McGrath Island, Co. Clare
The Mystery
of Island McGrath and the McGrath Origins
by Liam McGrath, Clan Historian
Fado, fado, as our bards used to start their story, 'long ago, and far away, if I had been there then, I wouldn't be here now'. But there is no way you can stop us from digging up the past, to inspire the present and the future. Some of our well-meaning eejits mock us by saying-- 'We Irish are tired of the Heritage Business!" Okay, then you leave us right now and sprawl in front the TV and watch soap operas and sports while you pickle your brain cells with beer. Anybody who doesn't care to know where he came from, can just vegetate in a make believe world until we bury him. At least his tomb stone will be useful in Family History!
View from the Island
Now here is the
way it was. The ancient Celts were nomadic people. They left their Indo-European
homeland south of the Caucasus Mountains several thousand years ago, in successive
waves of emigration. They travelled at first in wagons and carts, drawn by
horses and oxen. They came to what is now Ukraine, and went down to the Black
Sea to trade with the Milesian colonies there. The real Milesians were short,
slim, swarthy men from Miletus, a city of Crete that sent out 60 colonies
of canny traders.These traders had trading colonies along the Black Sea, the
Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. They hired mercenary soldiers to protect
their ships and trading ports against barbarians. They hired the Celtic 'kerns'
or warriors.
The Celtic nomads who loved to wander with their horses and oxen, fell in
love with the Sea, too. They learned to build their own ships, When their
wandering brought them to Northwestern Spain, in the province now called Galicia
('home of the Gaels), they built a city called Brigantia --now called La Corunna.
There was a drought there around 500 BC, and the pressure of overpopulation.
One of their kings was named Milesius, so he sent out his sons: Eber, Eremon,
Amergin the Druid, and others, with 60 ships and 3,000 settlers. They sailed
to Ireland and invaded the country. They found both dark, small aboriginal
tribes there, like the Picts in Scotland, and they found tall, fair-haired
Celts there who still spoke Gaelic, called the De Danaan tribe. They fought
the natives --the winners seized the land, the rest had the choice of either
to get married in or buried.
Now, where you would settle in Ireland, if you had your choice? Well, the
Milesian Celts had a taste for broad green valleys since they were horse and
cattle raisers. They also were smart enough to know that you cannot defend
a valley as easily as a hill top, or an island. So some built hill-top forts,
called duns and raths. Others built island fortresses and had swift ships
ready for trade or war, plunder or escape. Now we come to the McGrath Clan
-- where did they start?
There was a small tribe of Celts called the Dal Cassians, who lived in what
is now County Clare. They were oppressed by the stronger kings of Connacht
to the north, and the Munster Eoghanachts to the south. When the Vikings began
to raid Ireland, the Dal Cassians straddled the strategic waterway of the
Shannon River, and Brian Boru was a younger son of king Kennedy (Cennedig,
was killed in 951 AD). In 950, Brian's brothers Duncan and Ahearne were killed,
and Mahon became king. Brian adopted the Viking axes, armour and swift long
ships, and beat the Vikings at their own game. As his older brothers were
killed in Irish civil wars, Brian became the ruler of the Dal Cassians and
in 976 Brian became the king of Munster. It is said that he was the Irish
king who insisted on surnames being adopted, and from his O'Briens are descended
such Co.Clare families as
O'Brien, Kennedy, McGrath, Hickey, McMahon, McNamara, Ahearne, Clancey, Morrisey,
O'Meara, Moloney, Flynn, McInnerney, Mulconroy, O'Gorman, Considine, O'Halloran,
O'Dea, O'Grady, Horan, Liddy, Clune, Horan, Lorcan, etc.
It is said that Ahearne, brother of Brian was killed in 950 and had a son
named Floinn, who in turn had a son named Raith, from whom the MacRaith/Macraith
clan descended. As nearly as we can determine, their first base from which
they prospered and operated was named after them-- Islandmagrath. It is in
County Clare, south west of Ennis, along the estuary. We have visited it several
times, and a picture of it is shown on this web site. The site is now joined
to the mainland, but is a mound about 100 feet high, where there was no doubt
formerly a fortress. Brian Boru became emperor of all Ireland in 1002 AD,
and was killed in 1014 at Clontarf, Dublin, defeating the Vikings.
Wherever they
went, and the present 88,000 McGrath families are scattered all over the world,
they seem to have preferred to live near water, by rivers or lakes, or the
sea, or hills and mountains. If you find one stuck in a big city, he has forgotten
the hunger of his ancestors for waterways and forested hillsides. The first
time I left Chicago as a boy of 8 or 9, and went to our clan cottage on the
east side of Lake Michigan, I almost cried to see the wide lake, the high
dunes and the cliffs. I felt like I had come 'home'. Well, I had the same
feeling when we first visited Islandmagrath. I had the same feeling recently
visiting the site of the ruined McGrath Abbeyside Castle at Dungarvan, within
sight of the ocean.
Really, lots of McGraths in the U.S.A. live in oceanfront states like New
York, Connecticut, California and Washington. Lots of them live by great lakes
or the seaside, like in Chicago or Boston. I think it is imporinted in our
DNA that we love travelling and we love the sight of the water. Do you feel
that way, too? You would be surprised here in Ireland how many McGraths are
from fishermen families, along the rivers or sea coasts. My favourite way
of travel is by water, on ships across the seas, or ferry boats, or river
cruisers, or even canoes! Airplanes, cars, and busses are boring. Next to
ships, I love to travel by train.
Here is some more connected with the spreading out of the McGraths in Ireland
of old. We visited Dungarvan recently, to see the site of the ancient Abbeyside
McGrath Castle, now ruined. It was built as early as 1218 AD, and the nearby
Abbey founded by them and the O'Briens in 1290 AD. Because of the disastrous
Irish civil wars in Co. Clare, one sept of the O'Briens had to flee when Turlough
O'Brien was expelled by his brother Mahon, and died in 1398. Many of the O'Briens
and McGraths at that time emigrated to County Waterford, where they settled
in the Comeragh Mountains, Tallow, Modeligo, Lismore and worked their way
down to Dungarvan. Silken Philp McGrath of Sleady Castle (which he built in
1628) also owned Abbeyside Castle in Dungarvan.
At one time there
were 14 McGrath Castles in County Waterford, and the wars with the English
in 1640 to 1655 ruined most all of them. Land-grabbers came and confiscated
thousands of acres formerly belonging to McGraths.
Now, I shall close this article by telling you one more startling thing we
have learned about the McGraths and Islandmagrath in County Clare. In the
great book, "READING THE IRISH LANDSCAPE", by Mitchell and Ryan,
2001, it says this: "One interesting structure found at Islandmagrath
on mudflats in the upper Fergus estuary in Co. Clare may also have been connected
with communications. There Aidan O'Sullivan has mapped a linear wooden structure
about 35 metres long and 2 metres wide, running along the foreshore. Made
of closely spaced stout ash and alder round wood posts with wattles interwoven,
the interior is laid horizontal panels of hurdles pegged in place. A piece
of withy, perhaps a form of rope, was found. The structure is dated by radiocarbon
to between about 800 BC and 550 BC. It may have been a trackway or a perhaps
a jetty." Don't you see, they built on previous sailing sites, because
they were undoubtedly seamen and traders. I can believe the first McGraths,
like their Milesian ancestors, loved to cross the seas bringing cargos of
wine, oil, wheat, bronze, iron, and tin, butter and salted beef, cattle, horses,
and passengers, with a lively interest also in contraband and smuggling. No
doubt they sailed to Spain, to Galicia where the Milesian Gaels came from
to Ireland, and to Britanny, Wales and Cornwall. Glorious! I plan to go in
a few months to visit Galicia, where Milesius' father Breogan built a stone
tower still recorded