From Irish Roots, (No. 28)
Published four times yearly.
Surnames of County Monaghan
By Willie O'Kane
COUNTY MONAGHAN, COMPRISING SOME 136,000 hectares, is a landlocked county,
having boundaries with four other Ulster counties - Tyrone, Armagh,
Fermanagh and Cavan - as well as with Louth and Meath.
The county name derives from Muineachan, the place of the thickets. Much of the county is
a mix of rounded hills and poorly drained uplands interspersed with more
fertile and manageable soils on the lower parts where limestone
predominates.
The highest hills are the Slieve Beagh range in the
north-west, along the Tyrone border. Reaching around 1,200 feet in height,
the range is somewhat isolated and featureless. Other mountains are
Cairmore, with its deep upland lake, and Crieve Mountain overlooking the
southern part of the county.
The Blackwater is the chief river in Monaghan, and today most of the county
is given to pasture and beef farming with sheep on the higher farmland.
Nearer the main towns, potatoes and cabbage are grown, while in the
northern part, near Tyrone, there is a concentration of mushroom-growing
industries.
Monaghan is the county town, being the episcopal seat of
Clogher diocese and noted for St Macartan's Roman Catholic cathedral.
The town has long served a relatively prosperous mixed-farming area, and
despite a decline in local industries over the past few decades, evidence
of its former solidity remains in buildings like the Market House, dating
from the 1790s, the Westenra Hotel and the nearby printing works producing
the Northern Standard newspaper.
Clones, 12 miles west of Monaghan, possesses a fine high cross in the market place and several notable Georgian houses.
The chief GAA playing field in Ulster is located here,
and provincial matches regularly attract tens of thousands to the town.
Castleblaney, at the head of Lough Mucknoo, one of the largest of
Monaghan's many lakes, is the hometown of 'Big Tom' McBride, pioneer
exponent of the hybrid musical form known as 'Country and Irish'.
Other towns include Newbliss, Emyvale and Ballybay.
Carrickmacross, in the south-west of the county, is noted for its fine lace, a tradition
stretching back several centuries and today carried on by a dedicated
co-operative movement.
Principal Names
As to be expected, there is a great variety of family names in Monaghan,
mainly of native Ulster origin, although in the Ulster Plantation many
Scots and English settlers arrived in the county. Prominent Monaghan
names, in no particular numerical order, are McMahon, McKenna, Hughes,
McCabe, Smith, Kelly, Maguire, Murray, Woods, O'Connolly, Duffy, Leslie,
Hamiliton and Shirley.
McKenna
A very numerous Monaghan name, McKenna comes from Mac Cionaoith, a Meath
sept who came into Ulster as swordsmen for the Fir Leamtha of Clogher.
Refusing to pay rents on their lands after 1606, the McKennas were
dispossessed and several branches moved north and east to Derry and Down.
The last chief of the name was Patrick McKenna (died 1616 near Emyvale),
and one of the most famous bearers since was Juan MacKenna (1771-1814), who
with Bernardo O'Higgins took part in the liberation of Chile. Some
McKennas became known as McKinney, although in Ulster most of the latter
name are descended from Scottish settlers.
Hughes
Most bearers of this name are from the Ulster sept O hAodha (descendants of
Hugh), who were mainly concentrated in parts of north Tyrone and Donegal.
In Monaghan, a closely related variant, O hAoidh, became Hoey. Hughes was
also a common surname in England and Wales from the Middle Ages, and the
name was borne by many seventeenth century settlers in Ireland.
MacMahon
MacMahon, one of the top five names in Monaghan, derives from mathghamban,
a bear. They are descended from Mahon O'Brien, grandson of Brian Boru.
MacMahon was a leading sept of the kingdom of Oriel and prominent in south
Ulster from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
They were among the leaders of the Catholic Confederacy of the mid-seventeenth century, during
which the last MacMahon chief, Hugh, and Heber MacMahon, Bishop of Clogher,
were executed.
In the eighteenth century three MacMahon Bishops of Clogher
went on to become Primates of all Ireland; they were Hugh MacMahon, (died
1737), and his nephews Bernard, (died 1747) and Ross Rod, (died 1748).
McCabe
The sixth most common name in Monaghan, McCabes are descended from Scottish
gallowglass who, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, fought for the
O'Reillys and O'Rourkes of Breffny. They were also in the service of
MacMahon and became a prominent family around Monaghan town. In common
with many other families they lost their lands after the Williamite wars at
the end of the seventeenth century, although remaining a widespread name in
the county.
Smith
With its variant Smyth, this is one of the most common names in Ulster and
can be of Scottish, English or Irish origin. The most widespread
derivation of the name is from (black)smith, and in England in particular
would have arisen from a family's association with the trade of farrier or
armourer. In Cavan, and to some extent in Monaghan, certain members of the
MacGabhann and O Gabhan septs, usually anglicised as McGowan, took the
name Smith on the basis of the name Mac Gobha, 'son of the smith'.
Kelly
Kelly/O'Kelly comprises the second most common Irish surname after Murphy,
and derives from a number of different O'Ceallaigh septs. Ulster Kellys
are descended from Rochadh, son of Colla-da-Crioch, a fourth century king
of Ulster and first king of Oriel.
Treanor
Appearing also as Traynor and Trainor, this is among the top seven Monaghan
names, particularly in the north of the county. It comes from the Gaelic
Mac Threinfhir(trean=strong, and fear=man) and in some instances holders of
the native Ulster name were anglicised as Armstrong. Some Trainors in
Ulster are of English descent, dating from the Plantation period. That
particular line derives from the Middle English verb trayne, to lay a
train, or snare.
Duffy
This is the most popular Monaghan name and derives from O'Dubhthaigh,
descendant of Dubhthach, the black one. The Monaghan Duffys are famed in
the ecclesiastical history of Clogher diocese, contributing many priests
during the penal times of the early eighteenth century. The sept was
centred around Clontibret, where Patrick O'Duffy, Chief of Teallach
Gealacain, is recorded as early as 1296.
Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), the prominent Young Irelander, was a Monaghan man who went on to become prime minister of Victoria, Australia, as was also Eoin O'Duffy, first
commissioner of the Garda Siochána, and first president of the Fine Gael party.
Hamilton
This name came almost wholly from Scotland with the Plantation, which saw
many Hamiltons settling in Monaghan, Cavan, Armagh and Tyrone.
Its derivation is most likely from Hambleton in Yorkshire; Walter Fitz Gilbert
of Hambleton was granted lands in Scotland in the late thirteenth century
by Robert the Bruce, and his grandson became David de Hamilton.
Though largely Protestant, some Ulster Hamiltons are Catholic, descendants of the
Catholic Sir George Hamilton, one of the chief undertakers of the
Plantation, who settled large tracts of lands around Ardstraw in north-west
Tyrone.
Woods
A common English name deriving from Middle English atte wode, 'at the
wood', Wood found its way to Ireland at the Plantation of Ulster, where in
the centuries since most have added an 's'.
In Ulster, many of the name are of native Irish stock, due to Anglicisation of Gaelic names containing the word coill, meaning 'wood'. An example of this would be MacEnhill,
(Mac Conchoille) from con, 'hound, and coill, 'wood', who were a sept
located near Omagh, County Tyrone.
Connolly
Connollys are numerous in Monaghan (ranked third in 1970) and derive from
the O Conghaile sept who were driven north into Ulster by the Normans and
came to prominence in the fifteenth century.
The area associated with the Connollys is mainly between Monaghan town and Clones, and the name is commemorated in Drumconnolly and Mullaghconnolly.
Monaghan Connollys played a leading part in the 1641 Rising, though one of them Owen Connolly,
famously betrayed the rebels' plans.
James Connolly, socialist writer and co-leader of the 1916 Dublin Rising, was born in Edinburgh in 1868 of a Monaghan family. (Irish Roots Issue No 26)
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