68 



called to meet troubles in England, until the thirty-ninth year of 

 Queen Elizabeth, there was no attempt made to subdue the Irish ; 

 but all their efforts were absorbed in defending the English border. 

 The attempt to enforce an imposition of English names upon the 

 Irish within the Pale must have been in a great measure futile, for 

 we find Spencer a century afterwards recommending a re-enactment 

 of this law. We are not, however, to suppose that English in- 

 fluences on the names of the Irish were not- felt. The junction, 

 by intermarriage and otherwise, between the Anglo-Norman 

 colonists and the native Irish made itself felt in this respect in a 

 reciprocal manner. Anglo-Norman names like Hugh, William, 

 Walter, Morris, Gerald, Edmund, Henry, Richard, &c, as well as 

 the Norman prefix Fitz, became common among the Irish septs, 

 and so also did Irish names become usual among the Anglo- 

 Normans, for as we are told the latter became hibemis ipsis hiber- 

 niores. Thus, the Mac Davids, Mac Philbins, Mac Shoneens (now 

 Jennings), and Mac Gibbons, were all Norman families, and so also 

 were the Mac Feioris (who was a Bermingham), Mac Aveelys (de- 

 scendants of Milo Stanton), the MacWattins(Burretts), Mac Jordan 

 (D'Exeters), Mac Thomas (Fitzgeralds), Mac Pierre (Butlers), 

 Mac Adam (Barrys), Mac Shere (Poers or Powers), Mac Ruddey 

 (Fitzsimons), Mac Falrene (Wesleys), Mac Maurice (Prendergasts). 

 It would appear that the celebrated M'Quillans* of the Route 

 even were of English or Welsh origin. Mac Firbis, the great 

 transcriber of Irish annals, says that they came into Ireland at the 

 time of the English invasion. He would, however, make them 

 and the Barretts and others originally of Irish origin. At the 

 beginning of the 16th century they are described by English 

 writers as among the leading English rebels in Ulster, the others 

 being the Bissetts and the Savages. Saintleger, writing to Henry 

 VIIL, in 1542, talks of meeting with "one Maguyllen, who, 

 having long strayed from the nature of his allegiance (his ancestors 

 being your subjects, and came out of Wales), was growne to be 

 as Irishe as the worste." The Lord Lieutenant writes to the king 



* See Reeves' Antiquities, pp. 326, 327. 



