This name is equally common in Ulster,
Leinster and Connacht, its main centres being Dublin, Co.
Sligo and Co. Antrim. The name is in Gaelic Ó
hEaghra and the family was originally of Co. Sligo,
descendants of one Eaghra, pronounced 'ara', a chief of
Leyny in that county.
In the fourteenth century a
branch migrated to the Glens of Antrim and settled at
Crebilly near Ballymena. Here it became an
important sept and entered into several marriages and
alliances with the great families of Antrim. In the
mid-nineteenth century O'Haras were still found
concentrated in the barony of Lower Glenarm.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the name was
being used interchangeably with Haren in several parts of
Co. Fermanagh and so some at least of the O'Haras of that
county will be originally O'Harens, Gaelic Ó
hÁráín. The O'Harens were erenaghs of
Ballymactaggart.
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.
