COONEY : MAELDIREAGH : MAOLDIREAGH : MULROY : NESBITT : Genealogy Query


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Date Posted:

15-Mar-2006

Surname(s):

COONEY : MAELDIREAGH : MAOLDIREAGH : MULROY : NESBITT

Query Text:

My understanding is that the name Mulroy is a shortened form of the name Maeldireagh or Maoldireagh meaning men of the red oak or, more likely, a druidic name meaning tenders of the red oak groves. As oak groves were sacred meeting places for the pre-Christian Irish I assume that the name implies possible membership in a hereditary druidin priesthood. I further heard that the Maeldireaghs were the last princes of Tyrconnell having been deposed in or around the sixth or seven centuries by the O'Connells or O'Donnells. My guess is that the Maeldireaghs (the name Christianized to Mulroy) were somewhat prominent in their original home area in Ulster (Tyrconnell) probably in the area of Mulroy Bay until they were carted south by the Cromwellians and left impoverished in Mayo. My own great grandfather is said to have left from Westport around 1948. The great-grandfather purchased one ticket and a large steamer trunks in which he hid his brother and sister. The men worked on the Erie canal and the railroads moving west until they finally got a homestead in Muckwah township, Outagamie Co. Wisconsin, near New London. Somewhere among my strewn belongings I have the names of the adventuresome trio, the name of the Ship and more precise dates. Shortly after settling in the New London area a branch of the Cooney Family, neighbors from Mayo, purchased or homesteaded a farm a few hundred yards up the road from the Mulroy place. My grandfather, James Mulroy, was born in 1864. I don't know if late marriages to teenaged wives is a peculiarity of my family or of Irish farmers in general, but my James married Estelle Nesbitt and fathered ten children that they marry late. So the fact that my grandfather was born in the Civil War never fails to amaze my friends most of whom have to go back quite a few generations just to get to the turn of the last century. Anyway,as much of what I have written here is based on the alcohol tinged amusing stories of my father and uncles, Any corrections, additions, or expansions would be greatly appreciated. Tom Mulroy Age 57, currently eking out a living in Milwaukee Wi P.S. I don't know if ramblings such as these are posted but I would appreciate an email acknowledgement of the receipt of this no doubt wildly inaccurate account.