Daly, or O'Daly, is the Anglicised version of the ancient Gaelic surname Ó Dálaigh (descendant of Dálach). Dálach, who flourished around 600 AD, was chieftain of the Corca Adaimh (of Teffia in Westmeath). His clan claimed descent from Maine, one of the many sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland early in the 5th century (i.e. around the advent of Saint Patrick). The Corca Adaimh were thus part of the Southern Uí Néill, who for 600 years provided many of the High Kings at Tara. This explains the presence of the Red Hand of the Uí Néill on the Coat of Arms* adopted by the now defunct line of O'Dalys of Dunsandle,Galway.

Dálach became chief poet (ollav) to the king of Munster when the incumbent, Colmán mac Leníne (c.522 - 601), was made a bishop in the fledgling Christian church. There is a tradition that Colmán was tutor and foster-father to Dálach. Colmán, who was converted at age 50 by none other than the peripatetic St. Brendan himself (no doubt fresh from discovering North America), went on to become Saint Colmán of Cloyne and naturally enough the patron saint of the descendants of Dálach. Colmán is also reputed to have taught St. Columba to read. His feast day is 24th November.

The poets or bards (fili) were the inheritors of much of the Druidic learning, responsible for preserving all the ancient sagas and recording kingly deeds & genealogies. Like the other major families of hereditary poets, the descendants of Dálach maintained special bardic schools, in which their skills & knowledge were passed on orally over a 12 year course of study.

The most renowned poet of the clan was Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh. When recording his death in 1244, the Annals of the Four Masters described him as "a poet who never was and never will be surpassed". His brother Muiredhach was forced to flee to Scotland, having incurring the wrath of the local king for taking an axe to the latter's steward, who got a bit lippy when collecting taxes. While in Scotland Muiredhach founded a Scots branch of the clan, MacMhuirich (MacVurrich), chief poets to the MacDonalds of ClanRanald.

Currently there is no recognised chieftain of the Ó Dálaigh clan, but under the Genealogy and Heraldry Bill 2006 recently introduced into Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate) you can now apply for the title if you're that way inclined. Of course you will need to provide "full and complete documentary evidence" that you are "the senior male descendant of the last recorded inaugurated Gaelic Chief or Chieftain of the Name", so good luck to you! This primogeniture requirement is strangely at odds with Gaelic tradition, under which the chief's successor - Tanist - was elected by the clan.

* Just because your name is Daly (or a variant thereof) doesn't mean that you can claim this Coat of Arms as your own. It was granted to a particular family and unless you are directly descended from them you do not have a right to use it. Personally I don't see the attraction; accepting a Grant of Arms from the Tudors meant that you had sold out to the colonising power.

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Many scholars considered Niall of the Nine Hostages to be a mythical figure, but a recent Trinity College study of the Uí Néill DNA has concluded that this might not have been the case and our ancestors weren't just making it all up. You can have your own DNA checked at Genetic Genealogy or Oxford Ancestors to see if you might be genetically linked to Niall.

A brief genealogy for Dálach and his early descendants is provided in John O'Donovan's introduction to John Daly's 1852 publication of the satire The Tribes of Ireland by Aenghus O'Daly (reprinted by Tower Books of Cork, 1976).

For more detail you might be lucky enough to find a library that stocks Edmund Emmet O'Daly's History of the O'Dalys (Chicago, 1937), although I'm not sure how accurate his information was.

An old but still interesting background to the era of Dálach is Ireland before the Vikings by Gearoid Mac Niocaill (Gill and MacMillan, 1972), book 1 of The Gill History of Ireland series.

Better yet is the brilliant (and true) How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill (Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).

The defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the subsequent Flight of the Earls in 1607 signalled the end of the ancient Gaelic aristocratic order, upon which the old bardic families such as the Uí Dhálaigh depended for their way of life. For a moving reflection on the aftermath, see the poem by Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (c.1625-1698) "D'aithle Na Bhfileadh" (The High Poets Are Gone) in the book An Duanaire 1600-1900: Poems of the Dispossessed, by Seán Ó Tuama & Thomas Kinsella (Dolmen Press/Bord na Gaeilge, 1981).

Translations from the Irish of various annals, sagas, etc. can be found online at the Corpus of Electronic Texts, provided by University College Cork.

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Copyright © 2007, Mícheál Ó Dálaigh (Michael Daly)