| Quigley is common in all the four provinces of Ireland but is
most numerous in Ulster, particularly counties Derry and Donegal. It is in
Gaelic Ó Coigligh, which may derive from the word coigeal, denoting a 'person
with unkempt hair'. There were O'Quigleys, a sept of the Uí Fiachra of Co.
Mayo, and another sept of Inishowen in Donegal. The most common form of
the name is now Quigley, but Kegley and Twigley are also found. The name is well
known in Fermanagh and Monaghan, a sept of O'Quigley there being erenaghs of
Clontivrin in the parish of Clones.
Quigg, an exclusively Ulster name found mainly in Co. Derry but also in Co.
Monaghan, can be an abbreviated form of Quigley, but it is also the name of a
recognised sept of Co. Derry whose name is in Gaelic Ó Cuaig. Particularly in
Co. Down both these names have been made Fivey in the mistaken notion that the
Gaelic for 'five' cúig, was an element in their construction.
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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