3 42 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



were Hebridean and probably at least half Norse in origin. 1 One household 

 in Clare Island. 



6 bnoTK\m, surname, " Salmon." Broddn is the normal Connaeht form of 

 braddn, " a salmon." One of the coves in Clare Island is named from a 

 member of the family. The old form of the surname appears to have been 

 6 Bardain. The family belonged to the Conmhaiene Bern (in part of 

 Leitrim and Longford counties). The name occurs twice in the Annals of 

 Ulster under date 1369 ; but the almost contemporary Book of Ballymote 

 (161 & 3, 162 a 10) has the modern form Clann Bradain, Clann Bradan. 



bti^cMJ, surname A bu]\c<s (for De Biirca = De Bivrgo), " Burke." Of 

 Norman origin. One household. 



In sum, of 71 families in Clare Island, about 25 belong to the Dal Cuinn 

 group, which dominated the northern half of Ireland from the fourth century 

 to the thirteenth. The oldest known home of this group was in the north of 

 Boscommon county. Five families, of which three were originally Welsh, are 

 descendant from colonists of the "Norman" invasion. At least two families 

 represent the Norse-Hebridean gallorjlach element, which flowed freely into 

 Ireland after the detachment of the Hebrides from Norway in the thirteenth 

 century. The Gordon family is probably of Scottish origin, and of much later 

 immigration. Two families bear a Thomond surname. About one-half of 

 the surnames are thus of ultimately remote regional origin. It is not 

 unlikely that a large proportion of the remaining half, which have not been 

 traced, are no less exogenous. This, however, is to be noted, that the tracing 

 of families through their surnames and genealogical traditions and record is 

 in the main concerned only with the male line of descent. 



i The Norse adopted the Irish name Niall (genitive Neill) in the form Njal. The populations of 

 Barra and South Uist, the chief habitats of the Mac Neill family, are largely of Norse descent. 



