Possible Clare links to Obama

WHILE Moneygall in County Offaly has stolen the limelight this week as the ancestral home of US President Barack Obama, a Clare author and historian is adamant that more in-depth research would have led him to the Banner County.

Sean Spellissy suggests that a big clue to the seat of the Kearney family lies in the name of the O’Garney River, which rises in Glenmora near Broadford and joins the Shannon below Bunratty. The Ogarney, O’Garney, Ougarnee, Owengarney or Owen Ogarney River also commemorates the Kearneys and any of the five anglicised variants can be retranslated as the Kearney River.
The surname Kearney is an anglicised derivative of Ó Cearnaigh, the descendant of Cearnach, The Victorious; Ó Catharnaigh, the descendant of Catharnach, The Warlike; Ó Ceithearnaigh, the descendant of Ceithearnach, The Foot-soldier or one of a company of infantry and MacCearnaigh, the son of Cearnach, The Victorious.
The surname Ó Cearnaigh was borne by three distinct families, who originated in Ulster, Connacht and Thomond. The Ulster family were erenaghs of Derry, hereditary stewards of the church lands of St Colmchille, while the Connacht family was seated in Balla and Moynulla, County Mayo.
The Thomond family was of Dalcassian origin, descendants of Cas, a fifth-century king of Munster. Jeoffry Keating (ca. 1580–1644) describes them as descendants of Breanan, son of Bloíd and grandson of Cas. He also described Kennedy, father of Brian Boru, as progenitor of the Reagan family.
Mahon, the brother of Brian Boru, ruled all Munster from Cashel between 964 and 972. He was succeeded by Brian Boru (941–1014). Brian’s descendants were known as the O’Briens and were variously styled as kings of Ireland, later as kings of Munster, Limerick or Thomond. They ruled from Cashel, until Murtagh Mór O’Brien established a new capital in Limerick in 1100. He presented Cashel to the Church in 1101 and had, in 1111, three new dioceses created, Cashel, Killaloe and Limerick.
The O’Briens retained the kingdom of Thomond or North Munster until 1543 when they availed of Henry VIII’s surrender and regrant policy. They became Earls of Thomond, Barons Ibrickan, Viscounts Clare and Barons Inchiquin. Sir Conor O’Brien, 18th Baron Inchiquin, 10th Baronet, the O’Brien Chief of His Name or the O’Brien of Thomond, is one of only 14 bloodline chiefs in Ireland and a direct descendant of Brian Boru.
The O’Briens were the premier family of the Déis Tuaiscirt or Northern Decies who were called the Dal gCais, progeny of Cas or the Dalcassians. They retained power from behind the scenes in their surrendered kingdom, which shrank somewhat in size. During the middle ages, Thomond comprised what is now County Clare, all of Ely O’Carroll, the baronies of Ikerrin, Upper Ormond, Lower Ormond, Owney, Arra and the western half of Clanwilliam, in County Tipperary; the baronies of Owenbeg, Coonagh, Clanwilliam and the eastern halves of Coshlea and Small County, in County Limerick and parts of County Offaly.
In 1831, Dunkerrin, also known as Moneygall, was a civil parish, in the barony of Clonlisk, King’s County, now County Offaly, and province of Leinster, on the main road from Dublin to Limerick. It contained 2,177 inhabitants, of which 127 were in the village, which was on the estate of the Rolleston family. The parish was located within the diocese of Killaloe. Its boundaries were  realigned in 1280 and unquestioned by Anglican or Roman Catholic bishops since the Reformation.
The Anglo-Norman invasion impinged on this region in the early 1200s and a colony was established in Dunkerrin, the fort of the rowan tree, which is usually translated as the fort of St Kieran the Elder, an Offaly saint said to have been a contemporary of St Patrick. The place became known as Moneygall, the shrubbery of the strangers, some time after 1303 as the invaders tried to displace the O’Carrolls of Ely O’Carroll or Ormond.
The barony of Clonlisk was part of the O’Carroll territory but had acknowledged the O’Briens as their overlords since the days of Brian Boru.
James Frost mentions how the Kearneys are commemorated in the clan-name and place-name or Uí Cearnaigh or Hy Cearnaigh, the territory or clan of The Victorious. This name and that of Uí Sedna, The Traveller or Wayfarer, the name of the god Sedna, Sétna, Séadna or Séadhna was applied to the territory of the Kearneys, a patrimony co-extensive with the later civil parish of Kilfinaghta.
The Ó Eachthighearna family derived their surname from the descendants of Eachthighearna, The Horse-Lord. Their surname was also of Dalcassian origin, descended from a brother of Brian Boru and was anglicised as Ahearne, Ahearn, Ahern or Aheron. The Ahearnes displaced the Kearneys as lords of Uí Cearnaigh, Hy Cearnaigh or Uí Sedna in the early 11th century.
The Kearneys were dispersed throughout Thomond but Patrick Woulfe wrote of the Dalcassian family “who in later times attained to a high position in Cashel”.
The civil parish of Kilfinaghta or Kilfennaghta, the church of St Fionachta or St Finnachta, occupies the site of the Kearney homeland. This saint is believed to have been a king of Connacht, who became an anchorite, but John O’Donovan (1809-1861) was unable to discover the actual site of his church or any place or townland within the parish bearing the saint’s name. Ballysheen Church dates from the late 13th century and is said, doubtfully, to stand on St Fionachta’s seventh-century foundation.
Kilfinaghta was described under Kilfinaghty by Samuel Lewis. He mentioned it as a parish in the barony of Tulla, County Clare, province of Munster, on the river Ougarnee, and on the old road from Limerick to Ennis. It contained, with the greater part of the post-town of Sixmilebridge, 4,132 inhabitants in 1831, with 1,491 living in the town. Kilfinaghta was a parish within the diocese of Killaloe.
The Ogarney, O’Garney, Ougarnee, Owengarney or Owen Ogarney River also commemorates the Kearneys. The region was known in ancient times as Tuath-na-hAbhan, which John O’Donovan translated as The Lordship of the River, a lordship held by the Kearneys remembered in the river’s name.
The Ogarney River rises in Glenomra and falls into the Shannon at Bunratty, a place-name usually translated as the Bottom or Mouth of the Ratty River, instead of the Mouth of the Rath, a circular palisaded earthwork built by the Vikings in 960. The Ogarney River starts as the Glenomra River, becomes the Broadford River before passing through Doon Lough, then changes name to Ahaclare River before flowing through the parish of Kilfinaghta where it takes the Ogarney name.
As the Ogarney River, it delineates the territorial boundaries between baronies, dioceses, parishes and townlands. It is tidal as far as Ballintlea, below Sixmilebridge, alters its name again to Ratty River near Bunratty and, from Sixmilebridge, forms the boundary to the diocese of Killaloe on its western bank and the diocese of Limerick on its eastern bank.
The surname Ó Catharnaigh originated in Meath but is usually anglicised as O’Caherney, O’Caharney, Caherney, Cahernay, Carney or Fox. The head of the Ó Catharnaigh family was known by the title of An Sionnach or The Fox, after Catharnach Sionnach, who was slain in 1084. The family were once chiefs of all Teffia. Their patrimony was reduced to that of Muinntear Tadhgain, the family of Tadhgan, the ninth in descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a clan-name and place-name. Their territory became the barony of Kilcoursey, in the north of County Offaly.
The surname Ó Ceithearnaigh is borne by two families who originated in Roscommon and West Cork. Those of County Roscommon were also called MacCeithearnaigh, the son of Ceithearnach, meaning one of a ceithearn, a company of foot-soldiers. The surname may have originated in other places but by the 1500s it was associated with Tipperary, Kilkenny, Westmeath, Offaly and Donegal. It was anglicised as O’Keherne, O’Kerny, O’Kerne, Keherny, Kerney, Kearney, Kerns and Kearns. In its anglicised forms it cannot always be distinguished from anglicisations of Ó Cearnaigh.
The surname Mac Cearnaigh originated in Ballymacarney, the home of the Mac Cearnaigh, in County Meath. By the 1500s this surname was found chiefly in the Ulster counties of Armagh, Down and Donegal. A few of the Ulster Mac Cearnaigh derive their name and descent from Cearnach O’Hanlon of Armagh. The Upper Ards peninsula, in County Down, commemorates this surname in the place-name of a village called Kearney. It was anglicised as Mac Carny, Mac Kearnie, Mac Karney, Mac Kearney, Mac Carney, Kearney and Carney.