Anglo-Norman invasion and settled as two
families of the same Welsh stock, one of which, seated at Castle Barrett, became
influential in central County Cork, where they were large landowners down to the year
1691. In that year the then head of the Cork family, Colonel John Barrett, was deprived of
12,000 acres for raising a regiment of infantry for King James’ Irish army. The Cork
Barretts had already suffered loss of land under earlier English encroachments, and
originally had been proprietors of the whole of what is now the Barony of Barrett,
formerly known as Barrett’s Country.
The Mayo Barretts had settled in the
northwest of that county, in the Barony of Tirawley, where they became numerous and
powerful. They came to form a clan in the Gaelic fashion, the head of which was known as
Mac Bhaitin Baireid (Mac Watten Barrett). There were two sub-clans of the Barretts, the
Clan Aindriu, or MacAndrews settled between Lough Conn and the River Moy and the Clan
Toimin, or MacTimins.
The Blakes (de Blaca: Norman-French "le
Blac") are a Cambro-Norman family, that is, an Anglo-Norman family of Welsh origin.
They came in the fourteenth century to form one of the Tribes of Galway, the wealthy
mostly Norman merchant families of that city, their ancestor being Richard Caddell, alias
le Blake, who was sheriff of Connacht in 1303. It was not until the seventeenth century
that the surname Blake finally supplanted the original name, which was Caddell, and
throughout their history in Galway the family is referred to as "Caddell, alias le
Blake," or vice-versa. The Blakes were long prominent in Galway’s government and
ecclesiastical activity. The Blakes became extensive landowners in County Galway, and two
of them were outstanding figures in the seventeenth century: Sir Richard Blake was
chairman of the Assembly of Confederate Catholics at Kilkenny in 1647, and Francis Blake
was on the Supreme Council. A branch of the Blakes settled in County Kildare, where their
presence is reflected by the existence of three townlands called Blakestown.
The Joyces (Seoigh) are of Welsh origin, and
came to Ireland in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion. The first of the family recorded
in Ireland was Thomas de Joyce, who married the daughter of the O’Brien Prince of
Thomond in 1283 and then took her by sea to Galway, where he settled in a wild mountainous
tract on the Mayo border of the generally desolate region known as "Iar
Connacht," which means west of Connacht. This territory became known as Joyce’s
Country (Duthaigh Seoghach), now the Barony of Ross in County Galway. Here they came to
form a clan-group on the Gaelic model, and while initially under the overlordship of the
O’Flahertys, they became a power in their own right, and were known as a race of very
large men. Some of them became known as Cunnagher. A branch of the Joyces became
established as one of the Tribes of Galway City (see above).
The Clann Uighilin or MacQuillans (Mac
Uighilin) descend from a family of Welsh origin which came to Ireland soon after the
Anglo-Norman invasion |
