The Books of Leacan and Ballymote: Origin of the O'Hurlys (pp. 106–108)

Book of Ballymote, RIA MS 23 P 12, folio 102 verso, headed 'The Dal Cas Race' — Book of Ballymote (RIA MS 23 P 12), f. 102v — headed *Dál Cas Fine*, "The Dal Cas Race," matching the article's own citation of "folio 102, page B" almost exactly. Click to enlarge.

Book of Lecan, RIA MS 23 P 2, folio 224 verso, opening of the Dal Cais genealogical tract — Book of Lecan (RIA MS 23 P 2), f. 224v — the opening of *Craebchoibneasa Dál Cais*, the Dál Cais genealogical tract, one of this article's three cited manuscript sources for the same material. Click to enlarge.

This page lays out the manuscript evidence behind the O'Hurly-Thomond pedigree: the medieval Books of Lecan and Ballymote, the family's shared descent with the O'Briens from the common ancestor Blod, and Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's seventeenth-century genealogical compilation, ending with the article's first mention of Knocklong castle and Sir Thomas Hurly.

Pages 106 (cont.)–108

From several manuscripts in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, as well as elsewhere, it appears that the family of O'Hurly is of very ancient and noble Milesian origin. The first MS. to which I shall refer is the celebrated Book of Leacan, so called from Leacan, the hereditary residence of the antiquarians of Sligo, whose castle was situated near the river Moy, in the barony of Tireragh, County of Sligo. This MS. is a compilation from many more ancient historical MSS., such as the Psalters of Cashel and Tara, Book of Glendalough, &c., &c., and was written about the close of the fourteenth century. (A copy of this MS. was made by the writer of this notice by order of his late Majesty for the Royal Library, and which he had the honour to lay before his present Majesty in the year 1830 at St. James's Palace.)

[p. 107] At folio 214, page B, of this MS. is the following account of the origin of the O'Hurly family as descended from the same stock with that of the Thomond family, viz.: "Cormac Cas was son of Oilioll Olum, King of Munster (lineally descended from Milesius) about the year 230. This Cormac Cas had one son named Fearcorb, who had two sons, viz., Semne and Aengus Tireach. Aengus Tireach had four sons, Eogan, Dubros, Leascad, Luigdeach Meand, the last-named had two sons, viz., Conall Eachluath (i.e., Conall of the swift steeds) and Lisceand. Conall Eachluath had two sons, namely, Enna Airgtheach and Cas, surnamed Tal (i.e., Cas Mac Tail) and hence the Dal Cassians of Munster). Cas had thirteen sons, of whom Blod was the eldest. This Blod had four sons, viz., Cairthean Fionn (the fair), the ancestor of the O'Brien family, afterwards Earls of Thomond; Cairthand Dub (the black), Eacho, and Brenann Ban (the fair), from whom are descended the O'Hurlys." From this account we find that the O'Briens and O'Hurlys concentrated in Blod, from whom the district of Aoibh Bloid took its name, according to O'Huidhrin, the Munster topographer, who lived about the year 1400. Dr. O'Brien, in his Dictionary, under the word Aoibh, says it is now the barony of Lower Ormond, but from several passages in other MSS. it is plain that it was situated in Thomond, now County Clare.

The foregoing account of the origin of the O'Hurly family is fully borne out by another MS. called the Book of Ballymote, which has, similarly with the Book of Leacan, derived its name from the place where it was compiled, namely, Ballymote, the ancient residence of the MacDonoughs, Princes of Caran, in the barony of Leyney, County of Sligo. This MS. was finished about the fourteenth century, and such was the estimation in which it was held, that in the year 1522 it was sold for 140 milch cows. The account of the O'Hurly family in this MS. is given under the heading of the "Dal Cas Race," at folio 102, page B. As it would be only a repetition of the foregoing, although evidently taken originally from different sources, it will not be necessary to insert it here.

The account of the O'Hurly family in the two MSS. is supported by several modern writers, as, for instance, O'Flaherty in his Ogygia, published in 1685, chap. 82, p. 387, makes them a family of Thomond, as does Dr. O'Brien in his English-Irish Dictionary under U; see also the Abbé MacGéoghegan's History of Ireland, vol. i., page 304, note, and Gratianus Lucius, cap. 3.

It now remains for me to trace the family of O'Hurly from Blod, their common ancestor with that of the Thomond family, down to about the middle of the seventeenth century, which I shall extract from an Irish MS. by Dudley McFirbis, the last historiographer of Leacan, who was murdered in the year 1670. It was under his tuition that O'Flaherty, the author of Ogygia, studied; and McFirbis himself studied under McEgan, the last of the hereditary Brehons of Ireland, who, I believe, resided in the County Tipperary.

[p. 108] McFirbis was highly esteemed as an antiquary by Sir James Ware, who employed him in all matters of doubt and difficulty; he was also thought highly of by Charles O'Connor, who in his correspondence with the Chevalier O'Gorman states that McFirbis was a man of great research and discernment, and that he considered him an unquestionable authority on Irish History and Family Genealogies. This MS. is a thick quarto volume of 800 pages, and is the property of the Earl of Bowden. It is at present at the Royal Irish Academy for the purpose of having a copy of it made for the library. It has been settled beyond contradiction that the genealogies of 110 families were regularly kept, besides those of the Kings, Chiefs, and Princes, who were able to retain their bards for that especial purpose, and there can be no better proof that the O'Hurlys were chiefs than that their genealogy was regularly kept to so late a period, which I shall show by a comparison in parallel columns of the O'Brien with that of the O'Hurly, which is the general criterion by which all the Munster families are put to the test; just as the Ulster and Connaught families are tested by that of the O'Neills, because those were the two principal families in the kingdom, and their genealogies are unquestionable.

By various connecting circumstances it is established beyond dispute that the genealogy which is given as underneath from McFirbis is that of the O'Hurlys of the O'Brien branch, whose ancient possessions are marked out by O'Connor on his admirable map of the districts possessed by each chief. It is distinctly shown to be on the borders of Tipperary, adjoining the Limerick district of the O'Briens. Its ancient name was Druim Damaghaire, but it is now called Knocklong, and is situated in the barony of Coshlea, the most south-east barony in the county.

Adjoining this place, on the hill of Knocklong, are the ruins of a castle, formerly the residence of Sir Thomas Hurly, whose monument stands in the church of Emly, sixteen miles south-west of Cashel. This Sir Thomas is supposed to have been related to Thomas Hurly, Bishop of Emly, who died at an advanced age, A.D. 1542. But it does not appear that Sir Thomas was chief of his tribe; on the contrary, we have reason to think he belonged to a minor branch of the family.

The bracketed page citations above ([p. 107], [p. 108]) mark the original page breaks; spelling, italics, and punctuation otherwise follow the 1905 printing, including "1670" for McFirbis's death (modern scholarship gives January 1671, a discrepancy explained by the Old Style calendar, under which the new year did not begin until March 25th — so a contemporary writing in "January 1670" and a modern writer giving "January 1671" can both be describing the same date).

The Book of Leacan folio citation above ("folio 214, page B") almost certainly refers to an older or different foliation scheme than the manuscript's modern standard numbering — a folio we examined at the modern f. 214v does not match this content. The Book of Ballymote citation ("folio 102, page B"), by contrast, checks out precisely: f. 102v of that manuscript is headed exactly as the article describes, "the Dal Cas Race" (Dál Cas Fine) — see the illustration above.

Historical Note — Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (McFirbis)

Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (c. 1600–1671), whom the article calls "Dudley McFirbis," was born at Lackan, Co. Sligo, into the hereditary learned family that had produced the Book of Lecan's own chief scribe generations earlier. He is reported to have studied at the Mac Aodhagáin (MacEgan) school of Brehon law at Ballymacegan, Co. Tipperary — among the last functioning schools of native Irish law before it was suppressed — and later worked in Dublin for the antiquary Sir James Ware from 1665 to 1666, producing English translations of Irish historical manuscripts for him. He died in January 1671 (recorded by contemporaries as "1670" under the Old Style calendar, in which the new year began on March 25th), stabbed to death in a tavern at Doonflin, Co. Sligo, by a man named Thomas Crofton; under the Penal Laws then in force, an elderly Gaelic scholar had little legal recourse, and his killer faced no real consequence. The manuscript this article draws on for the O'Hurly-Thomond pedigree comparison — described here as "a thick quarto volume of 800 pages" then at the Royal Irish Academy — is part of what survives of his major genealogical compilation work.

Historical Note — Sir James Ware

Sir James Ware (1594–1666) was Dublin's foremost 17th-century antiquary, best known for his Latin works on the bishops, writers, and antiquities of Ireland, later translated and expanded by Walter Harris as Ware's Works Concerning Ireland — the same "Harris's Ware" cited elsewhere in Hurly family sources for Bishop Thomas Hurly's consecration. His employment of Mac Fhirbhisigh late in the scholar's life, translating Irish manuscripts into English, helped preserve material that might otherwise have been lost, and reflects the close working relationships between Gaelic scholars and English-language antiquaries even as the older Irish learned orders were collapsing.

A Note on the Bishop Thomas Hurly Date

The article gives Thomas Hurly, Bishop of Emly, a death date of A.D. 1542. Independent research into Emly's ecclesiastical records found a Thomas Hurly (also recorded as "Urlehy" or "Ourhiley") consecrated Bishop of Emly around 1501–1502, but did not turn up an independent record of his death in 1542. What that research did find, dated exactly to 1542, is the deposition of a different Hurly — William O'Hurly, Dean of Emly — for holding his position under papal rather than royal authority. Given the exact date match, it seems possible the 1905 article has conflated the bishop with the dean's 1542 deposition; it is also possible Bishop Hurly's death is independently and correctly dated to 1542 in a source we have not yet located. We have not corrected the transcription above — the date is given exactly as printed — but flag the uncertainty here rather than repeating it as settled fact.

Historical Note — Charles O'Conor of Belanagare and His 1777 Map

Ortelius Improved, 1777 map of Ireland by Charles O'Conor — Detail, *Ortelius Improved*, 1777. Click to enlarge.

The "O'Connor" credited with mapping out ancient chiefly territories is almost certainly Charles O'Conor of Belanagare (1710–1791), the leading Irish antiquarian and manuscript scholar of his generation — the same Charles O'Conor whose correspondence with the Chevalier O'Gorman, praising Mac Fhirbhisigh's scholarship, is quoted above. In 1777 O'Conor compiled Ortelius Improved, or A New Map of Ireland, Wherein are Inserted the Principal Families of Irish and English Extraction, Who Possess'd that Kingdom on the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century, published in Dublin by W. Bean & Pike and engraved on copper by "Tompson." Copies survive today in several major collections, including the Library of Congress and the Huntington Library. It is a strong, though not explicitly confirmed, candidate for the map this article means.

Having examined a copy directly, we could not locate any Hurly or O'Hurly holding marked on it, though several O'Brien septs appear on both sides of the River Shannon. That is consistent with the article's own later admission, a few lines on, that Sir Thomas Hurly "does not appear... to have been chief of his tribe" and "belonged to a minor branch of the family" — a map cataloguing only the era's principal families would have no obvious reason to single out a minor branch like the Knocklong Hurlys.

Historical Note — Knocklong and Druim Damhghaire

Knocklong, Co. Limerick, sits in the barony of Coshlea as the article states, roughly midway between Limerick city and Mitchelstown. Its older name, given here as "Druim Damaghaire," is more usually rendered Druim Damhghaire ("the ridge of the oxen"), and it is the setting of the early Irish tale Forbuis Droma Damhghaire ("The Siege of Druim Damhghaire"), a legendary account of a Munster army's resistance to the high king Cormac mac Airt — the same kind of bardic-historical material this article draws its pedigree from. The ruined castle on the hill, associated here with Sir Thomas Hurly, is a separate, later medieval structure built long after the place's legendary associations were already old.

Glossary

Book of Lecan: A large vellum manuscript compiled c. 1397–1418 at Lecan, Co. Sligo, chiefly by the scribe Gilla Íosa Mór Mac Fir Bhisigh (an ancestor of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh) for Ó Dubhda, chief of Uí Fiachrach. It contains genealogies, saints' lore, and historical tracts including versions of Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of Invasions") and extensive Dál Cais material. Now Royal Irish Academy MS 23 P 2; a facsimile edition was published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission.
Book of Ballymote: A vellum manuscript compiled toward the end of the fourteenth century at Ballymote Castle, Co. Sligo, for Tomalt&ach Mac Donnchaidh, chief of Corann. Traditionally said to have been bought by the Ó Domhnaill family in 1522, and closely related in content to the Book of Lecan — the two manuscripts are known to have shared a common exemplar for some sections. Now Royal Irish Academy MS 23 P 12.
Brehon: An anglicization of breitheamh ("judge"), referring to the hereditary jurists who administered native Irish law (Brehon law) before its suppression under English rule in the early 17th century. The Mac Aodhagáin (MacEgan) family, mentioned here as McFirbis's teachers, were among the most prominent hereditary Brehon families of Munster and Connacht.
Ogygia: A 1685 Latin history of Ireland by Ruaidhrí Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh (Roderic O'Flaherty), attempting to reconcile Irish bardic chronology with classical and biblical history. It was, for generations, one of the standard scholarly authorities cited for exactly this kind of deep genealogical claim.