O'hAilche of Tipperary

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O'hAilche of Tipperary

Legg inn av Gjest » 13 jan 2007 03:36:13

I came across a post from March 17, 2004 on the Irish
American List regarding the surname Halley / Hally /
Ally. I am actually a fourth cousin of one of the
persons on the list as we are both descended from
Michael Hawley and Kate English of Aughavanlomaun,
County Tipperary near Newcastle whose family settled
in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.

I agree with the family historian Rev. Patrick Woulfe
that the name is probably of Danish origin and places
their original location near Templemore in Tipperary,
also citing mention of merchants of the name during
later centuries in Cashel and in Killamock, County
Limerick.

I have found this bit of information from the Clan
McLeod website:

"Thus Bálki became Páice (William Matheson, "The
Ancestry of the MacLeods", p. 73) and Helgi became
Ailche (Alfred P. Smyth (1979) Scandinavian York and
Dublin, Volume II pp. 20 & 356; Ailche is a genitive
form)."

See also the website for: "Old Norse Forms of Early
Irish Names"
by Brian M. Scott (Talan Gwynek) where "Ailche" is
equivalent to the Norse "Helgi" meaning holy or
blessed (Old Norse "heilagr").

There were several of the name Helgi for this time
period from Norway and Denmark. I believe that the
name derives from Helgi Magri (Helgi the Lean) from
Norway whose life is recorded in the Laxdaela Saga.
He married Rafarta, daughter of Kjarval, the Irish
king of Ossory who has been identified with King
Cearbhall of that time. The family later emigrated to
Iceland. This Helgi had a mixed religion believing in
both Christ and in the Norse god Thor.

O'Hart may be correct in saying that O'hAilche is a
branch of O'Kennedy of Ormond descended fron Donncuan
because of the supposed location of the sept as
mentioned by O'Heerin in his continuation of O'Dugan's
Topographical Poem, which O'Hart takes to be in
northern Tipperary and northwest Kilkenny which is in
the Ormond territory of the O'Kennedy clan. They may
have become part of the sept through adoption or some
other means.

In the Annals of Ulster there are several references
to a son of Ailche, Tomar mac Ailche, who was an
independent Viking chieftain of Limerick who was
involved in raiding expeditions in a struggle between
Dublin and Limerick, allying with the Ui Imair
(descendants of Ivar) against Godfrid and Amlaib
(Olafr) of Dublin. One of these raids by Ailche's son
was against the monastery of Clonmacnois in 922 AD.

There were also other septs anglicized Halley, Hally,
and Haly. These include the O'hAinle sept of Clare
with branches in Limerick and Cork (also sometimes
Anglicized as O'Hanly), and the Mulhalls of Waterford
are sometimes Halley in Waterford and Tipperary.
According to O'Hart, the sept of O'hAilgaith in
southern Galway has also been anglicized as Halley or
Hally.

Dan Hawley of Newcastle, County Tipperary has advised
me that he believes that the O'Ailche sept originated
in southern Tipperary near the present location of
Newcastle where many Halley families now live, based
on the fact that Geoffrey Keating grew up just west of
Newcastle and supposedly was of the opinion that the
location of the O'hAilche sept was in that area. This
I have not been able to confirm.

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