IRISH SURNAMES.
[To THY IED120/2 OF TUE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—Will you kindly permit me to draw attention to two slight errors in your most interesting article on Irish sur- names? In the first place. I do not think it is at all established that " Murphy " is an anglicised form of " MacMarrough." " Kavanagh " was the clan name of " MacMurrough," and I think, from what evidence we have, that " MacMurrough " was only rarely used as distinguishing a particular member of the Kavanagh clan. " Murphy " is, I think, an anglicised form of " Murehada," in all probability a clan name, as we find the same Anglicism in " Dunphy " for " Donehada," also a sept or clan name. The second error is unmistakable. You say, "All the tribe of Fitz are Anglo-Norman." My own family name " FitzPatrick " is an Anglo-Norman rendering of my original Celtic clan name, viz., " MacGilla Thadring," meaning in English, "the son of the servant of St. Patrick." The Anglo-Norman rendering was adopted in the reign of Henry VII., at the request of that King, by one of my ancestors, the then head of the clan (and the old chroniclers add that the MacGilla Thadring never prospered after the change). With apologies for trespassing on your valuable space,—I am, Sir, &c., CASTLETOWN, of Upper Ossory.
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