From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 1 - Ballyboyle - our ancient ancestors
Boyle or O’Boyle?
From the 18th century onwards, the Irish language retreated as English became the language of government, business, church and school. Even though the majority of the population spoke Irish (Gaelic) as their main or only language until well into the 19th century, people needed an ‘English identity’ to interact with officialdom. For this, an English version of their name was necessary. It may have been seen as something of a disadvantage to have a name that was ‘too Irish’. Nearly all Gaelic names start with a Mac or an Ó, (or Nic or Ní for women) but these were usually dropped when an Irish name was converted to an English equivalent, often by officials, teachers or priests[1]. Thus Niall Ó Dochartaigh and Siún Ní Ghallchobhair become Neil Doherty and Jane Gallagher.
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But by the early 20th century, under the influence of the Gaelic Revival and nationalism, Mac/Mc and O became popular again, and many English-speaking families restored the O or Mac as a way to demonstrate their Irish identity. Nowadays, many surnames exist with and without the prefixes, even within the same extended family. Paradoxically, this didn’t happen in Irish-speaking areas to the same extent. Perhaps because their day-to-day language was Irish, they didn’t feel the need to ‘Irishize’ the English form of the name. In Donegal, where most people still spoke Irish at the turn of the 20th century, the preferred version of many common names have no prefix in their English version – it’s Boyle, Doherty, Gallagher and Sweeney - though for some reason it’s nearly always O’Donnell, hardly ever just Donnell.
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For Ó Baoighill, by far the most common English version is Boyle, but there are distinct geographical differences: in Mayo and Antrim, where there are clusters of the name, the O’Boyle version is common whereas the largest concentration in Donegal are almost entirely Boyles.
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According to the 1901 census, there were 10,814 Boyles in Ireland, and only 1,006 other spellings (O’Boyle, O Boyle, OBoyle). Only 36 people out of 4,450 in Donegal used the “O” form. In Mayo, the “O” form was frequent, but it was still not a majority – just under 50% used the “O” form. By the late 20th century, telephone directories showed that there were still hardly any O’Boyles in Donegal but by far the most common version of the name in Mayo was O’Boyle.
In fact, for most of the common people living in areas where many people shared the same surname, unless you were dealing with officialdom surnames weren’t of much use. To distinguish one Micheál Ó Baoighill from another it was more useful to use patronymics; referring to one as Micí Sheáin Néill (Micky, son of John, son of Neil) and the other as Micí Hiudaí Phaidí (Micky, son of Hughie, son of Paddy) made it clear who was who.
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In some circumstances the original surname can be dropped and a new one emerges. For instance, consider two brothers, Manus and Seán Ó Baoighill, living in close proximity and each having several sons. To distinguish one family from the other, they will likely adopt a patronymic. Manus’s son Donal becomes Donal Mac Mhanuis Ó Baoighill and Seán’s son Donal becomes Donal Mac Sheáin Ó Baoighill. Within a few generations, the Ó Baoighill might get dropped altogether, English replaces Irish, and they become known as the McManuses and the McShanes – two apparently unrelated families. This process is known with certainty to have happened in other septs; there is no hard evidence of sub-septs being formed within the O’Boyles, but it could possibly have occurred.
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[1] It is noticeable that 19th century parish registers though written in Latin, use the English version of surnames, even in wholly Irish speaking areas. Many people would have been given the English version of their name by the local priest or teacher, as brilliantly satirized by Myles na Gopaleen (Brian O’Nolan) in his comic novel The Poor Mouth. Although every pupil in the school has a unique and complicated Irish name, the schoolmaster insists on them all changing their names to ‘Jams O’Donnell’.