Mac Con Midhe was the name of a family of poets in

Gaelic Ireland Gaelic Ireland () was the Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, that existed in Ireland from the late Prehistory of Ireland, prehistoric era until the 17th century. It comprised the whole island before Anglo-Norman invasi ...

. The name is also now rendered as Mac Namee, McNamee, Conmee, and McConway.

Overview

There was a branch of this

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

sept A sept () is a division of a family, especially of a Scottish or Irish family. The term is used both in Scotland and in Ireland, where it may be translated as Irish , meaning "progeny" or "seed", and may indicate the descendants of a person ...

who were

erenagh The medieval Irish office of erenagh (Old Irish: ''airchinnech'', Modern Irish: ''airchinneach'', Latin: '' princeps'') was responsible for receiving parish revenue from tithes and rents, building and maintaining church property and overseeing t ...

s of

Comber Comber ( , , locally ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies south of Newtownards, at the northern end of Strangford Lough. It is situated in the townland of Town Parks, the civil parish of Comber and the historic barony of Cas ...

, on the

River Foyle The River Foyle () is a river in west Ulster in the northwest of the island of Ireland, which flows from the confluence of the rivers Finn and Mourne at the towns of Lifford in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, and Strabane in County Ty ...

in the deanery of

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, and they are recorded as such as late as 1606 when Bishop Montgomery's survey of the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

was made. Just about that time the

Ulster Plantation The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots: ) was the organised colonisation (''plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James VI and I. Small privately funded plantations by wealthy lan ...

records show the name Mac Con Midhe among the natives of

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

and later in the century the name appeared in Charles O'Neill's regiment in James II's Irish army. Tyrone and Derry is where the name is mainly found today. That was not the case in the 17th century. Petty's "census" found them most numerous in

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim, County Leitr ...

and in the previous century the "Fiants" show that they were in Leitrim and other parts of

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

bordering

, as well as in Derry and Donegal. The

Annals of Loch Cé The ''Annals of Loch Cé'' (also ''Annals of Lough Cé'') cover events, mainly in Connacht and its neighbouring regions, from 1014 to 1590. It takes its name from Lough Cé in the kingdom of Moylurg - now north County Roscommon - which was th ...

tell us that in the 13th century the chief of Muintir Laoideacháin on the border of Connacht and north-west

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

was Mac Con Meadha. In Carew's list (1602) of the

gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

and their castles, Teige Oge MacConmea of Neadenurry is found; this could be an error for MacConway. It is stated that the sept of MacNamee was seated beside the Shannon in the barony of Kilkenny west

County Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...

. In 1875, the Conmees of Kingsland were among the leading gentry of

County Roscommon County Roscommon () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the province of Connacht and the Northern and Western Region. It is the List of Irish counties by area, 11th largest Irish county by area and Li ...

. As the name MacNamee is now rare in Connacht, it may be assumed that survivors of the septin that province have become Conmee, which has been widely absorbed in the well-known surname Conway.

Notables

Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe, or Gilbride McNamee () was an Irish poet. Background and family Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe was hereditary Ollamh to the Cenél nEógain. The '' Ceart Uí Néill'', a late medieval document dealing with the rights ...

(''

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

'' 1210?-1272?) * Teige Mac Con Midhe ( died 1493) * Brian Mac Con Midhe, chief poet to

Turlough Luineach O'Neill Sir Turlough Lynagh O'Neill (also known as Turlough Luineach) ( Irish: ''An Ridire Toirdhealbhach Luineach mac Néill Chonnalaigh Ó Néill''; – September 1595) was an Irish Gaelic lord of Tír Eoghain in early modern Ireland. He was inau ...

* Cormac Mac Con Midhe (died 1627) Cormac is considered one of the last of the poets of the classical phase of

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

References

* ''Irish poets, historians and judges in English Documents, 1538–1615,'' by

T.F. O'Rahilly Thomas Francis O'Rahilly (; 11 November 1882 – 16 November 1953)Ó Sé, Diarmuid.O'Rahilly, Thomas Francis (‘T. F.’). ''Dictionary of Irish Biography''. (ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Pr ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, 1922. * ''Glimpses of Gaelic Ireland,'', 33-64, G. Murphy, Dublin, 1948. * ''The poems of Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe,'' Nicholas Williams, London, 1980. * ''Lámhscríbhinní Gaeilge: Treoirliosta,'' Padraig de Brún, Dublin, 1988. * ''Tyrone's Gaelic Literary Legacy,'' by Diarmaid Ó Diobhlin, in ''Tyrone: History and Society,'' 403-432, ed. Charles Dillon and Henry A. Jefferies, Geography Publications, Dublin, 2000. . * ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia", edited by Seán Duffy, Dublin, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Con Midhe Surnames Irish families Surnames of Irish origin Irish Brehon families Cultural history of Ireland Irish-language surnames Gaelic-language surnames Families of Irish ancestry