Though never particularly numerous (as of the last count in 1996 by the Irish Times, the surname ranks as the underwhelming 164th most common surname in Ireland), the Dempsey clan was a powerful sept in its time. Originating in the Kingdom of Uí Failghe, anglicized today as Offaly and roughly covering the same territory as the contemporary county, the clan derives its name … [Read more...] about Roots: The Proud Dempseys
Roots
Roots: Is Oscar Irish?
Oscar Wilde, the playwright, novelist, poet, and critic of world renown, has long been labeled Anglo-Irish, but an examination of his roots puts the question of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde’s Irishness to rest once and for all. All Irishmen must feel a little defensive when someone points out that some of our famous writers are Anglo-Irish – as if they are just … [Read more...] about Roots: Is Oscar Irish?
Hillary Clinton’s Celtic Roots
Until now, the many genealogists who have researched Hillary Clinton’s ancestry have attached her Welsh grandmother, Hannah Jones, to the wrong parents. Roots detective Megan Smolenyak homes in on Clinton’s Welsh heritage and sets the record straight. When it was announced that Hillary Rodham Clinton would be inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame for her work on the … [Read more...] about Hillary Clinton’s Celtic Roots
Roots: The Macs
This issue’s Roots column is slightly different from the traditional format. Instead of looking at a single surname, or different but etymologically related surnames, I examine three unique but phonetically and geographically related family names. This is in part practical – the names are relatively uncommon compared to our usual surnames, so information on them is scarcer – … [Read more...] about Roots: The Macs
Roots: Lynch
One of the 100 most common surnames in Ireland, the Lynch name derives from several independent clans who inhabited just about everywhere from Ulster to Cork. The most notorious of the Irish Lynches, though not the largest clan, comes from the Norman de Lench, who were the most powerful of the 14 “Tribes of Galway,” Norman clans who ruled the medieval city. These Lynches were … [Read more...] about Roots: Lynch