| In Ireland, apart from a few MacCurdys in Co. Derry, the name
is found exclusively in Co. Antrim, as is MacMurtry. MacBrearty, an exclusively
Ulster name, is most common in counties Tyrone and Donegal. These three names,
and also MacMurty, were all originally in Gaelic Mac Muircheartaigh, from
Muircheartach or Murtagh, meaning 'sea ruler'. MacCurdy is common on the
islands of Arran and Bute, where it is a variant of MacMurtrie, a sept of Clan
Stuart of Bute. In the fifteenth century the MacKurerdys, as they were
then called, owned most of Bute. MacCurdy and its variants are still found
on Bute but have now disappeared from Arran, Kintyre and the Isles, having
become Currie (see Currie).
Across the North Channel, MacCurdy is a well-known Rathlin name, having been
for centuries the most common name on the island. It is common too in the
Glens and on the north coast of Antrim, to which it probably came with the
Stewarts when they arrived at Ballintoy, having lost their lands in Bute in the
mid-sixteenth century.
MacBrearty has the same form in Gaelic but is most likely Irish.
MacMurty may have the same Irish origin but has become lost in the Scots
MacMurtry.
GLOSSARY
| Clan |
From the Gaelic clann which means literally
'children'. |
| Mac- |
From the Gaelic mac, meaning 'son' |
| O' |
From the Gaelic Ó, meaning 'grandson',
'grandchild' or 'descendant'; Ní is the femine form of Ó, meaning 'daughter' or
'descendant' |
| Plantation (Ulster) |
The redistribution of escheated lands after the
defeat of the Ulster Gaelic lords and the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607. Only
counties Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh and Cavan were actually
'planted', portions of land there being distributed to English and Scottish
families on their lands and for the building of bawns. |
| Sept |
A family group of shared ancestry living in the
same locality |
| Undertakers |
Powerful English or Scottish landowners who
undertook the plantation of British settlers on the lands they were granted. |
| Gaelic |
This word in Ireland has no relation to
Scotland. As a noun it is used to denote the Irish language, as an adjective
to denote native Irish as opposed to Norman or English origin. |
| Erenagh |
From the Irish Gaelic airchinneach, meaning
'hereditary steward of church lands'. A family would hold the ecclesiastical
office and the right to the church or monastery lands, the incumbent at any one
time being the erenagh. |
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