her as a domestic servant and she never went to school.

In 1834 she married her husband, Irishman Charles Haughery, but his health was poor. They moved to New Orleans, where it was hoped the sun would help him. However, Charles was restless and yearned to return to Ireland, delaying the journey only for the birth of their daughter, Frances.

When he did finally make the trip home it did little to improve his health. News of his death took several months to reach Margaret in New Orleans. Worse still, their child Frances became sick died shortly thereafter leaving Margaret all alone for the second time in her life.

“My God! Thou hast broken every tie: Thou hast stripped me of all. Again I am all alone,” she wailed. But she quickly determined that she would devote herself to the needs of others and despite being left penniless by Charles she began to volunteer in what little spare time she had with the city’s orphans.

She worked as a laundress, slowly saving her wages, and eventually bought two cows. Margaret was clearly quite the business woman and by the time she was 40 she’d increased her herd to 50 and set up a bakery as well. Many of her clients become generous donors to the children she worked with in her spare time.

Together with the Sisters of Charity she opened up two orphanages for the city’s poor and they looked after children regardless of their race or religion. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 New Orleans was blockaded by the Union navy and Margaret opened a soup kitchen to feed the increasing numbers of destitute citizens.

The war meant the number of bereaved children soared and Margaret also did her best to help the ballooning number of women widowed by the conflict.

But the privations and strictures of war did not make it easy. When Union soldiers occupied New Orleans she found that many of the poor people she delivered milk and bread to for free were suddenly behind enemy lines.

Determined not to let the war inconvenience her charity work she demanded a meeting with the infamous General Butler – known as ‘Butcher Butler’ among the ladies of New Orleans for the brutality of his rule.

Butler told Margaret she would face execution if she was caught trying to cross the strictly enforced lines of occupation. She told him that she did not believe it was the policy of President Lincoln to see the poor of New Orleans starve to death to which Butler replied, "You are not to go through the picket lines without my permission, is that clear?" "Quite clear," Margaret responded reluctantly.

Then, to her great surprise, Butler added, "You have my permission."

By then Margaret was regarded as something of a minor-saint by the people of New Orleans and she used to sit in the door of her office where she had a smile for all who passed and a wise word of advice for the many who sought her help.

When she was 69 she became ill and died after several months of sickness. Her death made the front page of the local Daily Picayune, which reflected that, “She never had upon her hand a kid glove, she never wore a silk dress, though she earned by hard labor many thousands of dollars. But no woman has been borne to the tomb within the limits of New Orleans who was more generally respected and loved.”

A state funeral was ordered; the Mayor of New Orleans led the coffin, the Lieutenant Governor served as a pallbearer and the Archbishop was present. The orphans of the city wore black and the city was so thronged with mourners they had difficulty maneuvering the coffin into the Cathedral for the requiem mass.   

Margaret left every cent of her fortune to the city’s orphanages with no conditions attached as to the whether they catered for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, black or white children. To her, they were all in need.

Affixed to the end of the will was a simple cross – a reminder of her humble origins – for despite her huge wealth Margaret never learned to read. She died illiterate.

A committee to erect a statue in her honor was swiftly assembled and the sum of $6,000 was soon raised. A remarkable sum when only nickels and dimes were accepted for the project.

The sculpture shows her in her trademark bonnet, sitting in her doorway waiting for people to pass by and chat with her. Inscribed is the single word, ‘Margaret,’ so well-known was she that no further description was needed.

The park was later renamed Margaret Place and it still hosts what it thought to be the first ever statue built in honor of a woman in all of the United States.

H/T: The Irish Times.

Ireland is anticipating a rapid expansion in population over the next 20 years and, according to a new government plan, the country will require an additional 500,000 homes to house the population. 

At the launch of ‘Ireland 2040’ Housing Minister Simon Coveney said the purpose of the government plan is to ensure the country is prepared to deal with the rapid expansion in population, which is expected to grow to pre-famine levels or approximately 8.5m.

"We are not geared up for that yet," he said.

According to BreakingNews.ie, the study of Ireland's population trends found that population growth in Cork, Limerick and Waterford has been significantly below the national average over the past 20 years. However, Coveney said cities like Cork and Galway must develop to absorb the strain on Dublin into the future.

The population growth of the last two decades has been largely centered on Dublin, and if things don’t change, 75 percent of the projected population will be living in the greater Dublin area.

According to the ‘Ireland 2040’ document, which was launched by Coveney and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, half of all economic activity in the country is generated in Dublin, with the capital’s reach now extending into 11 counties.

Employment is centered in an increasingly “smaller number of areas” while new homes are “spread out” in Dublin commuter towns.

If rapid growth in the ‘Dublin City-Region’ is not addressed, competitiveness and the ability to attract companies in the wake of Brexit may be at risk, the report warns.

“There has been an increasing concentration of population and economic activity in the east of the country, with much of the growth associated with Dublin being accommodated in 10 other counties, extending from Cavan to Wexford.

“We know that present trends take us to an Ireland where around three quarters of the extra population and homes will happen on the eastern side of the country, much of it clustered around but not necessarily happening in our capital city.

“This will further exacerbate massive and increasingly unmanageable sprawl of housing areas, scattered employment and car-based commuting, presenting major challenges around lop-sided development, under-utilized potential, congestion and adverse impacts on people’s lives and the environment.”

While there has been over-development in some places, there has been a decline in many parts of rural Ireland, which are poorly served by roads and public transport. This means that services and facilities will be rapidly required in many areas, but may be under-utilized elsewhere.

“This makes it costly and difficult to plan for future needs,” the report warns, adding that areas experiencing rapid population growth in recent years are not equipped to deal with growing numbers of people.

The report follows the launch of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs and recent launch of a program to develop rural Ireland. The report goes on to suggest that attracting businesses after Brexit may prove difficult unless action is taken.

"Should the Dublin City-Region suffer a loss of competitiveness and become a less attractive place in which to invest as a result of housing and infrastructural bottlenecks, investment and influence will inevitably be attracted to other similar city-regions in Europe or elsewhere.”

When people picture John F Kennedy they imagine him as President, handsome for sure, but also on the cusp of middle age.

So, what did he look like as a young man before all the certainties of the world were turned upside down by the Second World War?

Before he joined the US Navy JFK attended Harvard and the summer before his senior year he traveled across Europe to research his thesis on the Munich Agreement, Britain’s doomed peace treaty with Hitler in 1938.

His father Joseph Kennedy Sr was then the US Ambassador to Britain and Jack stopped by London before the trip back to Massachusetts. His brief stopover would allow him to witness one of the most seismic events in history when on September 1, 1939 Britain declared war on Germany following the Nazi invasion of Poland.

Kennedy’s position as Ambassador meant Jack and his sibling Joe Jr and Kathleen were allowed to watch a special sitting of the British Parliament, as a war weary and shocked nation braced itself for a second bloody, generation-defining conflict with Germany.

The war left few young families in America, Germany, Britain and countless other nations untouched and the Kennedys were no exception. Their huge wealth and privilege did not shield them from the tragedy of the conflict.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr was two years older than Jack, and after his birth in 1915 his paternal grandfather had confidently predicted he would go on to become the first Catholic President of the United States. He studied at the London School of Economics and Harvard Law before enlisting in the navy. He was sent to Britain in 1943 and was killed in operations the following year when the bomber he was flying exploded. President Franklin D Roosevelt awarded him the Navy Cross posthumously. His father’s ambitions for a Kennedy political dynasty transferred to Jack.

Robert was only a boy of 13 when war broke out in Europe. Shortly before he turned 18 he too joined the Navy, although he was isolated from the action and complained once in a letter of feeling like a draft dodger.

John was originally turned away from the military on account of his bad back. His father wasn't having that – what would voters think of him if he sat out the conflict their relatives had been conscripted into? JFK spent a month doing back exercises and in 1941 he was finally commissioned an ensign.

His first job was in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) where he was working when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. However, his time in Washington was abruptly cut short when his superiors transferred him to South Carolina, possibly due to his romance with a Danish woman who was said to have friends in high-ranking Nazi circles. 

After officer training, Kennedy volunteered to serve on Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats and was assigned to the South Pacific. When his bad back flared up again, and he was denied the combat role he desperately craved, he complained he had been “shafted.” His fellow Naval recruits nicknamed him “shafty.”

Eventually Jack was given command of his own PT boat and was charged with patrols near New Georgia, just off the Solomon Islands. It was dangerous work and an attack by a Japanese destroyer left the boat damaged and two members of his crew dead. Turning to the ten surviving members of his team, Jack said to them, “There's nothing in the book about a situation like this. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose." The crew chose to fight on and swam the three miles to a nearby island where they were later rescued.

His heroism had not gone unnoticed, and his superiors promoted him to Lieutenant following the incident. Later, while recuperating in a hospital, he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his bravery and a Purple Heart for his back injury. Although he accepted the awards, Jack and his father felt he should have been awarded the Silver Star instead of the Navy and Marine Cross. The first is a combat medal, whilst the second is awarded for non-combatant incidents. Requests for an upgrade from both Kennedys were declined.

In 1950 and again in 1959 the Department of the Navy offered him a Bronze Star Medal, both times however, Kennedy turned them down.

Ultimately, he was honorably discharged from the Navy a few months before victory on grounds of physical disability with the rank of Lieutenant. His father could rest easy knowing that Jack had served bravely and could now look the families of veterans in the eye when asking for their votes. 

In later years, when asked how he became a hero, Jack would joke, “It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half."

A far cry from the grinning pumpkins of Halloween today, the original Jack-o-Lanterns, named for Jack O’Lantern of the Irish myth, were actually quite terrifying.

They were carved from turnips or beets rather than festive orange pumpkins, and were intended to ward off unwanted visitors.

Gourds were one of the earliest plant species, domesticated by humans around 10,000 years ago, mostly cultivated for their carving potential – for kitchen tools, dishes, musical instruments, toys, furniture and more. Maoris began carving them for lanterns 700 years ago – the Maori word for “gourd” and “lampshade” are actually the same.

According to Irish folklore, a man called Jack O’Lantern was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity. A ghostly figure of the night, O’Lantern walks with a burning coal inside of a carved-out turnip to light his way.

As the tale goes, a man called Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink and convinced him to shape-shift into a coin to pay with. When the devil obliged, Jack decided he wanted the coin for other purposes, and kept it in his pocket beside a small, silver cross to prevent it from turning back into the devil.

Jack eventually freed the devil under the condition that he wouldn’t bother Jack for one year, and wouldn’t claim Jack’s soul once he died. The next year, Jack tricked the devil once more by convincing him to climb up a tree to fetch a piece of fruit. When he was up in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the trunk so the devil couldn’t come down until he swore he wouldn’t bother Stingy Jack for another ten years.

When Jack died, God wouldn’t allow him into heaven and the devil wouldn’t allow him into hell. He was instead sent into the eternal night, with a burning coal inside a carved-out turnip to light his way. He’s been roaming the earth ever since. The Irish began to refer to this spooky figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” which then became “Jack O’Lantern.”

This legend is why people in Ireland and Scotland began to make their own versions of Jack’s lantern by carving grotesque faces into turnips, mangelwurzels, potatoes and beets, placing them by their homes to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits and travelers.

Once this became a Halloween tradition, Jack-o-Lanterns were used as guides for people dressed in costume on Samhain (Oct 31 – Nov 1), a traditional Gaelic version of Halloween, seen as a night when the divide between the worlds of the living and the dead is especially thin. The Samhain festival marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the “darker half” of the year.

When the Irish and Scots immigrated to America, bringing the tradition with them, they found that pumpkins, native to America, made perfect fruits for carving. Pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns have been an integral part of Halloween festivities ever since.

Some believe that the Jack-o-Lanterns originated with All Saints’ Day, and represent Christian souls in purgatory. Roaming Stingy Jack is in, after all, what would be considered purgatory.

Although the idea that the myth of the Jack-o-Lanterns is Irish is widely held, there is no scholarly research into Irish customs and mythology that proves it so. There is also evidence of turnips being used for what was called a “Hoberdy’s Lantern” in Worcestershire, England at the end of the 18th Century. Hoberdy's Lanterns had carved-out faces in turnips and the stump of a candle within.

The photograph above shows an Irish 19th century Jack-o-Lantern made from a turnip, which is on exhibit at the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar, Co. Mayo.

Do you usually make Jack-o-Lanterns on Halloween? Have you heard any other origin stories? Let us know in the comment section, below. 

* Originally published in 2014.

In November 1941 Dr. James Watts carried out a frontal lobotomy on Rosemary Kennedy’s brain at a facility in upstate New York.

A psychiatrist present at the lobotomy asked Rosemary to tell him stories and repeat the months of the year. The doctor kept scraping away brain tissue until Rosemary could no longer talk.

Only then did Dr. Watts stop.

Following the lobotomy Rosemary could barely walk and knew only a few words. She would spend most of her life hidden away from the world and even her own family.

Such was the price the young Kennedy girl paid because her parents feared her condition would puncture the perfect impression of the relentlessly ambitious Kennedy clan.

Kate Clifford Larson revealed a host of new sources for her story of the tragic Rosemary for her book “The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,”published last year. 

It is a book that shows Joe and Rose Kennedy in a dreadful light, prepared to sacrifice their daughter for their sons' political careers.

Larson says that right from the beginning, when the obstetrician who was to deliver Rosemary was several hours late and a nurse botched the birth, Rosemary Kennedy was deeply unlucky.

By kindergarten Rosemary was called “retarded,” in the lingo of the times, and such children were considered defective. For Joe Kennedy, obsessed with the family image, it was a disaster.

Rosemary never proceeded mentally beyond third or fourth grade intelligence and she was packed off to a boarding school for misfits.

From there she wrote her father a heartbreaking letter as Larson reveals: “Darling Daddy, I hate to disappoint you in any way. Come to see me very soon. I get very lonesome every day.”

Rosemary finally caught a break when her father became Ambassador to Britain and she thrived in a London convent school. But back in the States, Rosemary, a stunning looking girl, began attracting admirers. At twenty she was "a picturesque young woman, a snow princess with flush cheeks, gleaming smile, plump figure, and a sweetly ingratiating manner to almost everyone she met."

As Larson writes, “Her parents found her sexuality dangerous.”

In early 1941 Joe learned about frontal lobotomy, then coming into vogue, which allegedly “calmed” hyperactive patients.

Joe Kennedy ordered the surgery done immediately.

Later, Joe and Rose told all who asked that Rosemary was teaching at a school for handicapped students in the Midwest. In fact, she was in a home in Wisconsin, had the mind of a two-year-old, and was unable to do anything for herself.

After Joe Kennedy's stroke Rose went to meet the daughter she had abandoned. When Rosemary saw her mother she ran to her then began beating her mother’s chest in deep distress crying and moaning.

It seemed, despite all the covering up, she still remembered her and what had been done to her.

The other Kennedy children also learned the truth and adopted an entirely different approach, visiting Rosemary and bringing her to Boston on many occasions.

Eunice Kennedy based her creation of the Special Olympics on Rosemary. She broke the family's silence on Rosemary in the Saturday Evening Post, but it was not until 1987 that the story of the lobotomy became public.

Rosemary Kennedy was never allowed to live any kind of life by her ambitious parents, but in the end how she was treated by them, especially Joe, says far more about him than anything about her.

She just had the misfortune to be a Kennedy in an era when mental retardation was a large and ugly secret. She died in 2005 and, ironically, we have learned far more about her since her death than when she was alive and this new book adds valuable knowledge.

* Originally published in Oct 2015.

Family researchers have an uncovered a link betweenDuchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and Irish-British singer Chris de Burgh, who is most famous for his hit ‘Lady in Red.’

Genealogists at a roadshow for the BBC's ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ program discovered the distant link between the British royalty and the part-Irish musician.

Experts believe that Michael Middleton, Kate’s father, is related to Edward III through his links to William Fairfax, a 16th century nobleman.

Edward III’s son, Lionel of Antwerp, married the Countess of Ulster Elizabeth de Burgh, which is where the connection occurs.

De Burgh himself was surprised to learn of the connection to Kate Middleton. The singer told The Sunday Times, "I was unaware that there is a distant connection between the de Burgh family and the Middletons.

"There are probably many others also connected to both families. At least that will give us something to talk about should we ever have a cup of tea together."

Despite the connection being distant, Tourism Ireland hopes to capitalize on Kate Middleton’s Irish roots and use it to campaign to draw more visitors to Ireland.

The countdown to St. Patrick's Day has begun! 

March 17 is only one month away, and it's a short one, too! Each day we'll be updating this space with St. Patrick's Day info, events and stories to entertain and prepare you as you watch the seconds until St. Patrick's Day tick away.

Do you already have your St. Patrick's Day 2017 all planned out? Do you have a question or need a recommendation for St. Patrick's Day? Let us know in the comment section and we'll get on it! 

February 17: 28 days to go!

Do you know what's going on in your area for St. Patrick's Day? We put together a list of parades, events and festivals happening across the US on and around March 17. Check it out and start filling in your calendar!

Read More: What's happening around the US for St. Patrick's Day

Bundy, Gacy, Manson – all of these names are well known as belonging to serial murderers, but how many people have heard of Jane Toppan, a nurse and the daughter of Irish immigrants? This “Angel of Mercy” is believed to have been one of America's most prolific poisoners having killed over 100 patients.

Born in Massachusetts in 1857, Toppan, who became known as “Jolly Jane,” attended Cambridge Nursing school and established herself as a private nurse in Boston working for some of city’s wealthiest families. It wasn’t until an entire family in her care died, within weeks of each other, that her crimes surfaced.

The first generation Irish nurse was known for her cheerful, funny demeanor, hence her nickname, but it has been said that she was the most notorious female poisoner in modern times. It’s believed that she gave injections of morphine and atropine to 31 hospital patients and a suspected 70 others, killing them all, over her two-decade career.

When she was finally caught she admitted that she wanted to kill others. Given her history of mental illness and suicide attempts she won an insanity plea. She was confined to a state mental institution and died in prison 40 years later.

Recently the podcast, Criminal, covered her bizarre story:

Jane Toppan wasn’t even her real name. She was born as Nora Kelley, in Boston, in 1854, to Irish immigrants, Bridget and Peter Kelly. She lost her mother, to tuberculosis, in infancy. Her father, a tailor, was an alcoholic who suffered with severe mental illness. He was known as “Kelley the Crack” and was said to have been committed to an asylum when he was found in his shop having sewn his own eyelids together.

The four Kelly daughters, Nora aka “Jolly Jane” among them, lived briefly with their paternal grandmother, but were soon sent to the local orphanage.

Abner Toppan and his wife, from Lowell, MA adopted Nora in 1859. They changed her first name to Jane. As a girl she excelled in school. She seemed completely normal before she was jilted by her fiancée, years later. This spun her into depression and Jane twice attempted suicide. She went through a period of odd behavior including believing she could predict the future through her dreams.

Sadly, around this time, Ellen, one of Jane’s sisters, joined their father in an asylum following a mental breakdown.

During the 1880s Jane seemed to stabilize and signed up as a student nurse at the hospital in Cambridge. Again she excelled academically. However, her superiors were disturbed by her obsession with autopsies. She was dismissed after two patients died mysteriously. She left without her certificate but forged the paperwork and went on to find work as a private nurse.

Over the next 20 years she was hired by dozens of New England families to care for their ill and elderly.

On July 4, 1901 an old friend of Jane’s, Mattie Davis, came to visit. She died under her care at Cambridge. Jane accompanied the body home to Cataumet, MA for burial.

There she was retained as the family’s nurse by the patriarch Alden Davis. By July 29 his married daughter, Annie Gordon, who had turned to the nurse in distress, was dead. A few days later Davis died of “a stroke” and his surviving daughter, Mary Gibbs, was dead by August 19.

The entire family had been wiped out in six weeks. Mary’s husband realized that this was no coincidence. He demanded an autopsy on the family’s bodies and lethal doses of morphine were found in the three latest victims. By that point Jane had fled back to Boston.

By the time Jane was arrested in Amherst, NH on October 29, she had killed her foster sister, Edna Bannister, and she was working on another patient before the police cut her plans short.

In custody she named 31 of her victims, but it’s believed that her final tally was between 70 and 100.

No accurate list of her victims who died in hospital was ever compiled. At that time many of the New England families wished to avoid scandal and refused requests for exhumations and autopsies. Jane was only tried for 11 murders and it was her own testimony that clinched her insanity ruling.

She said, “That is my ambition, to have killed more people – more helpless people – than any man or woman who has ever lived."

Nora Kelly, Jane “Jolly Jane” Toppan, was incarcerated at the state asylum at Taunton, MA. She died in August 1938 at age 84.

"Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn’t that. That is a relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it’s off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not married.....When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship." - Joseph Campbell

When the Irish American scholar Joseph Campbell was growing up in New York City, he was a regular visitor to the Natural Museum of History, where he had discovered Native American peoples, and their metaphorical systems, or what we call mythology. This led the young man to pursue his own knowledge, and dig into his own soul.

It brought him to his own heritage, where he discovered ancient Irish mythology and James Joyce's modern Irish mythos, Finnegans Wake. He used Finnegans Wake and the Celtic myths of Arthur to unlock the universal mythology of the human unconscious. Finnegans Wake is littered with a dictionary-sized Gaelic Irish vocabulary and much talk of Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn Mac Cool) who was the hero of the Fenian cycle or the Fiannaidheacht wherein some of the earliest romantic love themes and poetry were composed.

For Campbell, as for William Butler Yeats, the ancient Irish had achieved a Tibetan-like culture, one that had opened into the seventh chakra. In ancient Ireland, Yeats had found a path to nirvana not apocalypse, as he wrote in Under Ben Bulben, his grave poem, "Cast your mind on other days/That we in coming days may be/Still the indomitable Irishry." In the same poem he spurs Irish poets to knowledge of our ancient civilization. Campbell thought the high crosses woven with knots ascending to the sun circle, analogous to the chakra diagrams that a meditant uses to achieve the bliss of transcendence. It is from this spiritually advanced culture that a unique theme of romantic love emerged.

One of the most beautiful genres of ancient Irish literature was the story of runaway lovers, such as Diarmuid agus Gráinne, or Tristan and Iseult, and many others. The classic Irish story tells of a princess that gives up the comfortable life as a king's wife, to be with her true lover. The lovers are hunted for they have betrayed dharma or social duty--such as that of the betrothéd to her king, or that of the best soldier to his lord. The lovers would rather be hunted and have a terrifying existence in the wilderness, with only their love to keep them alive, than to be with anyone else than each other, even if it means betraying the king and all society.

Ireland is still bestrewn with monuments to this kind of love-above-all. The great dolmens such as found in the Boirinn (the Burren of County Clare, Clár) are to this day, called Leaba Diarmuid agus Gráinne, or the bed of the lovers. It is also called Poll na mBrón, or the hole of sorrows, to invoke the emotional terror of their time together in love, chased like animals by the king they have betrayed to be together. Infused into the Irish landscape, are these megalithic testimonials to the lovers that break all conventions and laws to be together.

In later traditions, the leaba or megalithic "Gráinne beds" were places where young lovers would copulate, and so were scandalously avoided by polite society.

Campbell (his name means cam béal or crooked mouth in Irish) followed the story of Diarmuid and Gráinne into more modern European literature.

When the Norman military aristocrats invaded the Celtic lands, they subsumed the Gaelic and Welsh bards, poets and filí that knew the canon of Celtic literature by heart and could recite great heroic epics from memory like had been done in the Bronze Age of Homer. When translated into French, the Celtic stories became contemporary to the Middle Ages, when courts and ladies, and royalty looked and felt more like the familiar Arthurian legends we know well today.

The everlasting cauldron found in the story of Brann, my namesake, for example, became the Holy Grail, and was Christened to go with Medieval norms. The Mórrigan goddess of death became Morgan Le Fay, a more manageable fairy. The old Celtic warrior King Finn became Arthur, a Frenchified (and later Anglified) version of Irish and Welsh legends, confused also with historical Welsh leaders who fought Anglo Saxon invasion, and were given the patronym of "bear" or "art" in the Welsh language.

Diarmuid, the soldier or Fenian, became Lancelot, the betrayer of duty for romantic love. And Gráinne, whose name comes from the Irish grian, or sun, became Guinevere in the French, she who betrays her duty as wife betrothed to a political ally, for the true experience of life, a life in the arms of her love of all loves, no matter the price.

The sculpture photographed above is from a 1988 commission entitled Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne), a large bronze relief in Sligo.

* Originally published in 2011. 

Profile from Senan Molony's book "The Irish Aboard the Titanic"

Ticket number 226593. Paid £12 7s.

Boarded at Queenstown. Second Class.

From: Gardenhill, Castleconnell, County Limerick. 

Destination: 167 Paxton Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 

A corset nearly got in the way of Nora Keane saving her own life. She was wasting so much time as she fumbled to put it on and lace it up that it became the object of a dispute with her traveling companion, Edwina Troutt. When Edwina returned to her cabin, one woman, Susie Webber, had already left. The other, Nora, was still dressing. Having replaced her dressing-gown with a warmer coat, Edwina dealt with the nervous Irishwoman. When Nora insisted on trying to put on a corset, Edwina grabbed it from her and sent it flying down the narrow passage leading to the porthole. Interestingly a similar confrontation over a corset is played out in the James Cameron movie Titanic. Edwina could not believe that Nora could put her life at risk over a foolish item of clothing at the height of a sinking.

The three women had been sharing compartment 101 on E deck aft. Edwina Celia Troutt (27) was from Bath, heading back to a sister in Massachusetts. Susie Webber (37) was from Devon, bound for Hartford, Connecticut. Both also survived. Edwina lived to be 100, dying in December 1984, while Susan Webber died in 1952 at the age of 77.

Edwina later recounted how their Irish companion, Nora Keane from Castleconnell, had undergone a sudden premonition that the Titanic would sink when boarding at Queenstown, speaking openly of her fears when the vessel was barely underway. It is one of a number of verified incidents of foreboding and one of the most chilling – Edwina later claimed that Nora told her she was so overcome with sudden dread as she tottered towards the towering Titanic that she dropped her Rosary and prayer book into the water as she was going up the gangway from a tender that had brought mainly Third-Class Irish passengers from Deepwater Quay.

Another member of the women’s cabin had a story of foreboding to share: Nellie Hocking, a 21-year-old girl from Cornwall. Edwina later recounted how Nellie put the fear of God into Nora Keane by telling her how she had heard a cock-crow on the Titanic at dusk on the fateful Sunday. Hearing such a cry while traveling on a journey is viewed as an ill omen in Cornish custom. Nora told the unnerving story to Edwina, who laughed it off. But Nellie had not been imagining things – there was a live rooster and other poultry on the Titanic. First-Class passengers Marie Grice and Ella Holmes White were importing a clutch of French chickens to the United States.

Nora was on her way back to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she and her brother ran the Union Hotel on Paxton Street.

She told her story to a local paper:

Miss Keane Home; Her Complete Story

Survivor of Wreck tells how Ship Sank as those in Boats looked on – Drifted Eight Hours in Darkness and Cold before Aid Came

Miss Nora Keane, the only resident of this city who was aboard the Titanic when it was wrecked off the Newfoundland banks, arrived home at 7.10 o’clock last evening. She was accompanied by her brothers and their wives who met her at the Cunard line pier where the Carpathia docked Thursday evening at 9.15. Last night she told to The Patriot all the details of her terrible experience, from the time the giant ship first struck the iceberg until she was gathered into the arms of her four big brothers on the New York dock.

‘It was terrible that wreck … I felt a slight shock a little time before they came. I thought nothing of it. No person had any idea that the vessel was hurt. Even after we were told to get ready we didn’t think there was any danger, for we had been told that the ship could not sink – that it was unsinkable. People had told me that it was an impossibility for it to go down. I went on deck with other persons. The officers had perfect control of everything. There was some excitement amongst some of the people but not what you would expect under the circumstances.

‘Officers called out just who were to go in the boats. I was fortunate to get out in the fourth or fifth boat that left. The crew showed every courtesy in lowering the women and children into the boats. The men passengers stood back. Without doubt, they sacrificed their lives to give women and children the preference … There was a foreigner of some kind ran from some part of the ship and jumped into our boat. No one saw him go. When we got into the boat, we tramped over him for some time but didn’t see him or even know we were stepping on a human form.

‘Later he proved of great use. He could handle the boat. After we rowed away from the ship, we learned that he was in the boat and asked him if we hurt him when we walked over him. He said, “No, still living.” The boat had but one sailor in it and this man came in very useful in helping us work the boat. He did good work … Two men floated by us. Both of them had life preservers. One of them drooped low in the water.

He did not call. The other called to us: “Take me on.” It was almost an impossibility to do anything. Our boat barely floated. “Goodbye,” the man in the water called. Then his head went down a little later. He disappeared out of sight. That was the case with many others. It was [a] terrible sight to witness. It cannot be forgotten. The sight of men in the sea was awful.’

From the lifeboat, Nora saw the Titanic go down. ‘The ship seemed to go down forward and raise to an awful height, all at once. There was a roar and a deafening sound. The cries and moans of those passengers and crew in the water were awful. Very soon there was nothing seen or heard. The ship went down about 100 yards from where our boat was. Bodies drifted past us. Pieces of the wreck were around.

‘And that band played, I don’t know how the men did it, while we were getting on the boats. It played when we drifted away. Men jumped into the sea but the band played.

Some of them must have stood in water that was then over that part of the deck while they played, for we were on nearly the same level with the deck then.

‘They played Nearer My God to Thee till the ship rose and they went out of sight. They must have been playing when it went down,’ said Nora. Nora and the 704 other survivors were picked up by the Carpathia about daybreak. And it was The Patriot which told her brothers in Harrisburg that she was safe, having previously reported their anxiety about her. At 9.15 a.m. on 18 April, the Carpathia docked in New York where Nora was met by her brothers, Dennis, William, Patrick and John Keane.

Nora then returned to Harrisburg where she had made her home with another brother, Michael, who had a hotel there.

(The Patriot, 20 April 1912)

The same newspaper the day before quoted Nora, in an account dictated to her brother Dennis, as saying that ‘some shots were fired on the ship. People said men had been shot. I don’t know who they were … it is so awful I cannot think of all that happened.’

Nora, who discreetly carved eleven years off her age when signing aboard the Titanic, had been born in 1866 to John Keane (1819–1885) and his wife Nora Fee (d. 1916) of Gardenhill, Castleconnell, Limerick. Nora later bought and managed a pub in Harrisburg, using money she received from an inheritance. The American Red Cross assisted her to the tune of $100.

Nora told her family back in Ireland little about the disaster. She said the other women in her cabin were woken up by stewards and told to leave the ship immediately. She was in the lifeboat all night, dressed only in her nightgown – sans corset of course – and strictly enjoined her nephews and nieces in later life: ‘When they tell you to get off the boat, do what they say!’

She eventually returned to Ireland and died on 20 December 1944, at the County Infirmary in Limerick, aged 78. The cause of death was complications from a broken leg.

Source - Mercier Press - Ebooks from Ireland – Irish author on Kindle, iPad, Nook and all ereading devices

Visit our Titanic Centenary Commemoration section here

In the years following Ireland’s Celtic Tiger building boom, the country became notorious for its ghost estates – housing developments that were built (or were in the process of being built) with boom-time money, then abandoned and left uninhabited once the recession hit. But Ireland, as a country with thousands of years of history, has ghost villages dating much farther back. The following is a glimpse of some of Ireland’s best-known ghost towns. Know of any others? Let us know in the comment section.

Deserted Village, Slievemore, Achill Island. Co. Mayo

Along the southern slope of Slievemore Mountain, which is on Achill Island in Co. Mayo, the ruins of nearly 100 stone cottages remain.

It is believed that the cottages were at least semi-inhabited as recently as the mid-1900s as “booley” homes, where farmers would live during the summer months with their herds grazing nearby. However, archaeological finds indicate that the area was inhabited as far back as medieval times.

The Achill Tourism website boasts that “An hour spent meandering from cottage to neighboring cottage along the ancient track and through adjacent fields with their lazy bed ridges and furrows is a journey back in time. Sheltered under the slopes of Slievemore and hidden from the 21st century, this tranquil corner of a remote island is a perfect place for quiet reflection and remembrance.”

Great Blasket Island. Co. Kerry

The Blasket Islands are a group of six Atlantic islands in Co. Kerry: the Great Blasket Island, Beginish, Inishabro, Inishvickillane, Inishtooskert and Tearaght Island.

They were inhabited for centuries by a small but close-knit Irish-speaking population who followed a traditional way of life – farming, fishing, weaving – and who eventually became the subjects of important linguistic studies for their use of a largely unchanged version of the Irish language.

Sixty-two years ago, in 1953, the last remaining inhabitants of the Blasket Islands were permanently evacuated to the mainland.

The 1953 evacuation, ordered by then-Taoiseach Eamon de Valera, was largely accepted as a necessity. The Blasket Islanders – by then a population of only 22 – were cut off from communication or any emergency assistance from the mainland and facing increasingly extreme weather patterns.

Much of the infrastructure of Great Blasket remains, though many of the buildings have become dilapidated. For those interested in the Blasket Islands, the Great Blasket Centre in Dunquin offers a rich account of the islands’ history and culture. Weather permitting, ferries also take visitors around the islands during the summer months.

Port, Co. Donegal

Less than 10 miles from Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal, on a side road that leads to Ardara, the ghost village of Port can be found. The abandoned settlement is believed to have been the first thriving maritime community in the county. The now crumbling cottages that dot the landscape were built from local stone.

So, what happened? As the We Love Donegal website explains, “It is thought that the people who lived there had to leave during The Famine (1845-52) after which the houses were just left to fall into ruin. Of course, many people left Donegal and the rest of Ireland during and after The Famine, but Port is unusual in that a whole village or hamlet seem to have left. Normally there would have been people left behind who survived The Famine and houses would have been inhabited on into later years. Perhaps, in this case, those left behind were just too weak to survive and died there.”

The site also offers detailed instructions for curious travelers on how to get to Port.

Clonmines, Co. Wexford

Clonmines may be one of the finest examples of a deserted medieval settlement in all of Ireland. It was aptly described in a 2010 article in the Journal of the Bannow Historical Society as “a place that has much more history than it has present.”

The small town began to grow and thrive following the arrival of Norman adventurer William Marshal in the 1200s.

It grew to have a river port, castles, a church and a monastery. The main road connected the town to Wexford proper. However, once the river dried up in the 1600s, the town went into steep decline.

Now all that remains are ruins, most of which are on private property.

Inis Cathaig (Scattery Island), Co. Clare

Inis Cathaig, or Scattery Island, is an uninhabited island in the Shannon Estuary, just a mile away from Kilrush. Scattery’s now abandoned monastic settlement was founded in the early 6th century by St. Senan, who was born locally. It holds the ruins of six churches and one of the highest Round Towers in Ireland, at 120 feet high.

According to the Clare County Library, “The island once housed over 141 people during 1841 and 1881. However, due to social and economic decline, the population of the island began to decrease rapidly from 1926 and has been uninhabited since 1978.

“This past life on the island is echoed in the abandoned remains of the community on Scattery. A lighthouse, a street, old cottages, and the church 'Teampall na Marbh' which hosts the graves of the people of Scattery, encapsulate the isolated life that was once led on Scattery.”

Ferry trips and guided tours of Scattery are available seasonally from Kilrush. Visit the Heritage Ireland website for more info.

* Originally published in 2015. 

An historic photo of Fulmoth Kearney, President Obama’s Irish ancestor from Moneygall, Co, Offaly, was discovered at the end of 2014.

Merlyn White, Obama's third cousin once removed, recently learned of her connection to the president while visiting a distant relation in Scotland. The news led her to reconsider an old family photo album she had inherited from her 107-year-old great aunt. In the album's pages she found portraits of Fulmoth and his wife Charlotte, which she shared with genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who first identified Fulmoth as Obama's Irish ancestor. 

This revelation of the photo comes on the heels of the discovery of Kearney's final resting place in a Kansas cemetery and his memorialization with a headstone after 136 years. 

In 2007, Smolenyak traced then-candidate Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry on his mother’s side, eventually finding that his third great-grandfather, Fulmoth Kearney, left Moneygall for New York in 1850. He and his sister Margaret were bound for Ohio, where their father had inherited land from a brother. Other members of the Kearney family would gradually make their journey to America, but Fulmoth was the most recent immigrant on the maternal side of Obama's family.

Smolenyak's discovery was the catalyst for the Obamas’ joyous visit to Ireland in May 2011, during which the president raised a pint in Moneygall and gave his historic and poignant speech in Dublin.

However, as Smolenyak shared in a recent piece on her Huffington Post blog, there was one loose end in Fulmoth’s story – his date of death and place of burial. Furthermore, there were no known photos of Obama's direct Irish ancestor. 

That mystery has finally been solved, Fulmoth Kearney’s grave is now properly marked, and we now have faces to go with the names of Kearney and his wife Charlotte. 

President Obama’s second cousin once removed Dean Dillard of Chanute, Kansas, recently figured out Kearney’s date of death – March 21, 1878 - and final resting place. With the research help of Norman Peters, Dillard tracked down old cemetery records to Ohio and figured out that Fulmoth was buried in Kansas, in Labette County’s Fairview Cemetery, with his wife, Charlotte.

Dillard and Peters had a headstone erected on the bare burial plot earlier this week. One hundred and thirty six years after his death, Kearney has finally been memorialized. The headstone notes Fulmoth and Charlotte as the “great-great-great-grandparents of President Barack Obama.”

What's more, Merlyn White's photo album further coroborates this by listing the same dates of death for Fulmoth and Charlotte. 

Smolenyak is thrilled with this fitting bookend to the story of Obama’s Irish ancestor.

"Thanks to the discovery and memorialization of the final resting spot of Fulmoth Kearney, we now how a cradle-to-grave rendition of the life of Barack Obama's Irish immigrant ancestor,” she told IrishCentral.

“The young fellow who left Moneygall in 1850 emigrated to Ohio where he built a log cabin, married, and had a family before moving on to Indiana and Kansas. He's well remembered in Ireland, and I'm delighted to see things brought full circle with a headstone for his place of burial in Kansas."

Between this and the photograph, she added, "I guess Fulmoth decided that it was finally time to give up his secrets!"

Interestingly, she pointed out, Melvina Shields Magruder, one of First Lady Michelle Obama's third great-grandparents, who died in 1938, was finally commemorated with a headstone in Georgia only three months ago.

"2014 has been a good year for previously overlooked Obama ancestors," she wrote.

Check Smolenyak's genealogy blog on the Huffington Post.  

* Originally published in December 2014.