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Pilgrimage to Ireland, Part 4: Roscrea & Ikerrin, Tipperary

20 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Janet Maher in Ikerrin, Ireland Pilgrimage, Mahers, Meachairs, Meaghers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Irish Midland Ancestry, Irish pilgrimage, Joseph Casimir O'Meagher

©2014 Caitriona Meagher, Roscrea, Looking Toward Clonan, artist unknown, image given to C. Meagher by G. Cunningham

©2014 Caitriona Meagher, Roscrea, Looking Toward Clonan, artist unknown, image given to C. Meagher by G. Cunningham. With gratitude to them!

Those who know me from many years back on Jane Lyon’s Y-IRL list serve or from my earlier web sites will no doubt recall my excitement about discovering Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, published in 1890. Its compilation of myriad facts and details became my bible, not only through which to learn about my father’s surname, but as a means to begin to study the history of Ireland herself. Names of places that had seemed so difficult to pronounce or remember eventually became familiar, and the differences between provinces, counties, baronies, townlands and civil or religious parishes, among a great many other things, also became clear. That boundaries and jurisdictions continually changed, as they do in all developing civilizations, reminded me to always note the time frame of an historical detail, as one decade’s information might vary greatly from another’s, some event having caused any number of ripple effects.

©2014 Janet Maher, Monainha Graves

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha Graves

While we may know that the original location for the Meaghers was in northeast Tipperary, in and near the town of Roscrea, we also know that due to all the turmoil over the centuries individuals and families chose to (or were forced to) spread further throughout Tipperary, relocate to other regions, or leave home entirely. From the time of Oliver Cromwell’s entry into Ireland question marks pepper every Gaelic Irish surname’s history. O’Meagher’s text underpinned and provided a context for everything I had learned so far. My studies of surnames based in the Tippeary/Kilkenny/Laois area had brought me to a point of simply wishing to walk or drive through particular areas in real time, gaining a felt sense of the distances between places.

What of Roscrea, the main town within the barony of Ikerrin (Ui Cairin), associated with the O’Meachairs/Meaghers/Mahers? After all the dispersals, transportations, emigrations, deaths, how relative to a current Maher from another country might Ikerrin be? It was in this questioning state of mind that I looked forward to meeting Caitriona Meagher on my journey—someone with whom I had become an email correspondent in the past year. Caitriona, and her cousin, Anna, whom I was also delighted to have met the following week, are among perhaps very few members of the Meagher/Maher clan who know and can point to locations that show their family connecting back to O’Meaghers mentioned in Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s work. Caitriona’s family still lives within an extended area of land upon which Clonan Castle once existed (“Clonyne/Cloyne” in Some Historical Notices, depicted on pg. 18). It was with great excitement that I went to visit her, and I am so grateful for the thrilling day we spent together.

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonan Cows

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonan Cows

We met at her mother’s home, and Caitriona immediately brought me outside to the perfect spot from which to look out over all of what used to be the barony, a wide circle recessed in the center, spreading out for miles. The base had been a lake with about a two acre island in it — Lough Cré (Inishnameo), the Island of the Living. Gesturing outwards she told me, “All the castles were along the ridge, around the perimeter,” and she pointed to the division where Ikerrin left off and the land of their kinsmen, Ely O’Carroll, began. Through binoculars we could slightly make out two partial castles directly across the way (which I found the following day). She explained that Clonakenny Castle (Caisleán Cluain an Chaoinaigh), toward our far right, was in the safest section, protected by all the other outlying castle communities. Although we did not see them, Caitriona said that evidence remains of ancient ring forts in the area too, and that farmers through the ages have avoided them, both for superstitious reasons and in honoring their historic importance. The image at the head of this essay shows some top portions of Clonan Castle at the horizon (“bumps” that interrupt the curve), evidence of the castle’s formerly great size, the top of which could be seen from within the town of Roscrea over a mountain.

A few days ago, when looking into the Tithe Applotment records of around 1826, I noticed that among the many Meaghers living throughout that extended area in the early nineteenth century, several clustered into townlands within the civil parish of Roscrea, and several clustered within the townlands in the parish of Bourney. I asked Caitriona about this via email and she explained, regarding the Roscrea area, “If you could imagine making a 3.5 mile diameter circle, and then walking out the front door in Clonan and putting it down on your left, then all of these places would be in it.” Regarding Bourney, she said, “If you made a similar 8-ish mile circle and put it down on your right, these places would be in it.” I love that there now is the memory of our standing in place looking out over it all, to which she can make such a reference that I, in turn, understand!

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha Sign

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha Sign

Despite all the dispersions, before the Great Famine there was once again a very large concentration of Meaghers/Mahers in the area of the clan’s origin. Given the Meaghers’ interconnected ties through fortuitous marriages with Butlers and other Norman Old English landlords, and their ancient claims to the lands in the area, not only would some of them have found their way back to their ancestral homes, but many from the laborer class may never have been forced to leave. We know that throughout Ireland there were instances of upper class Gaelic families having their properties taken, but being “allowed” to remain as laborers on what had been their own land. The newly planted landlords needed workers, and, especially within the midlands, many landlords became absentee, which left the locals much to their own devices as before the upsets. Some who had been transported may have later been able to return as tenants, sometimes through agreeing to suppress their religious practice or through the kindness of those whom Martin Callanan categorized as “friendly Protestants” (Records of Four Tipperary Septs, 1938).

Whether they remained in place or relocated, by mandate or by choice, all Meaghers, Caitriona confirmed, anciently came from this area. Although the surname has been scattered to the winds over centuries, for any Maher/Meagher looking into their Irish history, we can know that some deep ancestor had lived here at one time. Although I had felt this to likely be true in theory, I was so glad to hear her say this aloud! Yes, we all come from here. Period. And our line at some cellular level is, thus, ancient. In conversing about this later with Anna, she called it a dynasty, noting parallels to ancient lineages in other countries in which that term is commonly used. O’Meagher history was richly documented by Joseph Casimir O’Meagher, and there likely do not exist paper trails deeper than those that he found.

©2014 Janet Maher, Ely O'Carroll Sign, Dublin Road, Tipperary

©2014 Janet Maher, Ely O’Carroll Sign, Dublin Road, Tipperary

Caitriona noted that originally Irish land was not registered to a certain owner. This came later, with British rules. “We o Meachairs would have floated around the barony a lot before that. Then we began to settle in certain areas.” The ancient family groups (tuathas) worked their common lands together, moving into different fields as their own farming practices determined and using naturally occurring land formations as designated perimeters of their properties, which extended great distances. Early on, struggles would have been simply about trying to maintain or expand their holdings and protect them from encroachment by other native Irish.

©2014 Janet Maher, Interior, Monaincha

©2014 Janet Maher, Interior, Monaincha

The web site of Ireland’s Reaching Out group explains Roscrea’s “long and proud heritage” as “stretching back over six thousand years,” and O’Meagher’s “notices” bring us back to before the time of Saint Patrick’s conversion visit to Ireland. He referenced a seventeenth century text by Rev. John Colgan, a Franciscan friar in Louvain, who wrote of Saint Patrick’s travel in 470 A.D. to the area that became the barony of Lower Ormond (Butler), baptizing, Mechair and two other “brothers of that nation—men of power…the sons of Forat, son of Conla (son of Tadg, son of Cian, son of Olioll Olum).” O’Meagher explained the Milesian linage of the surname as descending “from Fionnachada, son of Connla, son of Cian, second son of Oiliol Olum, King of Munster in the third century.” (pp.13, 14)

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha, Tipperary

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha, Tipperary

Caitriona brought me to two ancient ecclesiastical sites of at least equal importance to others that are more well-known and have been somewhat restored. Both tie to the ancient history of the O’Meaghers/Mahers. The monastic site of Monaincha (Bog of the Island) and the Sean Ross Abbey, founded by Saint Cronan, brought more references in O’Meagher’s book completely to life for me, enhanced by recently hearing historian George Cunningham’s fascinating narration about them. (An MP3 version of his audio tour may be purchased here.)

To follow the growth of what Mr. Cunningham called “the cradle of Christianity” in this area, we look first to the abbey that 7th century Saint Cronan founded at Sean Ross, in a wild and remote section of Ikerrin. When he realized that the place was too far away for people to locate him, he moved into the main town and founded Saint Cronan’s Monastery in Roscrea. Here, his monk, Dimma MacNathi, scribed over forty days and nights the famous Book of Dimma, contained in the collection of Trinity College’s library. An ornate shrine was created to contain the book, financed by Lord O’Carroll, in the 12th century. Around the 1480s the monks wanted to get away from the bustle of the city and returned to the more contemplative location of Sean Ross. This became the parish of Corbally (Corville). O’Meaghers continued to be priors, and O’Meaghers were buried in the graveyard there. Remains of a medieval church are also still there, however, the area is now known more for its special education school for those with learning disabilities, Saint Anne’s, which was begun in 1971. Its earlier modern incarnation, beginning in the 1930s, was as a convent home for unwed mothers. It was there that Michael Hess and his birth mother, Philomena Lee, tried to find each other. This heart-breaking story was made into the film, Philomena, last year, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.

©2014 Janet Maher, Michael Hess Grave at Sean Ross

©2014 Janet Maher, Michael Hess Grave at Sean Ross

O’Meagher’s book contains an excellent map that shows the island of Monaincha (formerly Inchanambro) without the lake, revealing two amoeba shaped ends connected by bogland containing an Abbey Church, Abbot’s apartments, two churches, surrounded by “the ancient Wood non-a Bog” and remains of the Abbot’s orchard. O’Meagher explained that Thaddeus Meachair (Blessed Thaddeus) had become Bishop of Cork and Cloyne after the resignation of William Roche in 1490 (pg. 16). One of the authors of the Annals of the Old Masters in 1664 added a reference to the ritual of crowning O’Meagher rulers, noting that “the steed and battledress of every Lord of them belong to the Comarba of Cronan and Inchanambro…” He further explained that Saint Cronan was the patron saint of Roscrea, and Comarba referred to his successor. Inchanambro, “also in O’Meagher’s country, “was the name of ‘the island of the living,'” later called Lady’s Island. Signage from the Office of Public Works and their Destination Cashel explained that Elarius (St. Elair, or Hilary), who died in 807 A.D., had founded “an important monastery” on the Island of the Living, which began to follow Augustinian rule in 1140 A.D, where the monks remained until 1485. Monaincha’s high cross base was created in the 9th century, but the Celtic cross head dates from three centuries later. Around the grounds of the church are several old graves, including some small Famine Stones. Inside there are still some monuments for a few of the primary people that had been associated with Monaincha. Much of the bog was harvested for fuel over the centuries, leaving only the footprint of a small raised landscape supporting this once quite significant medieval sacred site, two large trees seeming to bravely protect what is left.

©2014 Janet Maher, map of Monaincha, J.C. O'Meagher, Some Historical Notices of the O'Meaghers of Ikerrin

©2014 Janet Maher, map of Monaincha, J.C. O’Meagher, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin

Giraldus Cambrenis, Gerald the Welshman, wrote about The Monastery of the Island of the Living (Mainistir Inse na mBeo) in 1187. He said, “There is a lake in North Munster with a large island which has a church of an ancient religious order. No woman or animal of the female sex could enter this island without dying immediately. This has been put to the proof many times by means of the cats, dogs and other animals of that sex, which have often been brought to it as a test, and have died at once.” O’Meagher noted that Cambrensis visited there in 1185 (pg. 13). P. W. Joyce explained in 1911 that the miraculous tradition was that it was said to have not been possible for anyone guilty of a great sin to die on the island. Even if they were very ill, it would not be until they left the island that they could actually die. Likewise, if people tried to bury on the island “an unrepentant sinner” who had died somewhere else, there would inevitably be some problem that would not make the burial possible. Even after the monks left the island, the church and its grounds were frequently visited. “About two centuries ago,” Joyce wrote, “the owner drained the lake, forbade all pilgrimages and burials, destroyed the tombs, and had a circular fence built around the church.” (LibraryIreland)

Caitrionia explained, “At Móin na hInse we have a long series of documents from the Holy See dealing with the Priory in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was a place of importance and its Prior one of the more outstanding dignitaries of the diocese, so that very many Papal Mandates are addressed to him to deal with the unfortunate disputes which were then so common in the struggle of laymen to gain control of the clerical revenues. The connection of the O Meaghers of Ui Cairn and their control of the Priory is almost continuous throughout the whole period…In A.D. 1350 the Pope issued an Indult to Thady O Meagher and his wife to choose their own Confessor…No doubt the O Meagher succession and control continued up to the Reformation.”

©2014 Janet Maher, Marty Maher Dedication

©2014 Janet Maher, Marty Maher Dedication

We also had a look from a distance at Clonakenny Castle, recently privately purchased, and Caitriona brought me to see an honorary plaque in a local church cemetery for Marty Maher, about whom a John Ford film was made (The Long Grey Line, 1955). We ended back at her mother’s home, where we had a wonderful visit and enjoyed tea and scones at a beautifully laid-out table. Caitriona’s brother and his daughter also stopped by. I am grateful to Mrs. Meagher and her family for the warm welcome, and to Caitriona, who parted the veils for me in such a way that I felt, “OK, I can go home now!” only partway into my journey. I look forward to building a friendship with Caitriona and Anna into the future.

A recent green-energy effort has established a large section of windmills in the area, named after the area’s sacred site. They may be a disturbing hindrance to some local residents. They proved, however, to serve as excellent landmarks for me, as I recalled seeing them from Clonan, and various other angles as we drove around. I found myself in the following days near some of the spots that Caitriona introduced to me, each in various relative proxmities to the windmills. More about Tipperary in Part 5!

Thank you to Caitrion Meagher for her contributions to this piece!

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha Windfarm

©2014 Janet Maher, Monaincha Windfarm

©2014 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Pilgrimage to Ireland, Part 3: North Tipperary, Clonmacnoise &

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Janet Maher in Clonmacnoise, Ireland Pilgrimage, Mahers, Meaghers, Pilgrimage, Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Ancient Irish Art & Artifacts, Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish Midland Ancestry

 

©2014 Janet Maher, View from Margaret & Alfie's

©2014 Janet Maher, View from Margaret & Alfie’s

During the first days before my clothes arrived I learned to drive on the left side of the road and navigate with increasing ease through the country. My second AirBNB hosts proved to be the ideal support system. Margaret O’Farrell and Alfie McCaffrey were very helpful in following up on my lost luggage and with my puzzling through various technology issues—getting my phone to transition properly, figuring out if my throw-away phone from three years ago might work with a new chip, trying in vain for my GPS to kick back in (which it never did) and even helping me arrange visits with people I was trying to meet while my phone was in limbo. After three days I felt that I was leaving new friends. In Lorrha, Northern Tipperary, this couple has been renovating a large, stately home with their own tender loving care. Like so many a place in which good personally-grown food and fascinating, friendly conversation is a staple, Margaret and Alfie’s kitchen is at its heart. (Pay the extra to have dinner with them at night, which became extend visits in our case, lasting until 11:30 or so.)

©2014 Janet Maher, Old Farm, Lorrha, Tipperary

©2014 Janet Maher, Old Farm, Lorrha, Tipperary

Outside, chickens and roosters wandered as they will among the grass, flowers and trees, joined by their two dogs, with additional sound effects from a drove of pigs in the back. Frisky fellows, the pigs sometimes rule the roost, getting out from their pen and requiring hours of tracking and coaxing back to their own digs. From the kitchen porch, which runs the entire width of the house, it is possible to see the *Devil’s Bit section of the Slieve Bloom Mountains—the landmark for things Maher/Meagher. We had the most enjoyable breakfast looking in its direction on my last day, shared with a friend of Margaret and Alfie who had volunteered to help repair the woodshed roof. Pure bliss to eat outside amid so much beauty and such excellent company!

While navigating the way back and forth to their home in the woods (follow the signs for Birr and Portunma), I was able to venture north into Offaly County and into and around Roscrea, my primary destination on the first part of this Maher-related journey. Alfie had recommended also seeing Birr Castle, with its impressive Science Center, including a 72-inch long reflecting telescope built in 1845, and its note-worthy gardens. I came into Birr too late on the day I was venturing in those parts to do more than a drive-by, so this is now on my list for a hoped-for Next Time. At the end of my journey the following week I learned that the castle, owned by the Earls of Rosse, had once been owned by Meaghers. (More research needs to go into verifying that.)

* The Small Gap of Ely, in the parish of Barnane-Ely was written about by Joseph Casimir O’Meagher in 1890. (The O’Carrolls ruled over Ely, with close ties to the O’Meaghers of neighboring Ikerrin Barony.) He explained the nickname for the dip in the mountains with the following tale: “The Devil, driven to frenzy by his want of success among the inhabitants of Ikerrin, took a bit of their mountain in revenge, but finding it too heavy was obliged to drop it in the ‘Golden Vale,’ where it became the Rock of Cashel, afterwards famous as the residence of the Kings of Munster, and the site of one of the finest cathedrals in the west of Europe. The rock would about fill the gap in the mountain. Another story is that he dropped the bit in Queen’s County, and that the Rock of DunaMase was thus formed.” (Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, pg. 127.) (That there is a large cross at the top of this mountain was a surprising parallel, I thought, to that of the locally famous one in my hometown in Connecticut, of the same vintage, recently restored to great success and celebration. Had I more time I would have taken a hike to the top of the Devil’s Bit—#2 on my Next Time list.)

©2014 Janet Maher, Alfie , feeding his rooks

©2014 Janet Maher, Alfie, feeding his rooks

Another place that was closed during my visit, but seems worth a tour if staying so nearby was Redwood Castle, especially for those with Egan or Kennedy roots. (With that in mind, I include here an image of a place I passed on the way out of Limerick. For those with Killduff roots, here is a photo of a former Killduff Castle, now on the grounds of  St. Anthony’s Nursing Home, Pallasgreen, Limerick.)

©2014 Janet Maher, Killduff Castle, Limerick

©2014 Janet Maher, Killduff Castle, Limerick

Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis) was part of my reason for staying in North Tipperary, as we had not ventured into that area on my last trip to Ireland with my husband.  I wanted to see the place that had been mentioned so often in my studies about Ireland’s ancient history. This settlement, which dates to just before the death of its mid-6th century founder, St. Ciarán, grew to be the most desirable conquest for invaders over the centuries. Wealthy monasteries throughout Ireland were targets for their valuable ceremonial objects, and Clonmacnoise was also known as the primary site of achievements in literary and artistic high craft production during the centuries of religious rivalry in the country and in relation to Rome. Its location on a high ridge overlooking the Shannon River made it a major intersection of trade and travel.

There had been distinct roles with which Gaelic families were associated. Those that included members of high-ranking religious status had their own ecclesiastical settlements, centered upon a family church around which an extended community worked and lived. The once vast settlement of Clonmacoise contained not only a cathedral and a round tower, but a nuns’ church, and ones associated with St. Ciarán and the surnames Kelly, McLaughlin, Dowling, McLaffey, Connor, and Finghin. There are also remains of several other kinds of buildings, a castle, a sacred well, four high crosses, and other many other artifacts, including a section of an ogham stone and more than 600 portions of ancient grave slabs.

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonmacnoise Cross

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonmacnoise Cross, replica

Three of the high crosses have been removed for their protection from their original location to an on-site museum. Replica ones have been in their places to weather outside since 1992-93. Portions of three additional high crosses from the site are preserved in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, along with such masterful art objects as the Crozier of the Abbots and the Shrine of the Stowe Missal. The Cross of the Scriptures (replica shown here) is considered to be one of the best of Ireland’s historic crosses of this extensively decorated kind. It honors the King of Meath and King of Tara, thus High King of Ireland (879 to 916), Flann Sinna mac Maelshechnaill. At the turn of the 14th century the Gaelic clans regained control of Clonmacnoise from the Anglo-Normans, and power shifted to the MacCoghlans until the 17th century—a time of devastation in Ireland as the formerly Catholic England and Ireland were re-envisioned by King Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell.

On the day I visited Clonmacnoise I was met with a powerful silence and stillness. Although there were far more people wandering the site with me than I expected, we all seemed to be held in a trancelike quiet as we individually absorbed an awe-full sense of the former importance and immensity of this place, now a relic of itself. Ireland’s Office of Public Works has done an exceptional job in stabilizing this and many other irreplaceable sites, touchstones to the country’s stature and nobility in the ancient world.

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonmacnoise

©2014 Janet Maher, Clonmacnoise Ruins

 

©2014 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Ikerrin Origins

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Janet Maher in Origins

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Ikerrin, Irish Midland Ancestry, Maher, Meagher

Rock of Dunamase

Rock of Dunamase, July 2011

In ancient times the land divisions of Ireland were very different from the way they appeared in post-Norman centuries, when a modern sense of town layout and clear parameters had been established. Ikerrin (Ui Cairin), an area extending between Munster and Leinster, was localized as the northeast corner of Tipperary with land subtracted into King’s and Queen’s Counties in 1556 by Queen Mary, creating Offaly and Laois, respectively. Just over the border of both Tipperary and Laois is the county of Kilkenny. Towns within and between all these counties are easy to reach by car and were likely commonly traveled by foot, horse and cart or bicycle centuries ago. The sept, or clan, Meachair/O’Meagher originated in Ikerrin.  Its primary town, anciently called Muscraighetire, where the barony of lower Ormond (Butler) became situated, was called Ros Cré (“Wood of Cre”) now Roscrea, Tipperary.

A landmark in the area, which can clearly be seen from the Rock of Cashel, is the gap in the Slieve Bloom Mountains called “The Devil’s Bit,” near Templemore, Tipperary. Lore explains the nickname from a story that the devil, frustrated that he could not tempt the devout residents of the area, took a bite out of the mountain and spit it eastward, forming the foundation of the Rock of Cashel. A second version of the story attributes the removed portion as having formed the base, instead, of the Rock of Dunamase in Laois (Queen’s County). A gift from Leinster King Diarmuid mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurrough) to Strongbow (Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare) as part of the agreement that opened the door to the Normans’ entry into Ireland, this castle was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in the mid 17th century.

View From Dunamase

View From Dunamase, July 2011

In 470 A.D. Saint Patrick was said to have traveled to Muscraighetire to preach, and he baptized three grandsons of Conla, “men of power,” from the clan that became Meagher (the Irish spelling of the surname spelled several other ways based upon various pronunciations and family traditions). Furic, Muinnech, and Mechair were given blessings by Saint Patrick that their clan would produce chieftains forever and be in the companionship of a king.  (Joseph Casimir O’Meagher, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, 1890, pg. 14)

Saint Cronan founded a monastery in Ros Cré in 606, called Inchinamo. Ruins of the Irish Romanesque abbey are near the Saint Cronan Church. The original sandstone church had a round tower, a carved high cross, medallions and other relief carvings depicting knots, Noah’s Ark, and the first abbot. In the 8th century another monastery near Roscrea, Inchanambeo, was founded on an island. This church lasted at least to the early 12th century when it was mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters. A cell within Inchanambeo was called Toome.

Joseph Casimir O’Meagher related that from this area came the 17th century Book of Dimma, in the collection of Trinity College in Dublin, which is a copy of the 654 A.D. Book of Gospels from the Abbey of Roscrea. The book is understood to have been the property of the parish priest of Roscrea, whose nephew, Rev. Philip Meagher, was the Vicar General of Cashel and Emly. The shrine (elaborate enclosure/box) for the book was made in the 12th century. The white bronze highly decorated Ikerrin Brooch, similar to the brooches in the National Museum of Ireland – Archeaology in Dublin, is in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. Also in this collection are two portions of ancient bronze trumpets found in Roscrea. In 1692 a highly decorated gold cap considered to have been a Meagher crown was found in a bog by the Devil’s Bit, documented in Abbé MacGeorghegan’s Histoire d’Irlande. O’Meagher attempted to discern its whereabouts and decided that it had likely been melted down. (pp. 13, 124 -127)

The O’Meaghers owned many castles throughout Munster and Leinster associated with abbeys or churches and there were many notable members of the clergy in the sept. The Mahers commonly intermarried with members of the Butler dynasty, which ensured some degree of survival, if not financial security in difficult times. Almost all Gaelic families had lost their property by the seventeenth century either through inter-tribal battles, English confiscation, banishment from Ireland before or after the devastating conquest of Cromwell, or through dispersion, willingly or unwillingly, throughout the southern counties of Ireland and the world.

The name Maher is still primarily associated with Tipperary, although it extends into Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Carlow, Waterford, and elsewhere. All Mahers, wherever they may have put down new roots over the many centuries, and no matter how their name is spelled today, essentially originated in Ikerrin, although ancestry directly leading back through the ancient generations is, of course, impossible. As one of the noble ancient Gaelic families, pedigrees were created for the surname, and O’Meagher included several of them in his exhaustive research (pp. 191-205). I consider his book, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, to be the bible about Maher, a first resource in beginning to study the ancestry of the name. It is in the Public Domain and available printed on demand through Amazon.

©2011 Janet Ní Mheachair (Janet Maher)

All Rights Reserved

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