Robert Mulcahy

www.robertmulcahy.com

Family History

The Mulcahy Family Name:

There are a multitude of rich histories underlying the many Irish surnames in use today. The name Mulcahy originally appeared in Gaelic as O Maolchathaigh, which means "a descendant of a devotee of St. Cathach." The surname is not, as is often believed, derived from "Cathach," meaning "warlike."

Pronunciation, rather than spelling, was what guided scribes and church officials in recording names, a practice that often led to the misleading result of one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname Mulcahy are preserved in documents that were examined for evidence of the family's history. The various spellings of Mulcahy included Mulcahey, O'Mulcahey, Mulcahy, O'Mulcahy, Mulcahee, Mulkey, McMulkey and many more.

First found in county Tipperary.

Often leaving from racial discrimination and colonial oppression, thousands of families left Ireland in the 19th century for North America aboard passenger ships. Many early immigrants found a plot of land to call their own, something unimaginable for most Irish families. Those that arrived later were often accommodated as laborers since there was a large demand for cheap labor. This was the fate for many of the families that arrived in North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Whether they became agrarian settlers or industrial workers, the Irish that came to North America were invaluable for rapid development of the infant nations of the United States and Canada. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name Mulcahy or a variant listed above: John and Mary Mulcahy settled in Boston in 1849; along with Patrick; David, Denis, John, Thomas, Timothy, William Mulcahy all arrived in Pennsylvania between 1800 and 1860.

Spanish Royal blood entered the Mulcahy family when in 1588 more than 25 ships, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia, of the Spanish Armada of Philip II of Spain were wrecked off the Southern Irish coast. Many sailors settled in counties Cork, Waterford and Tipperary. An unknown Spanish Nobleman married into the Mulcahy family, hence the dark skin and hair now common in the family. From 1591, Hugh O’Donnell of Tyrone, on O’Neill’s behalf, had been in contact with Phillip II of Spain, appealing for military aid against their common enemy, England. Spain, no doubt through its long ancestry with Ireland also played a role in the 1916 rising by supplying weapons and training to the Irish Republican Army.

                                                                                                                             

 

 

 

Some noteworthy people of the surname Mulcahy