This name, which for the past two
centuries has been found in south Down and the north
Louth area, appears near there as early as 1428 when
Thomas Curragh a farmer, of Kilpatrick, was mentioned in
a case recorded in Archbishop Swayne's register. In
the next century we find it mentioned occasionally in or
near Dublin, e.g. in 1561, Richard Curragh, farmer, of
Raheny, and, in 1589, another Richard Curragh a member of
the Merchant Tailor's Guild who was made a freeman of
Dublin city.
I have not ascertained the correct
derivation of the name; it may be a toponymic from
one of the many places in Ireland called Curragh; the
rare Irish word curach, meaning champion or hero, has
also been suggested as a possible alternative; or it may
be an Irish form of MacCurrach, which is a sept of the
Scottish clan MacPherson.
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.
