Scarry

© Donal G. Burke 2013

The Scarry or O Scarry family of east Galway origin, would appear to have been of a separate origin to those of the same name found later about County Cork in the south of Ireland. They would further appear to be of distinct origin to those of the name Scurry, who appear in the mid nineteenth century almost predominantly in County Kilkenny in Munster.

Along with a small number of other native Irish families, the O Scarrys of east Galway origin are believed to have composed an early kin group of people known as the Sodhain, who were settled in east Galway prior to the rise to dominance by about the end of the fifth century of another tribe of Celtic origin, led by their chieftain Maine mór and his father Eochaidh feardaghiall.[i]

Maine mór and his descendants appear to have subjugated many of the existing tribes and peoples, including the Sodhain, that inhabited their land and established a petty kingdom, covering much of the later east Galway and named from their progenitor as Uí Maine (later Anglicised Hy Many). The senior-most family descended from this Maine was the O Kellys, from whom the rulers or chieftains of Uí Maine would be drawn.

The origin of the Sodhain is obscured by the incorporation of mythology in their history. The ancestor of the Sodhain, in a reference to them in a fourteenth century poem in praise of an O Madden chieftain, was given as ‘Sodun Sálbhuidhi,’ a descendant of the mythical Conall cearnach.[ii] The late fourteenth century Book of Uí Maine relates that Sodun Sálbhuidhi established himself in Connacht when, migrating from Ulster, he was given lands in the east of that kingdom by the legendary Queen Meave.[iii]

The seventeenth century Gaelic antiquary Roderick O Flaherty gives the descent of this family from Fiacha Araidhe, ‘founder of the Dalaradian family and country of Ulster, of the Ridrician family, king of Ulster, to whom the kings of Ulster of the Hirian line and many families are indebted for their origin.’[iv] This Fiacha Araidhe was reputed to have been king of Ulster about the year 236 A.D.[v] O Flaherty states that Sodan, his son, was the progenitor of the Sodanians, who possessed Sodan Aitch in Fernmoy in Ulster, Sodan in Meath and Sodan in Hymania (Uí Maine or Hy Many) in the county of Galway.[vi]

O Clery’s seventeenth century ‘Book of Genealogies’ gives the descent in full of Sodhain salbhuidhe as the son of ‘Fiacha aruidhe mac Aenghusa goibhnenn mic Fergusa gailfine mic Tipraiti mic Bresail mic Feirb mic Mail mic Rochraide mic Catbadh mic Giallchadha mic Gunchadha mic Fionnchadha mic Muiredaigh mic Fiachna finnamhus mic Ireoil glunmair mic Conaill cernaigh.’[vii] The historian Fr. P.K. Egan regarded the reference to descent from Conall cearnach as an indication that the Sodhain were therefore of Cruthnian origin.[viii]

The Cruthin are regarded by some historians as the earliest of several waves of Celtic settlers to arrive in Ireland prior to the arrival of Christianity.[ix] They were believed to have been closely related to the Picts of Scotland and were the dominant people about the sixth century B.C.[x] It has been suggested that on their arrival in this region of south east Connacht as an Iron Age people they came to dominate and displace the earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples who inhabited the area.[xi]

The antiquary H.T Knox and others equated the Sodhain with the ‘Senchineoil’ (or ‘Seanchineál,’ literally ‘old race’), the pre-Celtic people who lived in the centre of what would later be east Galway prior to their subjection by the Uí Maine.[xii] These early people were said to have lived on a large plain that lay to the west and east of the River Suck, and were identified in an early poem as ‘the Senchineoil of the old plain of Soghan.’[xiii] From this reference it was taken that the Senchineoil and the Sodhain were one and the same.

It has been alternatively suggested, however, that the Senchineoil were the older inhabitants who were in turn displaced from the old plain by the early Celtic Sodhain and the reference may be taken to simply mean that the Senchineoil had originally come from the ‘old plain’ whereupon the Sodhain lived at the time of the rise of the Uí Maine.[xiv]

In either case it is agreed that the Sodhain were established in this area of south eastern Connacht from an early period, were subjugated by the tribe later known as the Uí Maine but maintained their presence there as a separate and distinct tribe under the rule of the descendants of Maine mór. As a kin-group within Uí Maine they retained the right to a separate ‘under-chieftain’ or ‘Uir-rí’ to rule over themselves but under the authority of the greater chieftain of the Uí Maine.[xv] Each of the families who composed the Sodhain such as the O Mannions, MacWards, O Scurras or O Scarrys, O Leannain (or O Lennans), O Casain, O Gialla and O Maigin, were said to have been eligible to the chieftaincy of the Sodhain but, of those, the O Mannions were the dominant and became associated with that chieftaincy by long occupation.[xvi]

Of the other Sodhain families, the Wards were established about the parish of Ballymacward and were traditionally a learned family as were the O Dugans, established near Ballymacward at Ballydoogan. No specific Gaelic profession was clearly attributed to the O Scarrys or others of the Sodhain.

The O Mannions were the only one of the earlier tribes of separate and distinct origin from the Uí Maine kin group to retain a position of strength within the territory and hierarchy of the petty kingdom of Uí Maine, with the head of the O Mannions being described as one of seven uir-rí or ‘under-kings’ beneath the O Kelly king or chieftain of Uí Maine. His appellation in later sources as chieftain or ‘king ‘of Sodhain appears to confirm his pre-eminent position over his own immediate kin group.

Original territory of the Sodhain

The plain itself was referred to in ancient documents as ‘Magh Senchineoil,’ upon which the patron saint of the Uí Maine, St. Grellan, was reputed to have erected his church at Kilclooney.[xvii] Part of the plain and original territory of the Senchineoil would therefore appear to have included part of the later parish of Kilclooney on the west bank of the River Suck (about which the later town of Ballinasloe would develop). From this it would appear that the territory of the Sodhain prior to the arrival of the Uí Maine included this area.

The area immediately to the south of Kilclooney, including part of Kilclooney itself and part of Clontuskert and extending east across the River Suck into part of Creagh, appears to have been inhabited by another early tribe of people, possibly of Cruithin origin, called the Clann Chatraighe or ‘Cattraige of the Suck,’ who were also subjugated by the Uí Maine but who remained on their lands under the Uí Maine into the medieval period.[xviii] The territory of the Sodhain before the arrival of the Uí Maine therefore appears to have been bordered to the south east by the Clann Chatraighe.

The original territory of the Sodhain appears from extracts of early poems to have stretched from about the Suck to the river Clare, north to the River Grange and south along the line of the Raford River to the west and Ballinure River to the east and covering a large area of what would later be central east Galway.[xix]

The later territory of the Sodhain

Their original territory was restricted in size to accommodate the expanding family group of the new rulers and appear to have been centred some time after the creation of the Uí Maine territory further from the Suck, in a wide area located about the later parish of Ballymacward. The area of the Sodhain would appear to have roughly coincidental with the parishes contained within the Clonfert diocese rectory of Soggan or Sogoun. The historian K. W. Nicholls was of the opinion that this rectory comprised the parishes of Ballymacward, Clonkeenkerrill, Fohenagh, Kilconnell, Kilgerrill and Kilclooney in east Galway.[xx] Given the presence of the O Mannions about Menlough in the parish of Killascobe, adjacent to Ballymacward, it is likely that part of that parish may also have been part of the restricted area of the Sodhain.[xxi]

Later Scarrys

The name does not appear among the many pardons issued to those of County Galway in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century nor among the landed proprietors of the seventeenth century whose lands were confiscated in whole or in part by the Cromwellian authorities.

Nineteenth century

In the mid nineteenth century the vast majority of those named Scarry were resident in County Galway. Of the approximately thirty households of the name in Ireland, about five or six were located in County Cork, two or three in County Mayo and one or two in County Roscommon and one in Londonderry in Ulster. It is likely that the latter and those of County Cork at least bore no close relationship to those of Sodhain origin in east Galway. Twenty householders or thereabout of the name Scarry resided in County Galway, predominantly in the east of the county in the parishes of Ballymacward, Killimordaly, Boyounagh, Killogilleen, Killeenavarra, Moylough, Killererin, Tuam, Abbeyknockmoy, Kilclooney, Kilconnell and Killallaghtan and one in the town of Galway.

In the 1901 Census of Ireland there was only one household of the name in County Cork, one in Mayo and in County Tipperary and two in Dublin City. There was at that time, however, approximately twenty seven households of the name in County Galway and again for the most part located in the east of the county.

While they did not maintain a prolific presence in the county and several of those of the name are likely to have left their ancestral region for elsewhere in Ireland or abroad, the name survived in the immediate vicinity wherein their ancestors were settled and members of the name remain settled there into the twenty-first century.