Notes for Mary MOONEY

Thompson Family Ancestry

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Notes for Mary MOONEY

The origin of the Mooney name:

O'MOONEY, Irish Book of Arms plates 90, 165
O' Maonaigh, Meeny, Meany, Mainey, Meaney

The O' MOONEY family can be traced back to several origins in Ireland. The O'MOONEY's are placed in Queens County on the map of Ortelius ancienty. Note the townland of Ballymooney there in modern times. In the nearby county of Offaly, there is a townland of the same name, marking a prominent location for the family. Here they are recorded as hereditary caretakers of St. Monahan's shrine in Lemanaghan Parish.
In Ulster, we find the descendents of Monach, from whom the name MOONEY has sprung, in Ardara Parish, in the diocese of Raphoe, where they served as erenaghs of Shanaghan.
The spelling of "MAINEY" is common in the province of Munster.
"O' MAONAIGH or 'O' MEENEYS, sometimes made O' MOONEY'S", were also chiefs of Clan Murthuile. This was a district in Ballintober, Co. Roscommon.
O' Dugan mentions this family thusly;
Chief of Clan Murthuile is O' MONNEY". In neighboring Co. Sligo perhaps the same family is found in the barony of Tireragh. It should be noted that several townlands called Ballymeeny are found there, and the O'MOONEY name may also be found as MEANY and MEENY.
"MOONEY" is the common spelling of the name, with 136 in Dublin, Antrim and Kings in the 1890 index. MEANY was found in Kilkenny and Clare at that time with 34 births.
In the 17th century "MEANY" was a principal name of Waterford. MOONY, was so in Offaly and Westmeath, and Mooney was a principal name of Kildare, being found in Kilkenny.
In the Irish book of Arms, "MOONEY of the Doon" in Kings Co. is given as the Irish family of the barony of Barrycastle.

"Irish Families; Their Names, Arms and Origins" Fourth edition-revised and enlarged by Edward Mac Lysaght, Irish Academic Press---1985

(O) MOONEY, MEENY, MAINEY. This name, O' MAONAIGH in modern Irish is derived, according to Professor M. A. O' Brien, from the Old Irish word Moenach, meaning dumb. It is a surname adopted by several unrelated septs. The eponymous ancestor of the O'MOONEY'S of Ulster was Monach, son of Ailioll Mor. His descendants became erenaghs of Shanaghan in the Parish of Ardara. diocese of Raphoe. More numerous today and better known in history are the MOONEY's of Offaly, where they have given their name to the townland of Ballymoony. There is also another townland; Ballymooney in the adjoining county of Leix. The MOONEY's of the Parish Lemanaghan, near Clara, were for centuries the custodians of the shrine of St. Monahan. Thirdly there was a sept of O' MAONAIGH located in the barony of Tireragh, Co., Sligo. Their present day representatives are usually called MEENY: four townlands called BALLYMEENY in the Parish of Easky indicate their territory.
Finally, there was the Munster sept of the same name in Irish: the form used there in modern times is MAINEY, in accordance phonetically with the Munster pronunciation of Irish.
A notable person of the name was Father Donagh Mooney, Provincial of the Irish Franciscans from 1615 to 1618, who was guardian of the young Earls of Tyrconnel and Tryone at Louvain in 1626. Thomas Mooney (1815-1888), the Dublin man who edited a Fenian newspaper in San Francisco was in his latter years a very controversial figure in London.

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