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

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

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

Overview

There was a branch of this

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

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

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 Cast ...

, 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 in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, 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, pro ...

was made. Just about that time the

Ulster Plantation The Plantation of Ulster ( gle, Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: ''Plantin o Ulstèr'') was the organised colonisation (''plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the sett ...

records show the name Mac Con Midhe among the natives of

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

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 ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

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

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...

bordering

, as well as in Derry and

Donegal Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...

. 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 the c ...

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

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

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

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

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 "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Sovereign state, Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces o ...

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

County Roscommon "Steadfast Irish heart" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Roscommon.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Connacht , subdi ...

. 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 a ...

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

Turlough Luineach O'Neill Sir Turlough Lynagh O'Neill (Irish: ''Sir Toirdhealbhach Luineach mac Néill Chonnalaigh Ó Néill''; 1532 – September, 1595) was an Irish Gaelic lord of Tír Eoghain in early modern Ireland. He was inaugurated upon Shane O’Neill’s death, ...

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

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

References

* ''Irish poets, historians and judges in English Documents, 1538–1615,'' by T.F. O'Rahilly,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, 1922. * ''Glimpses of Gaelic Ireland,'', 33-64, G. Murphy, Dublin, 1948. * ''The poems of Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe,''

Nicholas Williams Nicholas, Neco, Nico or Nick Williams may refer to: Sportsmen *Nick Williams (fullback) (born 1977), American NFL football player, a/k/a Nick Luchey *Nick Williams (rugby union) (born 1983), New Zealand rugby league and rugby union player *Nick Wil ...

, 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