Mahony
also O'Mahony, Mahoney, Ó Mathghamhna
Sons of the bear — lords of the Mizen Head.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Mahony
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No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Mahony.
Current mission
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Stake your name →What does the Mahony name mean?
From Ó Mathghamhna — descendant of Mathghamhain ('bear'). The Ó Mathghamhna were a senior Eóganacht sept of west Cork, distinct from but cousin to the Ó Ceallacháin. Their lordship of Fonn Iartharach ('the western land') ran from Bantry along the south-west Cork coast to the Mizen Head; their stronghold at Ardintenant Castle on Cape Clear Island, and at Dunbeacon and Dunmanus on the mainland, dominated the south-west coast through the late mediaeval period. The Anglicisations Mahony (Irish-modern) and Mahoney (American) are the same name.
The history of Mahony
The Ó Mathghamhna of Fonn Iartharach were the senior Cork seacoast sept of the late mediaeval period, with hereditary control of fishing rights from the Mizen Head to Skibbereen and a steady trade in pilchards (the Cork pilchard fishery was for two centuries the principal economic activity of the south-west). The lordship was broken by the Cromwellian settlement and many of the ruling Mahonys went to Spain and France as Wild Geese — Daniel O'Mahony, count of Castile, distinguished himself in the War of the Spanish Succession and his descendants survive among the Spanish nobility today.
Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804–1866), 'Father Prout', was the Cork-born Jesuit priest, journalist and translator whose verse 'The Bells of Shandon' is one of the most-loved nineteenth-century Irish poems. Eddie Money (Edward Joseph Mahoney, 1949–2019), the Brooklyn-born American rock singer of 'Two Tickets to Paradise', took his stage name from the family surname. John Mahoney (1940–2018), the Blackpool-born American actor, played Martin Crane on Frasier across all eleven seasons.
Notable bearers of the Mahony name
- Father Prout / Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804–1866) — priest, poet ('Bells of Shandon')
- Eddie Money / Edward Mahoney (1949–2019) — American rock singer
- John Mahoney (1940–2018) — actor (Frasier, Martin Crane)