Talty is essentially a Co Clare name and when met elsewhere will be found to be of Clare origin, writes Edward Mac Lysaght in his More Irish Families. "While accepting O Tailtigh as the Gaelic-Irish form, as given by Woulfe, I think he is wrong in saying that it is a form of O Taighligh, the older form of which is O Taichligh (as, e.g. in the Four Masters and Topographical Poems of O'Dugan and O'Heerin)."
This latter name belongs to Fermanagh and Tyrone, and appears to have no connection at all with Co Clare. There were three Talty holdings listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876), all in Co Clare - Mary Talty (Hugh), Boolin ruddy, Inagh, had 103 acres; Mary Talty (Pat), Carhutedane, Lahinch, had 180 acres, and Thomas Talty, Knocknagraigue, held 99 acres.
Of the 67 Talty entries in telephone directories, 52 are in Co Clare. Tally, another anglicised form, has but a single telephone entry, but Tully, a further anglicised form, has 349 entries. These are largely in the 04 area. The Northern Ireland phone book lists some 40 Tullys and five each of Tally and Tilly.
In Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ire- land we read: (Mac) Tully, Mac Atilla, Mac an Tuile. This is said to be a corrupt form of O Maoltuile. Both were used for the celebrated medical family who were hereditary physicians both to O'Reilly and O'Connor. The name has been anglicised as Flood (tuile, flood), an English surname indicating "stream/gutter". Among the pardoned listed in a fiant of 1572 was Dionysius Fludd alias Donnogh O'Multilly, yeoman, late of Kilkenny.
In 1560 Walter Fluddy of Dublin (it was Floody in Cavan and Louth) was pardoned, especially for the murder of a priest; in 1563 David Flody was granted land in Co Offaly, and noted in a fiant of 1598 were the pardons of a number of persons in Co Meath, Westmeath and Kildare for the murders - among others - of David and Hugh Fluddy.
Among the pardoned listed in fiants of 1601 and 1602 were Fludds of Kerry, Waterford, and Cork. A Census of Ireland c. 1659 lists Anthony Flood as titulado of Tinterne, Co Wexford, and Thomas Flood as titulado of Newtown, Co Longford, and a 1661 poll-money ordinance commissioner for that county.
Taylor & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1778) lists Flood residences at "Margarets" and "Forest House" in north Co Dublin; at Rosinara, Co Tipperary; at Middlemount, Co Laois, and in Kilkenny at Paulstown, Maidenhall and Farmly.
The last was the residence of the Rt Hon H. Flood. The 1814 directory has Sir Frederick Flood, Bt, at Banna Lodge, Camolin, Co Wexford, with Floods still at Middle mount and Farmly; also at Roughpark, Durrow, Co Laois; at Haugh, Co Donegal; at Fordrath, Athboy, and Bramhall, Summerhill, both in Co Meath, and at Viewmount (Goresbridge) and Floodhall (Knocktopher), Co Kilkenny.
Mac Lysaght says that while some Floods in Ireland are of English extraction, they are mainly O Maoltuile or Mac Maoltuile. One wonders how many of the 22 Floods listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) are of Irish origin. These holdings - mainly small - are in eight Leinster counties, two Munster, one in Ulster, but none in Connacht.
Kilkenny tops all with six holdings, as well as having the largest holdings. At Farmley there were 4,687 acres, Paulstown Castle 3,852 and at Viewmount 1,137.
Rev Bernard Flood, Frankford, Co Offaly, had 1,427 acres and Frederick S. Flood, Slaney Lodge, Kyle, had 1,622 Wexford acres. Farmley House was the home of Henry Flood, who was co-leader with Henry Grattan in the Irish parliament from 1774 to his death in 1791.
Edmund Curtis in his History of Ireland states: "Flood showed interest and sympathy with the Irish language and the Gaelic past. It is on record that he bequeathed £20,000 to Trinity College to aid the restoration of the language but this request was disputed and the money reverted to his next-of-kin."
Liostai Logainmneacha: Cill Chai nnigh, Kilkenny, provides the Irish forms of place names but not the meanings. Farmley remains Farmley and Floodhall is given as Rath an Tutanaigh. The Index of Townlands gives Rathtooterney as an alias of Floodhall.
As stated, Mac Tuile/O Maoltuile was the name of a celebrated medical family, and John F. Fleetwood in his The History of Medicine in Ireland (1983) notes: "In his brief appearance on the Dublin medical scene, Valentine Flood (1800-47) left his name to a ligament in the shoulder, `Flood's ligament', which helps to preserve the integrity of the joint."