If ever you go to Donegal, Ireland’s most north-westerly county, you will quickly become aware that this is where the Boyle family originated. The name is everywhere, on shop-fronts and placenames (Mullantiboyle, Ball Hill, Crohyboyle, Ballyboyle, Boyle’s Island) and on archaeological remains (Boyle’s Castle, Boyle’s Fort).  You will undoubtedly meet modern bearers of the surname, as it is one of the most common surnames in the county.

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Saying that the family originated in what is now called Donegal simply means that about a thousand years ago, a group of people living there gradually adopted a systematic way of identifying themselves as a kinship group by using surnames derived from a particular ancestor.

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Although surnames only emerged here about a thousand years ago, Donegal has been inhabited for at least eight thousand years, as shown by the extensive archaeological remains and discoveries in the area, and there seems to have been continuous occupation since then. Whether the later inhabitants in the historic period are the descendants of these earliest peoples isn’t known, but the ancient origin myths tell of numerous invasions of Ireland, each supplanting its predecessors, until the arrival of the ‘Milesians’ a Celtic people, and it is from these that the inhabitants in the historic period claim descent.

 

The earliest written records of these origin stories date from the period 800AD to 1200AD, though the stories may be much older. They include elaborate genealogies tracing the ancestors of the ruling dynasties back through the first Celts to arrive in Ireland, and in some cases, all the way back to Adam![1]

We can be fairly confident that these stories are mythical with just a grain of historical truth, constructed much later by the ruling dynasties to create a homogeneous Gaelic hierarchy with themselves at the top but emphasising the kinship and common ancestry of all the Gaels.

Niall Noígiallach (“Niall of the Nine Hostages”), reputedly High King who ruled in the 5th century, is credited as the source of many of the ruling dynasties of Gaelic Ireland, collectively known as the Uí Néill. Of his many sons, Conall and his descendants, the Cenél Conaill controlled the Kingdom of Tír Chonaill, comprising most of present-day Donegal and parts of adjoining counties, and Eoghan’s descendants, the Cenél Eoghain, took charge of the Inishowen peninsula, and later, much of present-day Tyrone and Derry.

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Up to the end of the Gaelic order about 1600, the history of the north of Ireland is dominated by the fierce and bloody rivalry within and between these dynasties.