Mike Fitzpatrick

Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD is a three-part series that provides an account of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics in the late medieval era and details their temporalities, occupations, familial associations, and broader networks. The series contextualises the historical records of the clerics alongside the genealogical record that can be extracted by twenty-first century science – that being the science of Y-DNA. In Part I, the background surrounding the earliest appointments of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics in the Diocese of Limerick and other parts of Deasmhumhain (Desmond) was examined, revealing a pattern of curious modern-day Y-DNA associations between the modern surname form of Mac Giolla Phádraig, i.e., Fitzpatrick, and the surnames FitzGerald, Purcell, and Hennessey. Part II examines broader historical records and recently derived Y-DNA data, exploring the questions of (a) how Mac Giolla Phádraig became a powerful clerical lineage in the Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe, (b) whether Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics of Osraí Uachtarach (Upper Ossory), who rose to prominence in the late-fifteenth century, had their origins in Deasmhumhain (Desmond), and (c) if those clerics were a branch of an early extended Norman gentry lineage. Part II begins with the family L’Ercedekin, who arrived in Ireland from Cornwall ca. 1200 AD, and considers the possibility that L’Ercedekin paternity gave rise to the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerical lineage.

Kilkenny-born cleric-cum-amateur-archaeologist-historian, Rev. John Francis Shearman, is best known for Loca Patriciana, which is his rambling wander through the Irish places and placenames of Saint Patrick. At times Loca Patriciana diverts to other matters of Irish history, such as the Kings of Ossory, and Shearman, who enjoyed the financial backing of Bernard Edward Fitzpatrick, Second Baron Castletown, the self-proclaimed ‘Tanist of Ossory’, who saw himself as a noble descendant, saw fit to dabble in the genealogies of the Ossorian kings, among whom the Mac Giolla Phádraig of Ossory rose to prominence in the eleventh century AD. Ossorian Genealogy II, which appears in Loca Patriciana, is a summary chart of Shearman’s attempt to make sense of Ossory genealogies, from Ceallach (d. 907 AD, King of Ossory) to Séafraidh Fionn Mac Giolla Phádraig (d. ca. 1314 AD). Since recent critiques of several aspects of Shearman’s versions of the histories of the Mac Giolla Phádraig of Ossory have exposed his poor scholarship, it is appropriate to provide a more detailed review of Ossorian Genealogy II against other genealogies, particularly versus one of Shearman’s most frequent sources, the scarcely reviewed Linea Antiqua. Simply put, this series of articles examines how well Shearman’s Ossorian genealogies stack up.

The surname Fitzpatrick was, until recently, largely assumed to have arisen via the Normanisation-Anglicisation of Mac Giolla Phádraig, and that the Irish surname form belonged solely to one clan, of Ossory. Yet modern surname scholars now recognise the error of the earlier assumptions: Fitzpatrick was also a corruption of Ó Maol Phádraig, the surname of several distinct clans of Bréifne and Corcaigh (Breifne and Cork), and Mac Giolla Phádraig was the surname of several non-Ossorian clans. Both Ó Maol Phádraig and Mac Giolla Phádraig are derived from given-names, viz., Máel Pátraic and Gilla Pátraic, the modern forms of which are Maol Phádraig and Giolla Phádraig, respectively, and cataloguing the historical occurrences of those given-names is one method of gaining insight into the possible emergence of the associated surnames. This article is the first part of a review of the given name recorded as Gilla Pátraic in authoritative genealogies, which provides the context for when, where, and among which Irish population groups the surname Mac Giolla Phádraig may have emerged from an eponymous ancestor called Giolla Phádraig.

Some fantastic stories swirl around the sphere of genealogical and Y-DNA research. And it makes sense that among the best are those that relate to the Irish, who, by self-admission, are never short of a good yarn. Yet, we Irish know not to be too cynical of the fantastic, from words attributed to the Hibernophile Lord Byron, in Don Juan: “‘Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction; if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange!”

The National Library of Ireland holds manuscript 3000, which is catalogued as the ‘Rental Capt. Richard Fitzpatrick’s estate in Leix, 1700-1719’. The manuscript provides details of tenants, townlands, which were mainly in the Parishes of Aghaboe, Killermogh, and Rathdowney, land areas, terms, and conditions of the leases, which often included covenants to make improvements, as well as extensive details of the estate expenses. In addition to insights of the estate workings, there are mentions of individuals with the surname Fitzpatrick, some of whom can be identified as relatives of Colonel John Fitzpatrick, from whom Captain Richard Fitzpatrick gained most of his holdings in Upper Ossory.

Transcribed here is the National Archives record PROB 11/430/361 – ‘Will of the Honorable John FitzPatrick, Colonel of Park Place, Saint James Westminster, Middlesex’. The record contains four discrete entries, which provide important understandings of Colonel John FitzPatrick’s personal and real estate holdings at the time of his death, his family members, and acquaintances.

The Ó Maol Phádraig surname is virtually extinct, yet the patrilineal descendants of Uí Mhaol Phádraig are unlikely to be so. Rather, it is considered those descendants most likely came to carry the surname Fitzpatrick or another Pátraic-surname form. The series of articles, ‘Ó Maol Phádraig, the name, the people, and the clans’, brings focus back to the lost surname. Part I explored the origins of the Irish given name Máel Pátraic, the patterns of its occurrence that are apparent in early annalistic records, and the connections to the regions of Éire where the name was commonly found. Part II (a) collated the records of Ó Maol Phádraig surname and Máel Pátraic given name occurrences in authoritative genealogies; (b) provided context and identified the clan-associated surnames among the population groups in which Máel Pátraic occurs, and; (c) reflected on the alignment of Máel Pátraic in genealogies and annalistic records, and the geographic spread the name, which may have led to the emergence of the Ó Maol Phádraig surname. Part III, explores the occurrences of the surname Ó Maol Phádraig in historical records from ca. 1550 to ca. 1700 AD, i.e., a good portion of the Early Modern period, which are numerous and most relate to Bréifne and Corcaigh. While Breifne records are richer and give a more structured picture of Ó Maol Phádraig lineages, including the existence of at least one Ó Maol Phádraig clann who had a ‘Chief of His Name’, Corcaigh records are more scattered across the region and mainly linked to key figures of the Desmond Rebellions and the Nine Years’ War. However, it is noteworthy that the surname Ó Maol Phádraig was recorded as early as 1306 in Corcaigh.

Until recently, the dominant Mac Giolla Phádraig narrative had the surname associated only with the Barony of Upper Ossory, with ancient origins in medieval Osraí (Kingdom of Ossory). Yet, it has now been demonstrated, mainly via sixteenth-and seventeenth century Fiants and Patent Rolls of Ireland, that there was a Clann Mac Giolla Phádraig Dál gCais present in Clár (County Clare) in the sixteenth century, having been domiciled there since the thirteenth century. Also, by interrogation of sixteenth-and seventeenth century Fiants and Patent Rolls, it is shown here that Mac Giolla Phádraig resident in Laighean (Leinster) counties had no association with the family of Upper Ossory. Notable from the early sixteenth century are the Mac Giolla Phádraig of Cill Dara (County Kildare), who were once possessed of several discrete territories, including one that bore their name, and at least one castle, evidencing extended kinship, i.e., clanship. Yet, with the demise of the Kildare FitzGeralds ca. 1537, there came an upheaval for the clann. In the years after the rebellion of ‘Silken’ Thomas FitzGerald, Mac Giolla Phádraig are found in association with the infamous ‘Keating Kern’, due to their prior common service with the Earls of Kildare. But after the ninth Earl’s attainment, Mac Giolla Phádraig were expelled from their Cill Dara territories. Yet, those Mac Giolla Phádraig re-established themselves – and their network grew. By the 1550s, they had become well-connected with the Uí Tuathail (O’Toole), Uí Broinn (O’Byrne), Caomhánach (Kavanagh), and other notable clanns of the day, of Ceatharlach (County Carlow), Cill Mhantáin (County Wicklow), and Loch Garman (County Wexford). The relationships with Laighean clanns expanded throughout the rest of the sixteenth century while the association with Keatings faded. Significantly, Mac Giolla Phádraig came to hold lands at Cúirt an Phaoraigh (Powerscourt) until they were dispossessed in the early seventeenth century. This article follows the Mac Giolla Phádraig Laighean from the sixteenth century and identifies their descendants today. Now bearing the surname Fitzpatrick, they belong to an ancient kindred group identified by the surname-specific Y-DNA haplotype R1b-Z255 … BY2849. Today, these Fitzpatricks reside all over the globe. But true to their ‘Irish Sea’ Y-DNA modality, i.e., R-Z255, many also live all along Ireland’s east, from Aontroim (County Antrim) to Cill Mhantáin, and some families are still domiciled near their ancestor’s sixteenth and seventeenth century territories. This speaks to the diversity of Clann Mac Giolla Phádraig Laighean, their distinct kindred identities among their individual septs, and the long endurance of their surname.

The Daltons of Kildalton (Cill an Dátúnaigh), a townland less than one mile north of the River Suir and the Co. Waterford (Port Láirge) border, are a well-known family with a rich and colourful history that has been documented back to fourteenth-century southern Co. Kilkenny (Cill Chainnigh). Such was the status of the family, who had Kilmodalla (Cill Modhallá) as one of their major bases from the fifteenth century, that by the sixteenth century the town had undergone a name change to Kildalton, forever embedding their patronymic in that place, and other areas nearby. Part I of ‘The Daltons of Kildalton: a Norman-Irish gentry family’, focusses on the central family figure of the late thirteen-century, Richard de Antōn, who was Sheriff of Waterford between 1291 and 1293. Richard was almost certainly the forebear of the Daltons of Kildalton, and he first established their place in Co. Kilkenny. Richard’s origins intrigue, as does his surname, but his place among the Irish gentry of the thirteenth century unequivocally connects him to families of high status and power, who came to Ireland (Éire) at the time of the Norman invasions. Y-DNA analysis of ancestors of the Daltons of Kildalton is distinct and also intrigues. Yet, much sense can be made of a common direct paternal genetic ancestry, ca. 1100 AD, with those of Branan-like surnames, whose ancestors also arrived in Ireland among the Norman gentry class.