… Urthuile, 940–1000 (aged 60 years)
- Name
- /Urthuile/
- Surname
- Hurly
- Name
- Urthuile /mac Flainn/
- Given names
- Urthuile
- Surname prefix
- mac
- Surname
- Flainn
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Birth
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Citation details: Page: p. 199. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "possessed the territory called Triocha Hy Bloid, which comprised a great part of the barony of Lower Ormond and Owney in Tipperary" Citation details: Page: CELT T100062 (electronic edition). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "the seed of Brenann Bane" — named in a c.1307–08 muster-poem calling Hy-Blood's allied septs to arms; the manuscript separately places "Hy-Blood" on the east side of the Shannon. Note: Specific birthplace unknown. Placed within the territory of Uí Bhloid (Aoibh Bloid/Ibh Bloid), the O'Hurlys' ancestral tribal district, based on convergent evidence: Connellan's 1846 Annals of Ireland translation (p. 199) locating Triocha Hy Bloid in the barony of Lower Ormond and Owney, Co. Tipperary; O'Heerin's poem placing the tribe near Killaloe; and Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh (The Triumphs of Turlough), which independently places "Hy-Blood" on the east side of the Shannon and names Urthuile's own ancestral line ("the seed of Brenann Bán") active in that district in 1307–09. Specific birthplace unknown. Placed within the territory of Uí Bhloid (Aoibh Bloid/Ibh Bloid), the O'Hurlys' ancestral tribal district, based on convergent evidence: Connellan's 1846 Annals of Ireland translation (p. 199) locating Triocha Hy Bloid in the barony of Lower Ormond and Owney, Co. Tipperary; O'Heerin's poem placing the tribe near Killaloe; and Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh (The Triumphs of Turlough), which independently places "Hy-Blood" on the east side of the Shannon and names Urthuile's own ancestral line ("the seed of Brenann Bán") active in that district in 1307–09. This later evidence is projected backward roughly 370 years to Urthuile's own estimated lifetime (c. 940 AD); territorial continuity over that span is plausible but not directly documented for his own generation. |
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Urtuile, Hurly. The progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name.
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MacFirbis genealogical manuscript
Citation details: Page: pp. 108–109. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "Flann, Flann. / Uptuile, Hurly. The progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name. / Mażjaman, Mahon. The son of Hurly." Note: The underlying compilation. MacFirbis (d. c.1670/71) was the last hereditary historian of Lecan, working from earlier manuscripts including the Books of Lecan and Ballymote. His original genealogy has not been consulted directly here; known only through Connellan's 1836 transcription, printed in CHAS 1905. No date is given for Urthuile in the manuscript itself. |
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Published in Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly, 1905
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Citation details: Page: p. 109. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF O'HURLY." — Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Second Series, Vol. XI (1905), pp. 105–123 and continued pp. 177–183. Note: This is how the pedigree reaches us today; the article reproduces Connellan's 1836 work. The article carries no byline, and its narrative sections show clear personal investment in the family's reputation, worth keeping in mind for any claim not backed by a separate citation. OCR of the original Gaelic type is unreliable, so the printed forms here follow the article's transliterated English column, not the Gaelic type itself. |
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Connellan's certified pedigree, 1836
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OWEN CONNELLAN, Irish Historiographer to His Majesty. Dated 7th March, 1836
Citation details: Page: p. 109. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "The foregoing statements of facts, as far as I have power to test them by strict examination and research, appear to me to be correct in every particular, and in proof of my opinion I affix my signature hereunto. OWEN CONNELLAN, Irish Historiographer to His Majesty. Dated 7th March, 1836, Royal Irish Academy." Note: Connellan's role was to transcribe and certify the MacFirbis pedigree as genuine, not to independently verify each generation. He is also the source of the separate 1846 Annals passage and the second 1836 certificate, so his voice appears more than once in this record; that isn't independent corroboration. |
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Distinguished from AD 962 Kildare-ransom figure
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Citation details: Page: p. 112. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "The Annals of the Four Masters relate that, in 962, the Danes took several captives in plundering Kildare, and amongst them was Neill O'Hurly, who ransomed himself with his own money. This is also stated in Trias Thaumaturga, page 630."
Source: Annals of Ulster, s.a. U964 (alias 963): Kildare plundered, clergy ransomed by Niall ua Eruilb
Citation details: Page: CELT T100001A, s.a. U964 (recte 963). Direct and primary evidence used, or by dominance of the evidence. Text: "Cell Dara was plundered by the foreigners, but was compassionated with a wonderful kindness through Niall ua Eruilb, almost all the clerics being ransomed for the honour of God: with his own silver Niall ransomed of them as many as would fill Brigit's great house and the oratory." Citation details: Page: pp. 161–166. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "Examines two genealogical pedigrees titled Genelach Clainne Eruilb... contain[ing] a relatively high proportion of Scandinavian personal names. The common ancestor of both lineages is Erulb mac Murchada... trac[ing] back to Áed Allán mac Fergaile (king of Tara, 734–43), though they could potentially extend further to Éogan mac Néill Noígiallaig, the founding ancestor of the Cenél nÉogain kings of Ailech." Note: Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society, Vol. XI, 2nd Series, No. 67 (Jul–Sep 1905) names Urthuile, not the AD 962 Kildare-ransom figure it calls "Neill O'Hurly," as "the progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name" (p. 109). The article never tries to connect the two. Urthuile appears only in the certified pedigree. The 962 figure appears only later, in a separate section (p. 112), cited to the Four Masters and Trias Thaumaturga as one of several "documentary proofs" of the family's antiquity, alongside unrelated material like the Wars of Turlough and the parliamentary records. No sentence in the article treats the two as the same person, or asks whether they might be. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society, Vol. XI, 2nd Series, No. 67 (Jul–Sep 1905) names Urthuile, not the AD 962 Kildare-ransom figure it calls "Neill O'Hurly," as "the progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name" (p. 109). The article never tries to connect the two. Urthuile appears only in the certified pedigree. The 962 figure appears only later, in a separate section (p. 112), cited to the Four Masters and Trias Thaumaturga as one of several "documentary proofs" of the family's antiquity, alongside unrelated material like the Wars of Turlough and the parliamentary records. No sentence in the article treats the two as the same person, or asks whether they might be. Inference, not stated in the source: the most likely reason is structural. The compiler used the certified pedigree to establish descent, and used separate annals citations only to corroborate the family's age and standing, without cross-checking one against the other. That would make the omission an oversight of method, not a considered judgment that they're different people. We can't rule out the alternative, that the compiler knew of the 962 figure and simply didn't consider him part of the pedigree, but nothing in the text says so either way. Worth flagging on its own: The rough generational estimate places Urthuile at about 940–1000, which overlaps the 962/964 date. That overlap is exactly why a reader might want to identify the two, and exactly why it matters that sources show the 962/964 figure was very likely a Niall ua Eruilb, a separate lineage of probable Norse origin, confused with O'Hurly only by the sound of the name. If that identification is right, the question of whether he's the progenitor doesn't really arise, since he may not have been an O'Hurly at all. |
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Not to be confused with a later "Urthaile"
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Distinguished from a later namesake in O'Hart's pedigree
Citation details: Page: p. 221. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "THE O'h-Urthailé or O'Hurley family derive their sirname and descent from Urthailé Ard, son of Heber (of the race of Brenan Ban), son of Blad, son of Cas (a quo Dal Cas or the Dalcassians), son of Conall Eachluath, who is No. 90 on the 'O'Brien' (of Thomond) genealogy." Citation details: Ó hUrthuile entry (alphabetical entries, no page number available online). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "Ó hUrthuile — O Hurrilly, O'Hurley, Hurley; also written Ó hUrthaile, and sometimes pronounced Ó hUirthuile... 'descendant of Urthuile'... the name of a Dalcassian family in Thomond, akin to those of O'Moloney and O'Kearney; now dispersed throughout Munster... an important branch of the family settled at Knocklong, in the east of Co. Limerick, where the remains of their castle is still a conspicuous object on the Hill of Knocklong." Citation details: Viking Age Ireland lecture PDF (MIC). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "from the 11th century on, individual named founders emerged from these units giving rise to modern surnames (derived from the founder's personal name or nickname)" Note: O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees (1892) gives an O'Hurly descent list from Dermod na Darach to Domnall that closely matches the pedigree in Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly (CHAS 1905), and includes a second "Urthaile" positioned between Heber and Tadg — many generations after this Urthuile (son of Flann). O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees (1892) gives an O'Hurly descent list from Dermod na Darach to Domnall that closely matches the pedigree in Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly (CHAS 1905), and includes a second "Urthaile" positioned between Heber and Tadg — many generations after this Urthuile (son of Flann). O'Hart's prose summary nonetheless states the family "derive their sirname and descent from Urthailé Ard, son of Heber," apparently conflating this later namesake with the true eponym. Two considerations weigh against O'Hart's summary: first, internal — his own pedigree table places the "son of Heber" Urthaile far too late relative to the rest of the list to have originated a surname already carried by the family's senior line for generations; second, comparative — hereditary Dalcassian surnames are documented as forming roughly a generation or two after a named ancestor's lifetime (typically 10th into 11th century), and this Urthuile's independently-derived estimated dates (c. 940 AD) fit that formation window, whereas the "son of Heber" Urthaile's position in the pedigree places him well after the surname would already have been fixed. Not stated by any single source; this is an inference drawn from comparing O'Hart's own pedigree list against his summary text and against the general pattern of Dalcassian surname formation. |
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Death of a paternal grandfather
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Birth of a son
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Death of a father
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Death
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Last change
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Author of last change: daveh |
| Birth |
Citation details: Page: p. 199. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "possessed the territory called Triocha Hy Bloid, which comprised a great part of the barony of Lower Ormond and Owney in Tipperary" Citation details: Page: CELT T100062 (electronic edition). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "the seed of Brenann Bane" — named in a c.1307–08 muster-poem calling Hy-Blood's allied septs to arms; the manuscript separately places "Hy-Blood" on the east side of the Shannon. |
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| Urtuile, Hurly. The progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name. |
Citation details: Page: pp. 108–109. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "Flann, Flann. / Uptuile, Hurly. The progenitor of the O'Hurly family from whom it took its name. / Mażjaman, Mahon. The son of Hurly." |
| Published in Some Account of the Family of O'Hurly, 1905 |
Citation details: Page: p. 109. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event Text: "SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF O'HURLY." — Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Second Series, Vol. XI (1905), pp. 105–123 and continued pp. 177–183. |
| Connellan's certified pedigree, 1836 |
Citation details: Page: p. 109. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "The foregoing statements of facts, as far as I have power to test them by strict examination and research, appear to me to be correct in every particular, and in proof of my opinion I affix my signature hereunto. OWEN CONNELLAN, Irish Historiographer to His Majesty. Dated 7th March, 1836, Royal Irish Academy." |
| Distinguished from AD 962 Kildare-ransom figure |
Citation details: Page: p. 112. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "The Annals of the Four Masters relate that, in 962, the Danes took several captives in plundering Kildare, and amongst them was Neill O'Hurly, who ransomed himself with his own money. This is also stated in Trias Thaumaturga, page 630."
Source: Annals of Ulster, s.a. U964 (alias 963): Kildare plundered, clergy ransomed by Niall ua Eruilb
Citation details: Page: CELT T100001A, s.a. U964 (recte 963). Direct and primary evidence used, or by dominance of the evidence. Text: "Cell Dara was plundered by the foreigners, but was compassionated with a wonderful kindness through Niall ua Eruilb, almost all the clerics being ransomed for the honour of God: with his own silver Niall ransomed of them as many as would fill Brigit's great house and the oratory." Citation details: Page: pp. 161–166. Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "Examines two genealogical pedigrees titled Genelach Clainne Eruilb... contain[ing] a relatively high proportion of Scandinavian personal names. The common ancestor of both lineages is Erulb mac Murchada... trac[ing] back to Áed Allán mac Fergaile (king of Tara, 734–43), though they could potentially extend further to Éogan mac Néill Noígiallaig, the founding ancestor of the Cenél nÉogain kings of Ailech." |
| Not to be confused with a later "Urthaile" |
Citation details: Page: p. 221. Questionable reliability of evidence. Text: "THE O'h-Urthailé or O'Hurley family derive their sirname and descent from Urthailé Ard, son of Heber (of the race of Brenan Ban), son of Blad, son of Cas (a quo Dal Cas or the Dalcassians), son of Conall Eachluath, who is No. 90 on the 'O'Brien' (of Thomond) genealogy." Citation details: Ó hUrthuile entry (alphabetical entries, no page number available online). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "Ó hUrthuile — O Hurrilly, O'Hurley, Hurley; also written Ó hUrthaile, and sometimes pronounced Ó hUirthuile... 'descendant of Urthuile'... the name of a Dalcassian family in Thomond, akin to those of O'Moloney and O'Kearney; now dispersed throughout Munster... an important branch of the family settled at Knocklong, in the east of Co. Limerick, where the remains of their castle is still a conspicuous object on the Hill of Knocklong." Citation details: Viking Age Ireland lecture PDF (MIC). Secondary evidence, data officially recorded sometime after the event. Text: "from the 11th century on, individual named founders emerged from these units giving rise to modern surnames (derived from the founder's personal name or nickname)" |
| Connellan's certified pedigree, 1836 | |
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| Not to be confused with a later "Urthaile" | |