Irish history and mythology is some of
the best recorded in the world. Because of the work
of the Irish annalists and genealogists we are able
to identify where our ancient forebears may have come
from. Also we are told what their tribal names are and
the names of the septs that developed from those tribes.
MacLysaght describes a sept as 'a collective term describing
a group of persons, who, or whose immediate and known
ancestors, bore a common surname and inhabited the same
locality’. This is not the same as a Scottish
clan, which were differently constituted, although the
word ‘clan’ does tend to be used synonymously
with an Irish sept.
Here is a brief description of the currently recognized
macro tribal history in Ireland. The annals tell us
that the Fir Bolg arrived in the country before the
Milesians. The former, together with their contemporaries
the Fir Domnann, the Laigin and the Ulaidh, are ethnologically
classed as the Érainn. Tribes of this origin
are prefixed generally with names like Corcu (perhaps
meaning seed of) or ending in ‘aighe’ such
as the Ciarraighe (black people) or Osraighe (deer people).
The tribes of the second migration, the Milesian (the
Gaels or Goidels), carry names like Eóghanachta
(descendants of Eoghan) or Connachta (descendants of
Conn).
In these pages the Irish spellings are used. Ó
means basically ‘from’ but in genealogical
terms means ‘grandson or descendant of’.
Uí is the genitive singular and so Donnchadh
Uí Láegairi means Donogh of the O’Leary
tribe/sept or descendants of Leary. Ua is the genitive
plural and therefore Ua Donnchadha means in its simplest
‘of the Donoghues’. Sometimes one sees this
as Hua Donnchadha. One finds a great variety of spellings
in the old Irish records, and I have stuck with those
in my book ‘O’Donoghue
People and Places’.
We know of a number of Ó Donnchadha tribes,
and details for each of them are given via the links
listed below. The further historical research which
the society is undertaking will result in new information,
and combined with the Y-DNA
project, will lead potentially to a much greater
understanding of the ancient roots of our name.
In two cases local societies or associations are in
place to bring together people from the same tribal
group or location and for these a direct link has been
put on the home page
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