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.
