Ó Maoilmhichil

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Ó Maoilmhichil is an uncommon surname of Irish origin devolving into the common Irish surnames Mitchell and Mulvihill.

The surname Mitchell is derived from the Sept or Clan name Uí Mhaoilmhichil which means Patrons or Devotees of Saint Michael the Archangel. Michael! was the war-cry in heaven in the battles against the Devil and his followers.

Following the ascendancy of Niall Noigíallach as High King, and the arrival of Saint Patrick in the late 4th century AD, Ulster was in transition from Druidism to Christianity. It is not surprising in pagan Celtic society with many war deities, as tradition suggests, that the name Maoilmhichil would be adopted early in the development of Christian Ireland.

Brion was the half-brother of High King Niall. Brions dynasty was carried on through his two great-grandsons, Ona the ArchDruid and his eponymous brother Maoilmhichil, the first legendary use of the Sept name.

As the English language began to replace Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the Sept name was anglicized as Mitchell, Michael, Mulvihill, Mulville, or Melville, and other variations. Members of the Sept also anglicized their names to protect their property and in some cases to indicate a change in religion.

The family motto "Pro Aris et Focis" originates from the Irish family name "Mulvihill".

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[edit] History

The Mitchells from Sligo can be traced back to Hugh O'Maoilmhichil (Owen Mitchell), born about 1670 in Ulster during a period when there was great unrest among the O'Donnells and the O'Neils and the Government.

A crisis point occurred during the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland when the English authorities tried to extend their authority over Ulster and Hugh O'Neill, the most powerful Irish lord in the country. O’Neill resisted with force and launched the Tyrone Rebellion, a nationwide war rather than a rebellion, with the intent of replacing English authority altogether. O’Neill enlisted the help of many Irish lords, but his most significant support came from King Philip III of Spain, culminating in the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. The war ended in 1603 in favor of the English, and thereafter crown authority was gradually established throughout Ireland.

Although they had their lands restored, Hugh O'Neill and Ruaidhri (Rory) O'Donnell were surrounded by enemies with old scores to settle. They were plotted against and spied upon, and in 1607, they were advised that it was the intention of the Government to have them arrested. They had the choice of leaving Ireland or spending the rest of their lives in prison.

O’Neill and O’Donnell, and their families left Ireland on that historic day – 14th of September 1607 - in the Flight of the Earls. Their lands in Ulster were confiscated and colonized in the Plantation of Ulster.

A ship sailed out from Lough Swilly, carrying a hundred people, including O'Neill and O'Donnell and their families. They were received with high honor on the Continent, but that was the end of Gaelic rule in Ireland. However, heartbreaking though exile was for these great Celtic Lords, the people left behind in Ulster and the remainder of Ireland were the real victims - left in dire straits and at the mercy of the English and Oliver Cromwell.

Under James I of England Catholics were barred from all public office after the gunpowder plot was discovered in 1605. The Gaelic Irish and Old English increasingly defined themselves as Catholic in opposition to the Protestant New English settlers. However, notwithstanding the Plantation of Ulster the native Irish (both Gaelic and Old English) remained the majority landowners in the country until after the Irish Rebellion of 1641. By the end of the resulting Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 1650s, the New English Protestants dominated the country, and after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 their descendants went on to form the Protestant Ascendancy.

The confiscatory transition from Gaelic rule to the Protestant Ascendancy during the 17th century in Ireland placed the Irish and Old English at such disadvantage that political turmoil, famine, waves of emigration ensued for more than 200 years until that fateful Easter Monday, 1916.

Since the British Crown seized about 20% of the territory of Ulster - vast tracts of church land (technically confiscated after the Reformation, but relatively untouched till the reign of James I) placed an unprecedented amount of territory at the disposal of the crown - virtually the whole of modern Armagh, Cavan, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Donegal.

The 18th century were times of tumultuous change in Ireland. Along with Roman Catholics, the Scots-Irish were legally disadvantaged by the Penal Laws, which gave full rights only to Anglicans, who were mainly the descendants of English invaders and settlers. Land was seized, and people were displaced from their lands. There were pressures to renounce Catholicism and Presbyterianism. There were pressures to eliminate the Gaelic language and it was illegal to play the harp [1] and uilleann pipes [2]. And the first of the large scale emigrations to America and Canada began, particularly among the Scots-Irish of Ulster.[3] It should be noted that 13 of the earlier Presidents of the USA were children of parents born in Ulster

Hugh (Owen Mitchell) O'Maoilmhichil, like his ancestors, had managed cattle herds for the O'Donnells and served as leaders in the local O'Donnell militia. Owen was also related to the O'Donnells through marriage. Owen’s ancestors had acquired land for their services but the land was confiscated. Owen came from a large family (details unknown) and had at least six sons and several daughters who left Ulster for Connaught. Their slogan was: "Onward to Connaught or Hell"[4] because the land in the Connaught was rocky and not good.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Queen Elizabeth I: "hang the harpers wherever found and destroy their instruments." The Elizabethan enactments against bards, minstrels, pipers and rhymers, were enforced after the promulgation of the Bull, (anathamizing Elizabeth) of St. Pius V in 1569, though Elizabeth herself retained in her service, an Irish harper called Donogh. p113. "A History of Irish Music".
  2. ^ W. H. Grattan Flood, "A History of Irish Music," Browne and Nolan, Dublin, 1906
  3. ^ James H. Webb "Born Fighting - How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" published 2005.
  4. ^ Quote attributed to John McLoughlin, listed as a tenant in the Griffith Land Valuation 1868, was Headmaster, Cloughboley School for Boys. John McLoughlin was a cousin of the Mitchells and carried the memories of the OMaiolmhichil ancestry. He rented a barn on Cloughboley Lane which was used as a classroom for the Mitchells and other boys. Some of the boys wore skirts rather than pants, presumably because they were poor. The English gentry would frequently have a "hunt" originating at the 2600 acre Lissadell Estate. When the dogs, buglers and horsemen would come down through Cloughboley, past the school barn and out to the 900 acre Gethlin Estate. Master McLoughlin would block the door when the buglers sounded.[citation needed]

[edit] Descendants of the surname O'Maoilnhichil

[edit] See also

Nicholas Joseph Anthony Mulvihill of Finuge Co. Kerry

[edit] External links

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