314 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Keynolds ; Mac Ivor (from Ivar), now also MeKeever ; McCaffrey, 

 {%. e. MacGodfred) ; MacAwley (from Olaf), and MacAwley and 

 McAuliife in Scotland; Tomar (now Anglicised to Toner, a Danish 

 name, according to O'Donovan, Booh of Rights, Introd.) O'Doyle 

 or Doyle, containing as it does the same word as in Mac Do well {i.e. 

 Dubhghaill, "dark foreigner,") while it preserves an Irish form 

 indicates the bearer to be of Norse descent. The Tour Masters men- 

 tion a MacDowell as a Galloglagh, and as these were generally, if not 

 altogether, mercenary soldiers from the west of Scotland and the Isles 

 — so nruch under Norse influence — it is safe to consider any one called 

 by the name ot Dubhghaill (or "Black Gentile," as it was often trans- 

 lated) as of Norse origin. There is some difficulty about determining 

 the nationality of the name Mac Sweeny. There is much, however, 

 to raise a presumption that the designation is Noise. The Mac Sweenys, in 

 the first place, were G alloy lag lis. On the tombstones of some eminent 

 chiefs among them may be seen the Galloglagh, with his peculiar Norse 

 battle-axe. The name Manus, and other veritable Scandinavian ap- 

 pellations, were in common use among them as prcenomina. The form 

 of the name is not. unlike the Svein or Sweyu of the North, and its 

 modern representative in England and Scotland, Swainson. A very 

 similar name, Mac Swyne, was found to exist in one of the western 

 islands of Scotland, teste Dr. Johnson, in the last century. It is ad- 

 mitted, too, that the Mac Sweenys came from Scotland as Gallon lasses, 

 though it is alleged that they were originally an Irish family who 

 had emigrated to that country. Under the year 1034, {Ann. of Tigh.) 

 a Suibne is mentioned as King of the Gallgaedel, i.e. of Galloway, 

 which was strongly Norse. 



A great many other names, of Norse origin, but of seemingly Celtic 

 form, were imported from Scotland into the north of Ireland at the 

 time of the Plantation of Ulster. The following are a few out of many 

 instances: Mac Ranald, MacDugald, or McDowell, MacCovkell {i.e. 

 Mac Thorcaill ), and Mac Corquodale ( i. e. , as I conj eeture, Mac Thorcetel), 

 Mac Askil otherwise M'Caskil, (cf. McCaskey, Gaskill, Caskey) from 

 Asgil — a name which, like the two previous, contains remembrances of 

 the Gods of Valhalla — the hammer God Thor, and the Asen (cf. Asgaard, 

 Oswald). Mac Quiston*' (from Uistein, i. e. Eystem), Mac Kenrick (i.e. 

 Hendriksen), MacAwley (from Olaf), Mac Cusker (from Oscar), Mac 

 Cammon (from Amond), Mac Kittrick {i.e. Mac Sitrig). Mac Lamond, 

 now sometimes Lamont (from Lagmund, which is found also as a prce- 

 nomen among the O'Neills of Ulster), &c. 



The number of confessedly Norse appellations in use among the people 

 of the Scotch Lowlands, and the indications of Norse influence preserved 

 in the names of places all over the country, render these Celticised Scan- 

 dinavian names in the Highlands by no means surprising. 



* The Eystein in Mac Quiston appears often as a Danish name in the Annals, 

 under the form Oistin. Cf. Annals of Ulster under 87-5, where a certain Oistin 

 Mac Awley is slain. The Clan Huistein of Skye and JNIorth Uist is well known. 



