Shades of white: were the Irish historical victims of racism?

An Irishman Looks at a Poster Advertising Voyages to New York and Resolves to Emigrate. Coloured Lithograph after E. Nicol, ca. 1840/1860

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (i)

During the Nineteenth Century and specifically following the Great Famine, 'dark', 'hairy', 'odious', 'simian', 'ugly' and worse, became common terms used to describe the Irish in America (1). Certainly, during the same period and well into the Twentieth Century, the Irish were often portrayed in English political cartoons as not only ugly subhumans but also hopeless and stupid. In his review of Liz Curtis' Nothing But the Same Old Story: The Roots of anti-Irish racsim, John Darby referred to a notorious cartoon by JAK published in the Evening Standard in 1981, which presented a mock movie poster entitled 'Showing Now: the Ultimate in Psychopathic Horror The Irish XXX'. Although purporting to be a commentary on the latest troubles of that time, it was interpreted as a continuation of a tradition of representing the Irish as inherently violent (2). This raises the intriguing question then: have the Irish historically been the victims of racism? 

Irish Emigrants in America: A Woman with Two Children, and a Man Sitting Outside an Inn Smoking a Pipe. Coloured Etching after William Heath, date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (ii)

Bryan Fanning has argued that racism as a concept has 'always drawn on the dominant paradigms of knowledge and truth'. He proposed that while in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century racism largely relied on assumptions of racial superiority, increasingly there has been a shift in rationale towards arguments based around the necessity of exclusion to preserve cultural purity (3). If nothing else then, this suggests that racism is a malleable concept. In contrast, Amy Martin has perhaps provided a more nuanced view of traditional racism and its philosophical foundations suggesting that there were in fact two strains: one was indeed 'epidermal' in nature and the other was reliant on a 'more fluid understanding of racial hierarchy'. Indeed, this might explain Charles Kingsley's reference in a letter to his wife about witnessing 'human chimpanzees' on a visit to Ireland! This is perhaps an indication that British racism in the Victorian period was based less around a bias for 'whiteness' and relied more heavily on a complex, hierarchy of perceived physical and cultural traits (4). But does that mean that the idea that the Irish have been victims of active racial discrimination has merit?

Children Play a Game with Potatoes and a Rag Hanging from the Beam. Process Print after Erskine Nicol, date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (iii)

To some extent negative perceptions of the Irish were driven by the displacement triggered by the famine. The Great Famine of the 1840s triggered a Malthusian response from the British that sought to avoid the effort and cost involved in any relief by blaming the victims with accusations of 'indolence and backwardness' (5). Dale T. Knobel, who wrote Paddy and the Republic: Ethnicity and Nationality in Antebellum America in 1985, later noted that of the forty immigrant ships arriving in New York Harbour daily by 1851, most were carrying Irish immigrants; therefore established Americans were very conscious of both their numbers and their 'haggard' presentation on arrival (6). At the time, American nativists were prone to attributing their condition on arrival to their nature rather than their experiences. Such nativists were defined by Knobel as settled Americans with anxieties concerning a national identity during a period of great economic and demographic change who tended to a convenient scapegoat for their varied problems in migrant populations. Among the subjects for derision were their religion, their impact on the labour market, even their politics. Many Irish were accused of undermining the labour market for working for low wages. They were also collectively known to support the then current pro-slavery platform of the Democratic Party. At the same time, the American nativists were concerned to some extent with all migrant groups including the Chinese. As a result, fraternal organisations tended to limit their membership to American born - although it would be interesting to know what percentage of their current membership were themselves descendants of earlier Irish migrants! (7)

A Well-Dressed Black Couple in New York City Are Being Offered a Coat by a Poor Irish Immigrant Outside a Laundry. Coloured Lithograph, artist and date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (iv)

Regardless, the Irish were probably historically treated worst of all in their own land under Norman, English and later British rule. The Norman invasion of Ireland was initiated because of an indigenous civil war in the 12th Century and only eventually sanctioned by Henry II on account of political rather than truly colonial motives. The Statutes of Kilkenny that were enacted in 1366, were the foundation of a more 'defensive colonial policy' adopted by the government of Edward III. While they provided practical measures to ensure peace and trade, they were also a vehicle of segregation. The settler population were forbidden to form alliances with the natives through marriage or fostering, speak the Irish language or adopt Irish customs. The native Irish were themselves forbidden to speak Gaelic around the settlers and excluded from ecclesiastical positions. Regardless of whether they were intentioned as defensive or derogatory, they were J. C. Beckett's admission 'aimed at setting a permanent barrier between the two races in Ireland.' Ultimately though - despite their cruelty - the statutes were based on cultural differences and political interests rather than any obvious notions of racism. After all, this form of hierarchical, feudal society was the 'norm' in Europe; the native populations of England were themselves ruled by the Normans. Even so, widespread assimilation occurred in both England and Ireland and the Lordship of Ireland was increasingly left to its own devices until the middle Tudor period (8).

Resistance against colonialism also ironically provided a basis for the development of a view that the Irish were inherently troublesome (9). The worst excesses of the plantation system were to some extent an opportunistic response by the English to the Flight of the Earls in 1607. The corrupt system of confiscation that developed was likely fueled again by a defensive colonial policy which feared a coalition of the 'old English' (ie. the descendants of Norman invaders) and the natives. The confiscations inevitably led to the uprising in 1641. The English response was itself brutal and was largely justified by exaggerated claims of massacres of Protestants. Once English authority has been fully reasserted, the Irish Parliament of 1697 instituted laws that were designed to be specifically degrading to Catholics, which incorporated virtually the entirety of the native population. Catholics were excluded from Parliament, military service, civil service, municipal corporations and the legal profession. Alterations to laws relating to land ownership and inheritance were designed to make it virtually impossible for Catholics to accumulate land. Many of the 'old English' were also Catholic though, and were also impacted, probably more by the restrictions on educating their children abroad and change to rules of inheritance which encouraged conversions. These discriminatory laws were not repealed until 1829. These new laws were clearly an official strategy to deprive the native Irish population of any political power (10). The conflicts in Ireland from 1641 have traditionally been framed within the wider contests between Protestants and Catholics or Loyalists and Parliamentarians rather than one that on the ground may have been for the participants, more essentially between colonisers and natives. 

From 1641 then, the Irish character was characterised as inherently treacherous and violent. The thousands of Irish that were sold into Carribean slavery under Cromwell after the defeat of the rebellion in 1649 were by his own admission meant to serve as examples to the rest of the native population and not treated so because of their 'race'. (11). Later conflicts appeared to consolidate the treacherous and violent characterisation of the Irish which helped justify their heavy handed responses. Two attempted revolutions in 1798 and 1803 led to the institution of martial law. (12) The British reaction to the Easter uprising in 1916 for instance involved imposing martial law across Ireland although most resistance was centred around Dublin. The arbitrary British reprisals against the Irish during the War for Independence included such atrocities as the sacking of Balbriggan and the burning of Cork. (13) This pattern of brutality demonstrated a dogged colonial mindset rather than a racist agenda. General Nevil Macready who accepted Irish Command in 1920 and was apparently more sensitive towards the Irish situation than most of his counterparts, reportedly hated the Irish 'with a depth deeper than the sea and more violent than that which I feel against the Boche.' (14)  However, the Victorian and Edwardians tended to emphasise their Anglo-Saxon heritage at the expense of their Celtic, Roman and Scandanavian roots. (15) The 'Boche' of the day were likely despised because they represented a rival empire with which the Commonwealth had recently been at war, not from sense of racial superiority. It had been widely recognised by the British, that among the wider population of Ireland in 1916 there had been sympathy with the allied cause and most were content to wait to the end of hostilities before terminating the legislative union. The impatience and poor judgment of a small number of separatists (republicans, socialists and Sinn Fein) was not claimed to be proof of some kind of inherent racial propensity for treachery. (16) 

Author Unknown, advertisement for the position of a Nanny, Boston Transcript, 1868.

Public domain via wikimedia commons (v)

The Australian colonial experience for the Irish raises the same caveats to the proposition. Just as in the United States, there were a plethora of Nineteenth Century job advertisements evident in Australian colonial newspapers specifying that the Irish need not apply! (17) And while there is some evidence that the Celtic ritual practice of Halloween was suppressed in the Australian colonies, it has been noted that both the St. Patrick's and St. Valentine's feast day celebrations were better accepted on account of their Christian rather than pagan origins. (18) Certainly, there was discrimination, but it often appears to have emanated from a sectarian rather than a racial basis. Until the middle of the Twentieth Century at least, Australia was regarded as homogenous Anglo-Saxon society. The adoption of the term 'Anglo-Celtic' has only become evident in response to recent lobbying by descendants of Irish and Scottish migrants who desired recognition for their ancestors' contribution to the nation's cultural development.  But there is little or no evidence that this Celtic amnesia was motivated by anything other than an official desire to cultivate a more homogenous society. It may be significant to note however that the shift from Australia identifying as an 'Anglo' to an 'Anglo-Celtic' society though followed the upsurge of non-British emigration after 1945. (19)

A Potato Shaking Hands with Edward Jenner, Claiming Him as a Fellow Vaccinator. Watercolour by John Leech, date unknown. Note the name of the potato: 'Paddy Fluke'.

Public Domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (vi)

Ironically in recent decades, Ireland itself has demonstrated increasing opposition to migrants, particularly asylum seekers. Bryan Fanning has argued that while this populism has great 'political currency' it is nevertheless 'grounded in racism and xenophobia'. Like the objections the American nativists expressed to Irish immigration in the Nineteenth Century, this resistance Fanning explains 'provides exceedingly simple explanations for complex societal problems' (20). 

Therefore, while the Irish were arguably vilified and discriminated against during the Nineteenth and into the Twentieth Centuries it should not be considered to have been a form of racism. In a colonial context, their 'whiteness' likely allowed for a swifter assimilation into European colonial societies than non-white immigrants. There were also major structural differences, both legislative and cultural, that would have mitigated their experiences; for instance, however equal their treatment with their black counterparts in the Caribbean, they were not assigned to become a kind of hereditary property in perpetuity. Furthermore, their typically pro-slavery stance during the Nineteenth Century was actually evidence of the privilege of suffrage, a liberty not universally enjoyed at the time by the Afro-American population. The subjugation of Ireland by the Normans, English and later British, occurred over several centuries. The conflicts that ensued have probably been correctly framed by historians as sectarian or native resistance movements rather than having been explained by racism. Subsequent to the Great Famine at least, it's clear that the Irish experienced prolonged periods of active discrimination in the New World by nativists but perhaps never as extreme as that inflicted by foreign invaders in their own occupied country. Ironically, there are some 'nativist' Irish voices today that could be accused of expressing anti-migrant sentiments that might be more accurately explained by racism.

-  Colin Mallett, 17 March 2026. 

Endnotes

(1) Dale T. Knobel, 'Celtic Exodus: The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of         American Racial Nationalism', Radharc, 2001, 2:3-25, p. 5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122316, accessed 17 March 2025.

(2) John Darby, 'The Problem of English Racism', Fortnight, 1984, 211:19-19, p. 19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25547631, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(3) Bryan Fanning, 'The Political Currency of Irish Racism: 1997-2002', Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2002, 364(91):319-27, p. 320, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30095578, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(4) Amy E. Martin, 'Victorian Ireland: Race and the Category of the Human', Victorian Review, 2014, 1(40): 52-7, p. 52, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24497037, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(5) Martin, "Victorian Ireland', p. 53. 

(6) Knobel, 'Celtic Exodus', pp. 3-4.

(7) Kevin Kenny, 'Race, Labor, and Nativism: A Response to Dale T. Knobel', Radharc, 2001, 2:27-33, pp. 27-30, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122317 accessed on 17 March 2025. 

(8) J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland, Cressant Library, Sydney, 1986, pp. 16, 27, 31-6.

(9) Martin, "Victorian Ireland', p. 53.     

(10) Beckett, Short History, pp. 62, 64-5, 71-5, 92-3, 127.

(11) It must be acknowledged as John Donoghue argues that Atlantic slavery based on race was in fact an historical abberation. See: John Donaghue, 'The Curse of Cromwell: revisting the Irish slavery debate', History Ireland, 2017, 4(25):24-8, pp. 24-5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90014565, accessed on 19 March 2025. This view is reinforced by the trade in a million European slaves among the Ottoman Barbary states from the Seventeenth Century the early Nineteenth Century. Refer to: Giles Milton, White Gold, Hodder and Stoughton, 2005, passim.

(12) Charles Townshend, ' Martial Law: legal and administrative problems of civil emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940', The Historical Journal, 1982, 1(25):167-95, p. 167, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811, accessed 21 March 2025. 

(13) M. A. Doherty, 'Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish Propaganda War', Irish Historical Studies, 2000 126(32):217-31, p. 228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/300006997, accessed 21 March 2025; Martin Frederick Seedorf, 'The Lloyd George Government and the Strickland Report on the burning of Cork, 1920', Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies', 1972, 2(4):59-66, pp. 59-60, https:doi.org./10.2307/4048122, accessed 21 March 2025. 

(14) Ian Roxborough, '6. The Military: The mutual determination of strategy of Ireland, 1912-1921', in Breaking Down the State: Protestors Engaged, Jan Willem Duyvendak & James M. Jasper (eds), Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. 142-4, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt.196315k.9., accessed 21 March 2025.

(15) Joanne Parker, '6. The Victorians, the Dark Ages and the English National Identity', in The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries, pp. 132-3, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004241862_088, accessed 11 August 2025. 

(16) Beckett, Short History, pp. 151-2. Ultimatley, sixteen of the insurgents were tried and shot. 

(17) A phrase search for 'No Irish Need Apply' on the digitisation resource TROVE in the category of Newspapers and Gazettes produces 1, 181 results: https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers?keyword.phrase=No%20Irish%20Need%20Apply&startPos=0&sortBy=dateAsc The source newspapers cover the period from early settlement to the 1950s: the earliest example is from 1832 and the most recent from 1953. See: "English Wants', Launceston Advertiser (Tasmania), 18 January 1832, p 23, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84775136, accessed 19 March 2025 & 'Irish insulted', Tribune (Sydney), 25 February 1953, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212468776, accessed 19 March 2025.

(18) Colin Mallett, 'Halloween in Australia', The Write Side of History blog, 29 October 2022, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/halloween-in-australia.html, accessed 19 March 2025.

(19) Miriam Dixson, The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity, 1788 to the present, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1999, p. 9.

(20) Fanning, 'Irish Racism', p. 319. 

Figures and Illustrations

(i) Nicol, Erskine, 1825-1904. An Irishman Looks at a Poster Advertising Voyages to New York and Resolves to Emigrate. Coloured Lithograph after E. Nicol, ca. 1840/1860. 1 print : lithograph, with watercolour, [not after 1867]. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24750461, accessed 19 March 2025.

(ii) Heath, William, 1795-1840. Irish Emigrants in America: A Woman with Two Children, and a Man Sitting Outside an Inn Smoking a Pipe. Coloured Etching after William Heath. 1 print : etching. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24885469, accessed 19 March 2025.

(iii) Nicol, Erskine, 1825-1904. Children Play a Game with Potatoes and a Rag Hanging from the Beam. Process Print after Erskine Nicol. 1 print : process print, 4 July 1891. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24884706, accessed 19 March 2025.

(iv) A Well-Dressed Black Couple in New York City Are Being Offered a Coat by a Poor Irish Immigrant Outside a Laundry. Coloured Lithograph. 1 print : lithograph, with watercolour, 1800-1899. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24885523, accessed 19 March 2025.

(v) Unknown, Author. Advertisement for a nanny that appeared in the Boston Transcript in 1868, stating "Positively no Irish need apply." Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No_Irish_Need_Apply.jpg#Licensing. Reprinted in "A Journey Through Boston Irish History" by Dennis P. Ryan, Arcadia Publishing, 1999, accessed 19 March 2025. 

(vi) Leech, John, 1817-1864. A Potato Shaking Hands with Edward Jenner, Claiming Him as a Fellow Vaccinator. Watercolour by John Leech. 1 drawing : watercolour, with pen and brown ink, [between 1800 and 1899]. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24742788, accessed 19 March 2025.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Launceston Advertiser (Tasmania)

Tribune (Sydney)

Secondary Sources:

Beckett, J. C. A Short History of Ireland, Cressant Library, Sydney, 1986.

Darby, John, 'The Problem of English Racism', Fortnight, 1984, 211:19-19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25547631.

Dixson, Miriam, The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity, 1788 to the present, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1999.

Doherty, M. A., 'Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish Propaganda War', Irish Historical Studies, 2000 126(32):217-31, http://www.jstor.org/stable/300006997.

Donaghue, John, 'The Curse of Cromwell: revisting the Irish slavery debate', History Ireland, 2017, 4(25):24-8, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90014565.

Fanning, Bryan, 'The Political Currency of Irish Racism: 1997-2002', Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2002, 364(91):319-27, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30095578.

Kenny, Kenny, 'Race, Labor, and Nativism: A Response to Dale T. Knobel', Radharc, 2001, 2:27-33,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122317. 

Knobel, Dale T., 'Celtic Exodus: The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of American Racial Nationalism', Radharc, 2001, 2:3-25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122316.

Mallett, Colin, 'Halloween in Australia', The Write Side of History blog, 29 October 2022, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/halloween-in-australia.html.

Milton, Giles, White Gold, Hodder and Stoughton, 2005.

Parker, Joanne, '6. The Victorians, the Dark Ages and English National Identity', in The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries, Hugh Dunthorne & Michael Wintle (eds), Brill, Netherlands, 2013, pp. 133-50, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004241862_008.

Roxborough, Ian, '6. The Military: The mutual determination of strategy of Ireland, 1912-1921', in Breaking Down the State: Protestors Engaged, Jan Willem Duyvendak & James M. Jasper (eds), Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. 133-56, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811. 

Seedorf, Martin Frederick, 'The Lloyd George Government and the Strickland Report on the burning of Cork, 1920', Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 1972, 2(4):59-66, https:doi.org./10.2307/4048122. 

Townshend, Charles, ' Martial Law: legal and administrative problems of civil emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940', The Historical Journal, 1982, 1(25):167-95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811. 

Online Sources:

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 2 April 2025.

*

Many thanx to Kylie for always proofreading my scribbles!

What's in a name? Or 'The art of interpreting the science of Y-DNA'

Y-DNA testing offers researchers a tantalising window into the past without the transitory limitations of autosomal testing. Y-DNA opens up the possibility of tracing your direct male lineal descent as far back as chromosomal Adam. (1) Y-DNA also has decided advantages over the mitochondrial testing (MT-DNA), the female equivalent: unlike MT-DNA, Y-DNA material provides regular mutation rates allowing more accurate dating estimates. (2) Combined with forensic archaeology it is possible to trace your direct male lines migratory history helping to fill out the ancient narrative. (3) Again, in this article I'm going to be using my own results to illustrate my points for reasons of both convenience and familiarity.

World migration path of Y-DNA haplogroup R-BY109442 prepared by Colin Mallett

Map: Aristocat123, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Data: Big Y Testing at FTDNA (i)

A haplogroup is a genetic population that share a common ancestor with a specific Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism mutation (SNP). The most common sub-set lineage among Europeans is the haplogroup R1b1a2 or R-M269. (4) My own terminal (most recent) haplogroup is R1b-BY109442 and its trail of polymorphisms descending from R-M269 is comprised of: R-L23, R-L51, R-P310, R-P312, R-Z290, R-L21, R-S552, R-DF13, R-ZZ10_1, R-CTS3386, R-S19268, R-FGC13300, R-S9793, R-S9797, R-FT1617, R-BY42759, R-BY43560, R-BY72189, BY109442. (5) The technology has a second trick up its sleeve: Short Tandem Repeat (STR) marker testing is used to fill in the gaps between SNPs and is more suited to interpreting more ‘recent’ ancestry within the last several hundred years. The more remote the Most Recent Common Ancestor between two kits, the more markers in common are dropped. (6) 

A simplified migration path map for Haplogrpoups R-L21 to R-BY1094422 prepared by Colin Mallett

Map: Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Data: Big-Y testing at FTDNA (ii)

Using my SNP results we can extrapolate that direct male ancestor, a ‘proto-Celt’ from the Atlantic coast of the continent, belonging to either the haplogroup R-DF13 or its immediate downstream successor R-ZZ10_1, arrived in what would later be known as England around 2500 BCE (Before Common Era). Over the next thousand years his direct descendants moved steadily Northwards before a male - likely of the haplogroup R-CTS3386 - migrated to what we know now as Ireland around 1400 BCE. Four bodies interred in the burial ground at The Bishop’s Seat, Kilteasheen, County Roscommon, Connacht Province, which was in use between 600 to 1300 CE (Common Era), descend from the R-ZZ10_1 line; this indicates a shared ancestor born around 2500 BCE. However, another body, ‘Kilteasheen34’ belongs to haplogroup BY42759 and therefore shares a much more recent common ancestor born around 200 CE. Additionally drawing on STR matching, (out of a total database of approximately 600, 000) I matched only one kit at the 111 marker level and he also shares the surname MALLETT. It seems our lines diverged around 1450 CE when my own terminal haplogroup branched off from R-BY42759. (7) Merging this genetic evidence with the archival therefore may allow a more complete, however speculative, historical narrative to be constructed.

In a sense, a haplogroup is a 'genetic surname' for men, one that evades the vagaries of fate. I would argue that we can fill out more of the wider 'family' story through analysis of the etymology and geographical association of the surnames held by those tested. Although extant surnames are only the endpoint of any specific line of descent, it could be argued that they do represent a kind of cultural barometer. Two celtic surnames ednemic to descendants downstream of the Irish founder haplogroup R-CTS3386, are CARROLL and FERGUSON. These two surnames are also still evident among the descendants of R-BY42759. (8) 

Family plot of the CARROLL family, Knockbridge, County Louth, Leinster Province, Ireland.

The Carroll Family Plot at the old Catholic burial ground at Knockbride by Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (iii)

The surname CARROLL was first associated with the Kingdom of Oriel (situated within the modern counties of Louth and Monaghan) and later became common in County Offaly. In fact CARROLL is one of the twenty five most common surname in Ireland (9) 

'Ferguson' by R. R. McIan from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845.

Robert Ronald McIan (1803-1856)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (iv)

Meanwhile, the FERGUSON clan is closely associated with Ayrshire, Scotland. (10) From the Third Century CE, the 'Scoti' migrated from Ireland to 'Caledonia'. By approximately 500 CE, they were well established in Dalriada (comprising of Argyllshire and the islands of Jura, Islay and Iona). Clan FERGUS(S)ON claims descent from King Fergus mor McErc who it is believed established the Scottish monarchy. (11) 

Border Rievers at Glinnockie Tower by George Cattermole

G Cattermole, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (v)

Extant surnames among those descending from subclade R-BY43560 may reflect some kind of cultural shift beginning around the middle of the first millenium. While many of those descended upstream of R-BY42759 have retained surnames reflecting their celtic heritage, those descending through R-BY43560, appear to have largely adopted Anglo-Norman surnames, among them ROBBINS, VANCE and MILBURN. This would suggest a downstream exposure, over successive generations, to Norman influences perhaps as a result of their invasion of Ireland from 1169 CE or migration to 'Normanised' England or Scotland. As discussed in a previous article, MALLETT (originally MALET) is either a Norman or Norman inspired surname. (12) ROBBINS is derived from the personal name Robert introduced by the Normans. (13) The surname VANCE is thought to be a modernised version of the Norman de VAUX. (14) MILBURN is in fact a notorious Border Reiver surname. (15) It is known that some members of the haplogroup R-S11304 (sibling to R-BY43560), took the surnames THOMPSON and CLARK, which are also classed as being Norman in origin. (16)  All these clues point to several lines from around 700 CE sharing common experiences of either assimilation with and/or migration into the 'Anglosphere'. 

In conclusion, Y-DNA is a happy accident of evolution. It's a technology that opens a unique, inadvertent window into the past. Like all DNA technologies, Y-DNA testing requires careful interpretation of results but its generally more revealing than studies of MT-DNA thanks to a faster mutation rate. Attention to endpoint surnames, specifically their etymology and geographical associations I think can be a valuable technique to help develop a richer, more expansive narrative. My own ancestral patrilenial migration story may vary from that suggested in figure ii and perhaps resemble those of my sibling lines, the FERGUS(S)ON clan and the MILBURN family which both had a subsequent association with Ayrshire. I now speculate that the specific journey of my own line, over many generations, may have also involved a geographic reversal of direction from Ireland, back through Scotland, then gradually southwards through the English midlands (wherein one line of the MALLETT family established themselves in Warwickshire) and then westwards to eventually settle in Cornwall.

-  Colin Mallett, 14 February 2025 (updated due to my new terminal haplogroup being assigned on 9 October 2025).

Endnotes

(1) Until recently, Chromosonal Adam was considered to be the most recent common male ancestor of all modern humans, Y-DNA in the form of a Y-Chromosome being passed down from fathers to sons, mutating at a fairly constant rate of around every 125 years or perhaps around 3-4 generations. Chromosomal Eve is the female equivalent but her MT-DNA is passed on to both male and female children. Its unlikely they coexisted but were both members of larger populations. See: Ewen Callaway, 'Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time', nature website, 6 August 2013, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13478 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(2) MT-DNA haplogroup mutation rate is thought to be 4.6 times slower than that found in Y-DNA. This can make it difficult to estimate if a MRCA shared by two kits sits within a useful genealogical timeframe. It is useful though in establishing if two people do or do not share a direct maternal line of descent. See: Charles F. Kerchner jnr, 'An Example of How to Use TMRCA Calculators for mtDNA Results', Kerchner's DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy Information and Resources Page, 7 November 2006, http://www.kerchner.com/mtdnatmrcacalculations.htm , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(3) Archaeogenetics has allowed ancient human migration to be better understood by combining archaeology and genetics. This can be equally applied to an individual. See: George Bushby, 'Here's how genetics helped crack the history of human migration', the Conversation, 14 January 2016,  https://theconversation.com/heres-how-genetics-helped-crack-the-history-of-human-migration-52918 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(4) G.C. Binod, 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs): Origin, Significance and Detection strategies', 11 May 2023, https://thesciencenotes.com/single-nucleotide-polymorphisms-snps-origin-significance-detection/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(5) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 11 February 2025. 

(6) Tushar Chauhan, 'What are Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)? Why do we use it?', Genetic Education, 3 July 2019, https://geneticeducation.co.in/what-are-short-tandem-repeats-strs-why-do-we-use-it/ , accessed 13 February 2025. For an overview of the SNP and STR marker research within the R1b-CTS3386 haplogroup project please see: R1b-CTS3386 and Subclades Project, 'Y-DNA SNP', Family Tree DNA Website, n.d., https://www.familytreedna.com/public/R1b-CTS3386?iframe=yresults, accessed 13 February 2025 & R1b-CTS3386 and Subclades Project, 'Y-DNA Classic Chart', Family Tree DNA Website, n.d.,  https://www.familytreedna.com/public/R1b-CTS3386/default.aspx?section=ysnp , accessed 13 February 2025.

(7) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0.

(8)  According to tradition, both of these families were meant to descend from the two sons of King Milesius who landed in Ireland around 1699 BCE: the CARROLLs descending from the eldest son Heber and the FERGUSONs (the Anglicised version of McFERGUS) descending from the younger son Heremon. In the case of the men descending from BY42759 this clearly can't be the case as according to the said chart all these CARROLLs and FERGUSONs share an ancestor who lived as recently as around 1000 CE. See: Author Unknown, 'Ancient Origins of Ireland', House of Names, n.d., https://www.houseofnames.com/blogs/Ancient-Origins-of-Ireland , accessed 13 February 2025; John Rooney, 'The Carroll Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d., https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/carroll.php , accessed 13 February 2025; John Rooney, 'The McFergus or Ferguson Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d.,  https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/mcfergus.php , accessed 13 February 2025.

(9)  Author Unknown, 'Carroll: family name history', Irish History, n.d., https://www.irishhistory.com/genealogy/irish-surnames/carroll-family-name-history/ , accessed 13 February 2025; John Grenham, 'Carroll Surname History', johngrenham.com, n.d., https://www.johngrenham.com/surnamescode/surnamehistory.php?surname=Carroll&search_type=full , accessed 13 February 2025. 

(10) Author Unknown, 'The Famous Places of Clan Ferguson', Scotland Shop, n.d., https://www.scotlandshop.com/tartanblog/famous-places-clan-ferguson , accessed 13 February 2025.

(11) Author Unknown, 'A Brief History of the Fergussons', Clan Fergusson Society of North America, n.d., https://cfsna.net/about-2/clan-fergusson-society-of-north-america-3/history-of-the-society/fergussons-in-scotland-2 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(12) Colin Mallett, 'From Natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the Ninth Century to the present day', The Write Side of History blog, 16 January 2025, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-natives-to-normans-to-protestants.html , accessed 13 February 2025. Please note: while the order of descent of haplogroups tends to remain static, the dating of the haplogroup mutations are constantly being refined; as of October 2025, haplogroup R-BY42759 has now been estimated to have emerged around 400 CE, R-BY43560 around 700 CE, R-BY72189 around 1450 CE and R-BY109442 approx. 1500 CE.

(13) ROBBINS is an English name based on the personal name Robert which was introduced by the Normans. See: Author Unknown, 'Robbins', Heraldry's Institute of Rome, n.d., https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Robbins/idc/600565/?srsltid=AfmBOorowR21xBiU5gnflk-aqw_cNejH3i5wVzxaEB_9PiEy1tl9C8_9 , accessed 13 February 2025.

(14) The surname VANCE is strongly associated with Ireland and Scotland. It is thought to be an Anglicised version of the Norman surname, de VAUX, originally meaning 'of the valleys'. See: Author Unknown, 'A Short History of the Vance Surname', Vance History Online blog, n.d., https://vancehistoryonline.blogspot.com/p/short-history-of-vance-surname.html , accessed on 13 February 2025. 

(15) Author Unknown, 'Milburn Surname', England's North East, n.d., https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/guide-to-north-east-surnames-m/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

(16) This is drawn from private Y-DNA group project work through the FTDNA site. Similar to the FERGUS(S)ON lines, there also seems to be a distant association between these MILBURN descendants with Ayrshire, Scotland.   

Figures and Illustrations

(i)  Colin Mallett, prepared with data from Big Y Testing at FTDNA with map sourced from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_World_Without_a_Background.png, accessed 13 February 2025.

(ii) Colin Mallett, prepared with data from Big Y Testing at FTDNA with map sourced from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_map_of_British_Isles.png, accessed 13 February 2025.

(iii) Eric Jones, 'The Carroll family plot at the old Catholic burial ground at Knockbride', 2013, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Carroll_Family_Plot_at_the_old_Catholic_burial_ground_at_Knockbride_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3827558.jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

(iv) R. R. McClan, 'Ferguson', from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferguson_(R._R._McIan).jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

(v) G. Cattermole, 'Reivers raid on Gilnockie Tower', date unknown, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reivers_raid_on_Gilnockie_Tower.jpg, accessed 13 February 2025.

Bibliography

Author Unknown, 'Ancient Origins of Ireland', House of Names, n.d., https://www.houseofnames.com/blogs/Ancient-Origins-of-Ireland , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Carroll: family name history', Irish History, n.d., https://www.irishhistory.com/genealogy/irish-surnames/carroll-family-name-history/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'The Famous Places of Clan Ferguson', Scotland Shop, n.d., https://www.scotlandshop.com/tartanblog/famous-places-clan-ferguson , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'A Brief History of the Fergussons', Clan Fergusson Society of North America, n.d., https://cfsna.net/about-2/clan-fergusson-society-of-north-america-3/history-of-the-society/fergussons-in-scotland-2 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Robbins', Heraldry's Institute of Rome, n.d., https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Robbins/idc/600565/?srsltid=AfmBOorowR21xBiU5gnflk-aqw_cNejH3i5wVzxaEB_9PiEy1tl9C8_9 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'Milburn Surname', England's North East, n.d., https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/guide-to-north-east-surnames-m/ , accessed 13 February 2025.

Author Unknown, 'A Short History of the Vance Surname', Vance History Online blog, n.d., https://vancehistoryonline.blogspot.com/p/short-history-of-vance-surname.html , accessed on 13 February 2025. 

Binod, G. C., 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs): Origin, Significance and Detection strategies', 11 May 2023, https://thesciencenotes.com/single-nucleotide-polymorphisms-snps-origin-significance-detection/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Bushby, George. 'Here's how genetics helped crack the history of human migration', the Conversation, 14 January 2016,  https://theconversation.com/heres-how-genetics-helped-crack-the-history-of-human-migration-52918 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Callaway, Ewen, 'Genetic Adam and Eve did not live too far apart in time', nature website, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13478 , accessed 13 February 2025.

Chauhan, Tushar, 'What are Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)? Why do we use it?', Genetic Education, 3 July 2019, https://geneticeducation.co.in/what-are-short-tandem-repeats-strs-why-do-we-use-it/ , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Grenham, John. 'Carroll Surname History', johngrenham.com, n.d., https://www.johngrenham.com/surnamescode/surnamehistory.php?surname=Carroll&search_type=full , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Kerchner, Charles F. jnr,  'An Example of How to Use TMRCA Calculators for mtDNA Results', Kerchner's DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy Information and Resources Page, 7 November 2006, http://www.kerchner.com/mtdnatmrcacalculations.htm , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Rooney, John, 'The Carroll Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d., https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/carroll.php , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Rooney, John, 'The McFergus or Ferguson Family' (from A Genealogical History of Irish Families with their Crests and Armorial Bearings, 1895), Library Ireland, n.d.,  https://www.libraryireland.com/irish-families/mcfergus.php , accessed 13 February 2025.

Mallett, Colin, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 13 February 2025.

Mallett, Colin, 'From Natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the Ninth Century to the present day', The Write Side of History blog, 16 January 2025, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-natives-to-normans-to-protestants.html , accessed 13 February 2025. 

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 13 February 2025.

From natives to Normans to Protestants: Irish surnames from the ninth century to the present day

A Celtic cross at St. David's Church, Naas, County Kildare. 

Rectorstdavids, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (i)

I recently made a close study of the surnames of Ireland. The starting point of my enquiries was John O'Donovan's seminal series 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names' published in seven instalments in the Irish Penny Journal in 1841. Donovan (1806-1886) was an Irish literary scholar of great acclaim. I also consulted Irish Names and Surnames by Patrick Woulf (1872-1933) published in 1922. While sometimes contested by his successors, Father Woulfe's book remains a foundation stone of scholarship on the topic. Inevitably, I also turned to the voluminous works of Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986), a very famous Irish genealogist and scholar. While I undertook this work mostly to gain a better understanding of my own considerable Celtic heritage, there are specific research questions I sought to answer. How were Irish surnames formed? In what ways and why did they change over time? And lastly, using what I learned from my research to seek an answer to a personal enquiry: how did a Cornish family of Irish descent end up with a Norman surname (?!).

Ireland was in fact one of the earliest regions in the western world to develop a system of surnames. (1) There is a myth that surnames were established by King Brian Boru. (2) However, there is evidence of the use of surnames in what became Ireland by the later part of the first millennium, long before his reign. (3) These surnames were formed of course in the native language: Gaeilge. The earliest surnames were initially formed from the father's name prefixed with "Mc/Mac" (for father) or "O' " (for a patrilineal ancestor). (4) The rarer equivalent prefix for a specifically female descendant was "ni". (5) The words "giolla" and "maol" were eventually introduced as prefixes to denote a follower or servant, normally of a Saint. (6) Gradually surnames in Ireland expanded to incorporate occupations and personal characteristics. (7) It is rarer to encounter Gaelic Irish surnames based on a place of habitation. (8)

Most of these early Gaelic surnames were originally transitory, rather than hereditary, in nature. (9) Overtime though, the Irish, like the Welsh, adopted the practice of developing names that represented a 'veritable genealogy'. Maclysaght explained: 'John MacMahon MacWilliam MacOwen MacShane was, of course, John MacMahon whose father's Christian name was William and his great grandfather's was Shane.' I'm not exactly sure then what MacLysaght would have made of Donal McShane Mallacht O'Neill of Shagrom in the Parish of Dungannon, County Tyrone who was a native granted land in 1610. His son's subsequent full name was constituted as Eugene McDonal McShane Mallacht O'Neill - a title that includes a personal name, father's name, grandfather's name, nickname (?) and clan name (?!). This all seems to imply that the practice was flexible or more complex than MacLysaght argued—the custom possibly prone to regional variation. (10) Indeed, Donal is listed under the surname 'Mallett' in David Donson's The People of Ireland 1600-1699! (11) The 1659 census, a primary source relied on by scholars for studies in this period, likely suffered from misinterpretation of that practice. (12)

Vikings at Dublin, 841 CE 

James Ward (1851-1924), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (ii)

To understand the development of surnames in Ireland it is necessary to understand its history of invasions and immigration. Vikings settled in Ireland during the Ninth Century and built the first real city states of the region in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick. The Norse proved to be valued traders and an economic interdependence developed between their cities and the native Irish that helped to ensure their survival as much as the decline of the influence of the High Kingship. (13) The surname Doyle is thought to have derived from the Gaelic expression "dubh-ghall" meaning "dark foreigner". There is a strong belief that because O'Dubghaill cannot be found in the great Gaelic genealogies their eponymous ancestor was likely a Norseman. It is also mostly found in coastal counties where Norse settlements were located. (14) Many Norse given names were transformed into Irish surnames including O'Rourke or Groarke ("descendant of Rurarc") and O'Loughlin ("descendant of Lochlann"). (15)

A depiction of the marriage of Aoife and Strongbow at Waterford, 1170 CE 

Daniel Maclise , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (iii)

The first true upheaval affecting surnames in Ireland was inflicted by the Normans from the late 12th Century. The system of patrilineal prefixes had become firmly established for at least a century before the arrival of the Normans. (16) One of the lasting legacies of the Norman invasion of Ireland was a large sub-set of Hiberno-Norman surnames. (17) For instance, the Normans introduced the enduring prefix "Fitz" to Ireland. (18) The murder of William de Burge, the third Earl of Ulster, in 1333 led to a weakening of English control and an increase in this "Hibernicization" of surnames particularly in the Kingdoms of Connaught and Munster. As O'Donovan insists, it is misleading to refer to the invaders and their descendants as 'English' considering the fact that their ancestors had "dwelt scarcely a century in England." Typically for Normans, they appear to have assimilated rather than conformed outright with the native population. Instead of simply taking Gaelic or Norse names, the local Normans reacted by adding the prefix "Mac" to the name of a personal ancestor. (19) This was one aspect of the Normans becoming "Hiberniores Hibernicis ipsis" or "more Irish than the Irish themselves"! (20)

English initiatives designed to prevent the settlers from 'going native' arguably inadvertently impacted the nomenclature of Ireland. The Statutes of Kilkenny passed in 1367 were designed to define the "cultural, racial and political identity of the declining English colony in Ireland." (21) One of these statutes specifically made it illegal for the English settlers and their descendants to adopt Gaelic surnames. (22) This edict was limited to the Irish 'Irish of the Pale' which consisted of Dublin, Meath, Louth and Kildare. (23)

Map of Ireland and its counties taken from Edward Hyde Claredon's The History of the rebellion and civil wars in England published in 1717 

Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons (iv)

A subsequent law passed in 1465 made it mandatory for every Irishman in the Pale to adopt an 'English' surname. While the genteel classes resisted, the lower orders in Dublin and Leinster complied. (24) Together, these laws may have ensured that many Norman surnames persisted despite a high degree of assimilation. The perseverance of Norman surnames led to surnames such as Burke, FitzGerald and Keating becoming indistinguishable from those of more traditional Gaelic origin such as O'Connor. (25)

The second upheaval of Irish nomenclature was instigated by the English during the plantation period beginning in the mid-15th Century. The Elizabethan 'settlers' and their descendants were never 'Hibernicized' as the Normans had been. (26) Inversely, throughout the Seventeenth Century, the prefixes "Mc" or "Mac" and "O' " were abandoned by the native population, reflecting an inclination by many to bury their Irishness in the wake of the second conquest. (27) Therefore, many of the surnames of Ulster which possess the "Mc" and "Mac" prefixes are descended from Seventeenth Century Scottish planters. (28) Many Irish surnames over the centuries then were gradually anglicised. (29) MacLysaght somewhat sniffily asserts that the "mutilation and corruption of Irish surnames took place in the seventeenth and to a lesser extent the eighteenth centuries." (30) This corruption sometimes took the form of adopting an English pronunciation of a Gaelic name. (31) O'Donovan lamented that many Gaelic surnames were translated "erroneously" and on the basis of "fancied resemblance in the sounds of both" as opposed to shared meaning. (32) The more genteel native classes favoured a shift to French and Spanish surnames. (33) John O'Donovan in the sixth instalment of his aforementioned 1841 series, related how a descendant of the ancient O'Malley family of County Mayo changed his surname to de Maillet. He rather unkindly observed:

...though his friends condescend sometimes to call him by this name, they can scarcely refrain from laughter while pronouncing it, for they know very well that he descends from Owen O'Malley, the father of the famous heroine Grania Wael, and chief of Umaillia or the Owles, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
MacLysaght despaired of the inability to distinguish between identical names that are common in both Ireland and England such as Collins, Boyle and Smith. (40) While Mallett (and its variations Malet and Mallet) is a surname more common to England than Ireland, it is also found in both countries. Thankfully by combining DNA testing with archival research, it is now possible to be more certain of your 'deep ancestry', on the direct male line at any rate. Archaeogenetics has confirmed that my own patrilineal line may have arrived from what would be Scotland to Ireland around 1400 BCE and resided there as late as 1300 CE, perhaps even longer, before migrating to England. The most recent common ancestor shared with my highest-level Y-DNA match, who also incidentally shares my surname, was born around 1450 CE. Our most recently traced ancestors were respectively born in Cornwall and Warwickshire, both around 1800 CE. (41) Indeed, UK taxation records from 1440 reveal that an Irishman named Tago Malet was living in Newton Ferrers, Devonshire! For all we know he could have been our family's eponymous ancestor! (42) Therefore, assuming my surname was adopted by an ancetsor in Ireland and not some kind of cultural camouflage or inadvertent adoption post-migration to England, it may have been derived because of one of three basic scenarios:

1. By virtue of Normans invading Ireland from the late 12th Century.
2. Through subsequent anglicisation of specific Gaelic surnames.
3. As a result of later immigration, including the mass arrival of Huguenots after 1685.

There were likely many other instances of this kind of adaptation, however clusmy, across all classes. (34) This widespread aversion by the Irish to their Gaelic roots was not reversed until the later 19th Century through the work and encouragement of the Gaelic League. (35)

The revocation of the 'Edict of Nantes' accelerated Huguenot migration to Ireland. Even so, 'An Act to Encourage the Migration of Protestant Strangers' had already been passed more than twenty years earlier in 1662, reflecting their perceived value to the local economy as "merchants, manufacturers and bankers". (36) The great Huguenot migration of the Seventeenth Century introduced many new surnames. (37). The same was true with the migration of several hundred German Palatine families to Ireland in the early Eighteenth Century and the majority settled in County Limerick. (38) Regardless, the transplantation of surnames from England and elsewhere to Ireland was sometimes gentle and gradual. Many Anglo-Irish surnames for instance were likely introduced by small waves of migrants during the Medieval period. (39)

Old headstone in Errew graveyard overlooking Gulladoo Lough, County Mayo, Ireland, 2009 

Oliver Dixon / Old gravestone in Errew Graveyard (v)

The Norman surname Malet (and its subsequent variations) transplanted from Normandy and Brittany to the British Isels was Old French in origin and likely traced back to three separate Latin words. (43) John O'Hart in his Irish Pedigrees suggested that the surname Malet - in its primordial form and in Ireland - may have been one of the anglicised forms of the Gaelic surname O'Maoilraite. (44) The surname is listed in the poem titled "Many a branch of the race of Conn" by Giolla Iosa Mor MacFirbis written sometime before 1417. The poem references an O'Ma(o)ilraite whose lands were situated near Errew in the parish of Ballyhean, County Mayo. A long topographical poem, it lists all the land-owning families of Tir Fhiachrach and eulogises each clan head - although the spelling is erratic! (45) According to Father Woulfe, the prefix "Maol" originally meant "bald" or more specifically "tonsured" or shaven like a monk and took on the meaning of servant or devotee when connected with the name of a Saint; therefore "Maol Eoin" was a servant of John. But he also cautioned that it had become confused with the prefix "Mal" taken from the old Celtic word "Maglos" meaning a Chief. This was often used in a variety of ways with nouns, proper or not and even adjectives. Therefore "Maolcaoin" would translate as "Gentle Chief". (46) John O'Hart lists accompanying anglicisations of O'Maoilraite or O'Mailraite as Mulratty, Rattan and Raite. (47) I cannot ascertain the meaning of the Gaelic suffix "raite" but it could be a past participle of "abair" meaning to proclaim, declare or simply to disclose. (48) The poem refers to O'Ma(o)ilraite and his lands in the following manner:

Cul Daingin and Braenros ban,

Oiremh and the enture Imairi

Belong to O'Mailraite, hospitable to the man,

To Whom the literati and the feast were pleasing. (49)

It may be significant that the Scottish Gaelic word "rait" was used to refer to a hill fort and was derived from an earlier Picto-Celtic word "rath" which referred to a defensive structure. (50) The original meaning of O'Ma(o)ilraite is probably lost forever but it may be hidden in some combination of two of the four Gaelic words for 'servant'/'chief' and 'speaker'/'fort'. (51)

Malet is listed by O'Hart in his second volume of Irish Pedigrees as a Huguenot surname in Ireland - although it is noted that one arrived before the rule of Louis XIV began in 1643. (52). Following the mass Huguenot migration to Ireland, the surname Malet had become associated with the French Quarter of the city of Cork. (53) Furthermore, the family of the famous engineer and seismologist, Robert Mallet (1810-1881), began arriving as part of a chain migration from North Tawton, Devonshire to Dublin in the late Eighteenth Century. This family was descended from the illustrious Somerset family with links back to 1066 and all that. Furthermore, adding to the complexity, the first to arrive, Robert's Uncle and namesake, married a woman of alleged Huguenot ancestry making his descendants potentially both of Huguenot and Norman descent! (54)

While it is a more obscure, niche area of study, much has been written and published on the history of surnames in Ireland over the centuries. Following the initial innovation of the custom, the three greatest periods of adaption took place during the Norman Invasion, the Plantation period and the mass Protestant migrations of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The first period saw the introduction of a new set of surnames that persist to the current day. The second period saw an upsurge in English surnames and the subsequent anglicization of the surviving Gaelic ones. The third period by virtue of mass migration, saw an influx of both French and other European surnames. No mastery of Irish Gaelic is required to comprehend the basic linguistic mechanics of the practices determining surnames in Ireland from the Ninth Century; however, the erratic translation of Gaelic surnames to phonetically similar English and European surnames makes tracing their individual history a task best left to the professional linguist. On a personal level and despite my best efforts, it is not yet possible to be certain of the exact origin of my own surname or even to finally conclude that it was in fact adopted during the twilight of my ancestors' ten to twenty centuries in Ireland. But if it was, then it likely occurred because of one of the three scenarios outlined. 

-  Colin Mallett, 17 January 2025.

Huguenot graveyard, intersection of French Church Street and Carey's Lane, City of Cork, County Cork, Republic of Ireland, 2015. 

Slongy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, (vi)

Endnotes

(1) Edward MacLysaght, The Surnames of Ireland, 1st edn, Irish University, Shannon, 1969, p 9.
(2) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9.
(3) There are a couple of common fallacies held concerning these prefixes. The spelling of the prefixes Mc and Mac does not distinguish a surname to be of specifically Irish or Scottish origin. MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9 & Edward MacLysaght, Irish Families Their Name, Arms and Origins, Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1972, p 16 Nor is the prefix O' inherently more genteel than the others. See: John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, p 366. 
(4) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9 & MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16.
(5) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, p 366
(6) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(7) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(8) MacLysaght, Irish Families,  p 19.
(9) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 9. 
(10) Eamon O'Doibhlinn, 'Domhnach, More, Part III: The Plantation Era', Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 3(1), 1958, pp 206, 220.
(11) David Dobson, The People of Ireland 1600-1699 Part 1, Clearfield, United States, 2009, p 57.
(12) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 20.
(13) J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland, The Cresset Library, London, 1986, pp 13-5. Indeed the aforementioned prefix "Giolla" was derived from the Norse word "gisl" denoting a pledge or hostage. See: Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames, M. H. Gill, Dublin, 1922., p 8. 
(14) MacLysaght, Irish Families, pp 128-9. 
(15) Mike Collins & Carina Collins, 'Do You Have a Viking Surname?', A Letter from Ireland website, https://www.aletterfromireland.com/irish-viking-surname/ , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(16) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 14. 
(17) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. Hiberrnia being the traditional classical name for Ireland used by the Greeks and Romans.
(18) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. 
(19) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, pp 382-3. 
(20) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. 
(21) Hand, G. S., 'The Forgotten Statutes of Kilkenny: A Brief Survey', Irish Jurist, 1(2), Winter 1966, p 299. 
(22) Beckett, Short History, p 27. 
(23) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16.
(24) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, p , p 383.
(25) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. 
(26) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 15. However, Scottish settlers in Ulster were able to converse with the native population by virtue of a shared Gaelic heritage with both practical and evangelical motives. Inadvertently this process helped to perserve the native language in the long term. See: Caoimhghin O Murchadha, 'Presbyterians and the Irish Language (by) Roger Blaney', History Ireland, 5 (1), Spring 1997, pp. 54-55.
(27) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16. 
(28) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 16. One of the other surnames in my own ancestry, Colgan, is likely an abbreviated form of MacColgan or the rarer O'Colgan. See: MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 83.
(29) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 23. 
(30) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 25.
(31) MacLysaght, Irish Families, p 26. For instance, a disapproving MacLysaght cited a case of a Minogue of County Clare during his service in the First World War, adopting the pronounciation "minnow-gew" over "Minnog"! 
(32) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fifth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(50), 12 June 1841, p 398. Because many sounds in Gaelic cannot be properly captured in English, the subsequent translations were often distorted to the extent that it can be very difficult to identify the original source name. See: Aodan Mac Poilin, Studylib.net website, 'Gaelic Surnames in English', https://studylib.net/doc/7454542/gaelic-surnames-in-english--by-aod%C3%A1n-mac-p%C3%B3il%C3%ADn- , accessed 29 December 2024. In contrast, the translations of O'Heany or Mac Eneany to Bird are examples of erroneous attempts to translate on the basis of meaning despite there being no etymological connection between either surname; the mistranslations are solely based on their shared incorporation of the Gaelic word for 'Bird': ean. Please also refer to both: MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 30 & Edward MacLysaght, More Irish Families: A new revised and enlarged edition of More Irish Families, incorporating Supplement to Irish Families with an Essay on Irish Chieftainries, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1996, pp 124-5.
(33) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, p 405. 
(34) John O'Donovan, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, p 405. O'Donovan actually gave many other examples including O'Dorcy to D'Arcy and O'Dulaine to Delany.
(35) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 10. 
(36) Edward MacLysaght, Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century, Talbot Press, Dublin and Cork, 1939, pp 234-5.
(37) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12. 
(38) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12.
(39) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 12.
(40) MacLysaght, Surnames, 1st edn, p 22. 
(41) Colin Mallett, Mallett Research Folder 0, Unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) , accessed 01 January 2025. It may be significant that while descendants of my near ancestor subclade haplogroup R-BY42759 (estimated 400 CE) share predominately Celtic surnames such as Collins, Ferguson and Carroll, its descendants through divergent nodes, R-BY43560 and R-S11304, are characterised by Norman flavoured surnames: Robbins, Vance, Milburn, Thompson, Clark and Mallett. Although R-BY43560 and R-S11304 diverged from their predecessor as early as 700 CE, this shift in surnames could be evidence of a subsequent cultural and/or geographical upheaval among a specific subset of descendants of R-BY42579. 
(42) National Archives (UK), Tax Assessment, Assessment for Devon, 8 July 1440, E 175/95/100 as cited in Author Unknown, 'Tago Malet (59471)', England's Immigrants 1330-1550: Resident Aliens in the Late Middle Ages website, https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/person/59471 , accessed 17 July 2024.
(43) Basil Cottle, The Penquin Dictionary of Surnames (2nd Edition), Penquin, London, 1978.p 232-3. Cottle proposed four basic definitions, three being Old French and traced back to separate Latin words: a nickname derived from the latin word for curse, "maledictus"; a diminuitive nickname formed from the word for hammer, "malleus"; a diminutive nickname based on the name "Maclovius" (or Malo) a Sixth Century Saint. 
(44) John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation - Volume 2, J. Duffy and Company, Ireland, 1892, p 570.
(45) MacFirbis, Giolla Iosa Mor, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind' as cited in 'John O'Donovan, The genealogies, tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, commonly called O'Dowda's country, Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1844, pp 196-7.
(46) Woulfe, Irish Names, p 8.
(47) O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees, p 570.
(48) Unknown Author, 'Abair', New English Irish Dictionary Website, https://www.teanglann.ie/en/gram/abair , accessed 17 July 2024.
(49) MacFirbis, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind', p 197.
(50) David Rait, 'The Raitt Name', The Raitt Stuff Website, https://www.raitt.org/rait-name-origins.html , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(51) My guess at a meaning would be 'Chief of the fort' although, as mentioned before, habitation names were rare in medieval Ireland. 'Mallett' was a name evident in that region of Mayo until at least the Eighteenth Century as a Michael Mallett of Ballinrobe was convicted at Castlebar (near Errew) and transported to the Australian colonies in 1829. Dying in a convent at Albury in 1876, he reputedly lived to be 107 years of age! At the time a brother, aged 84, owned a farm nearby. See: Mercury, 'Victoria', 10 May 1876, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page792695 , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(52) O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees, p 462.
(53) Unknown Author, 'Huguenot Graveyard', Ask About Ireland website, https://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/architecture/the-cork-camera-club-(pre/churches-and-cathedrals/huguenot-graveyard/index.xml , accessed 17 July 2024. 
(54) Michael J. Tutty, 'John and Robert Mallet 1780-1881', Dublin Historical Record, 29(2), March 1976, pp 43-4. Indeed, Robert Mallet senior was buried in the Huguenot burial ground on Merrion Row in Dublin. 


Figures and Illustrations

(i) Rectorsdavids, Photograph of a Celtic cross at St. David's Church, Nass, County Kildare, 12 November 2017., Wikimedia Commons, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celtic_Cross_at_St._Davids_Church_Naas.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024.
(ii) James Ward, Vikings at Dublin, 841 CE, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vikings_841_at_Dublin.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024.
(iii) Daniel Maclise, Painting depicting marriage of Aoife and Strongbow, Waterford, 1170 CE, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarriageAoifeStrongbow.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(iv) Edward Hyde Clarendon, Map of Ireland and its counties taken from Edward Hyde Claredon's The History of the rebellion and civil wars in England published in 1717, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_history_of_the_rebellion_and_civil_wars_in_England,_begun_in_the_year_1641._With_the_precedent_passages,_and_actions,_that_contributed_thereunto,_and_the_happy_end,_and_conclusion_thereof_by_the_(14576287917).jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(v) Oliver Dixon, Old headstone in Errew graveyard overlooking Gulladoo Lough, County Mayo, Ireland, 2009, Wikimedia Commons, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_gravestone_in_Errew_Graveyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1297638.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 
(vi) Slongy, Huguenot Graveyard, intersection of French Church Street and Carey's Lane, City of Cork, County Cork, Republic of Ireland, 2015, Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huguenot_Cemetery,_Cork.jpg, accessed 8 August 2024. 


Bibliography

Primary Sources

MacFirbis, Giolla Iosa Mor, 'Imda gablan do chloind Chuind' as cited in 'John O'Donovan, The genealogies, tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, commonly called O'Dowda's country, Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1844, pp 176-299.
Mercury (Hobart)
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Third Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(46), 15 May 1841, pp 365-6. 
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fourth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(48), 29 May 1841, pp 381-4.
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Names: Fifth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(50), 12 June 1841, pp 396-8.
O'Donovan, John, 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Family Family: Sixth Article', Irish Penny Journal, 1(51), 19 June 1841, pp 405-7.

Secondary Sources

Beckett, J. C., A Short History of Ireland, The Cresset Library, London, 1986.
Cottle, Basil, The Penquin Dictionary of Surnames (2nd Edition), Penquin, London, 1978.
Dobson, David, The People of Ireland 1600-1699 Part 1, Clearfield, United States, 2009.
Hand, G. S., 'The Forgotten Statutes of Kilkenny: A Brief Survey', Irish Jurist, 1(2), Winter 1966, pp 299-312.
MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Families Their Name, Arms and Origins, Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1972.
MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century, Talbot Press, Dublin and Cork, 1939.
MacLysaght, Edward, More Irish Families: A new revised and enlarged editon of More Irish Families incorporating Supplement to Irish Families, with an essay on Irish cheiftainries, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1996. 
MacLysaght, Edward, The Surnames of Ireland (First Edition), Irish University Press, Shannon, Ireland, 1969.
O'Doibhlinn, Eamon, 'Domhnach, More, Part III: The Plantation Era', Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, 3(1), 1958, pp 190-222.
O'Hart, John. Irish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation - Volume 2, J. Duffy and Company, Ireland, 1892.
O Murchadha, C., 'Presbyterians and the Irish Language (by) Roger Blaney', History Ireland, 5 (1), Spring 1997, pp 54-56.
Reaney, P. H. & Wilson, G. M., A Dictionary of English Surnames, Taylor & Francis, London, 2006. 
Tutty, Michael J., 'John and Robert Mallet 1780-1881', Dublin Historical Record, 29(2), March 1976, pp 42-58.
Woulfe, Patrick, Irish Names and Surnames, M. H. Gill, Dublin, 1922.

Online Sources

Author Unknown, 'Abair', New English Irish Dictionary Website, https://www.teanglann.ie/en/gram/abair , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Author Unknown, 'Huguenot Graveyard', Ask About Ireland website, https://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/architecture/the-cork-camera-club-(pre/churches-and-cathedrals/huguenot-graveyard/index.xml , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Collins, Mike & Carina, 'Do You Have a Viking Surname?', A Letter from Ireland website, https://www.aletterfromireland.com/irish-viking-surname/ , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Mac Poilin, A., 'Gaelic Surnames in English', Studylib.net website, https://studylib.net/doc/7454542/gaelic-surnames-in-english--by-aod%C3%A1n-mac-p%C3%B3il%C3%ADn-, accessed 29 December 2024. 
Mallett, Colin, Mallett Research Folder 0, unpublished Y-DNA research project, F0000 MALLETT Folder (0) .
National Archives (UK), Tax Assessment, Assessment for Devon, 8 July 1440, E 175/95/100 as cited in Author Unknown, 'Tago Malet (59471)', England's Immigrants 1330-1550: Resident Aliens in the Late Middle Ages website, https://www.englandsimmigrants.com/person/59471 , accessed 17 July 2024.
Rait, David, 'The Raitt Name', The Raitt Stuff Website, https://www.raitt.org/rait-name-origins.html , accessed 17 July 2024. 
Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 8 August 2024.