Mac Giolla Phádraig Laighin ~ Fitzpatrick of Leinster

By interrogation of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Fiants and Patent Rolls, it is demonstrated that Mac Giolla Phádraig, resident in Laighin (Leinster) in that era, had no association with the family of Upper Ossory. Rather, they are found in Cill Dara (County Kildare), where they possessed several discrete territories, including one that bore their name (Grange Mac Giolla Phádraig), and at least one castle, evidencing extended kinship, i.e., clanship. Yet, with the demise of the Kildare FitzGeralds ca. 1537, there came an upheaval for the clann.

In the years after the rebellion of ‘Silken’ Thomas FitzGerald, Mac Giolla Phádraig were found in association with the infamous ‘Keating Kern’, due to their prior common service with the Earls of Kildare. But after the ninth Earl’s attainment, Mac Giolla Phádraig were expelled from their Cill Dara territories. Yet, those Mac Giolla Phádraig re-established themselves – and their network grew. By the 1550s, they had become well-connected with the Uí Tuathail (O’Toole), Uí Broinn (O’Byrne), Caomhánach (Kavanagh), and other notable clanns of the day, of Ceatharlach (County Carlow), Cill Mhantáin (County Wicklow), and Loch Garman (County Wexford). The relationships with the Laighin clans expanded throughout the rest of the sixteenth century, while the association with the Keatings faded. Significantly, Mac Giolla Phádraig came to hold lands at Cúirt an Phaoraigh (Powerscourt) until they were dispossessed in the early seventeenth century.

It is possible to identify the descendants of the Mac Giolla Phádraig of the sixteenth century. Now bearing the surname Fitzpatrick, they belong to the surname-specific Y-DNA haplogroup R1b-Z255 … BY2849. Today, they reside all over the globe, but true to their ‘Irish Sea’ Y-DNA modality, i.e., R-Z255, many also live all along Ireland’s east, from Aontroim (County Antrim) to Cill Mhantáin, and some families remain domiciled near their ancestors’ sixteenth and seventeenth century territories. This speaks to the diversity of Clann Mac Giolla Phádraig Laighin, their distinct kindred identities within their individual septs, and the enduring longevity of their surname.