The Irish Surname Expert
Ahearn, Aherne, Ahern, etc.
by Paul MacCotter |
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| Mr. John Bullivant from Britain queries the origins of this surname. It is, of course, a pure Gaelic
Irish surname, being originally Ó hEachthigheirn. The Christian name here is a compound, consisting of
each (horse) and tighern (lord), giving the meaning 'lord of steeds' or 'cavalry lord'. an ancient
Celtic name, the second component occuring in such names as Vortigern, the name of a great celtic chieftan
of pre-Roman Britain. Such names recall the heroic age of chariots and horseborn warriors at the dawn of
recorded history. The Eachtighern from whom this sept descend is thought by Ó Murchadha, in his
Family Names of County Cork, to have been one of the Dal Cais tribe, whose king was the famous
Brian Boru, king of Ireland, who died in 1014. At least two Eachtigherns occur in the genealogies of the
Dal Cais, one being king Brian's brother. The original territory of one of these septs lay between Bunratty
and Limerick, in east County Clare. |
| Woulfe believed the Ui Eachtigheirn were driven from their native territory by the McNamaras, later
lords of Bunratty, after the battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318. Whatever of this it is interesting to note that
ecclesiastical members of the sept occur in Kerry and Limerick during the fourteenth century and in Cork the
following century, suggesting a gradual movement southwards, which may explain why today, and since at least
the sixteenth century, most Ahearns are found in Cork and Waterford. (The first mentions concern the priest,
Eugene Ohachyerryn of Cloyne, of around 1490, and William Yhagheryn who witnessed a deed at Carrigtwohill
in 1528). While we have no evidence of the actual dynamic behind such a move it seems likely that the entire
sept migrated at some time, probably during the fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries to east Cork. While the
sixteenth century distribution of the name centres on east Cork and neighbouring west Waterford, references
from the period show an especial concentration in the baronies of Imokilly and Kinnatalloon, County Cork.
It can hardly be coincidence that both areas lay in the lordship of the FitzGerald earls of Desmond, who
acquired them during the first half of the fifteenth century. Did the O'Ahearn sept thus enter into some sort
of corporate client relationship with the Desmonds at this time, migrating from outside in the process? |
| In the late 1500s we find concentrations of O'Ahearns
around FitzGerald castles of Mogeely and Conna in Kinnataloon and Ballymaloe — now a famous hotel —
in Imokilly. The Ballymaloe family remained imprtant servitors to the Geraldine deans of Cloyne at Ballymaloe
until the latter family were dispossessed under Cromwell in the 1650s. While several of the name fled abroad
with the 'Wild Geese' after 1692 to serve in the Catholic armies of France and Austria, most Ahearns remained
close to their native soil, as farmers and peasants in east Cork and West Waterford. |
| — Irish Roots 2002, Number 2 |
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