The Maguire (/məˈɡwaɪər/mə-GWIRE) family is an
Irish clan based in
County Fermanagh. The name derives from the
GaelicMac Uidhir,[1] which is "son of Odhar" meaning "dun", "dark one". According to legend, this relates to the eleventh descendant of
Colla da Chrich,[2] great-grandson of
Cormac mac Airt, who was monarch of Ireland about the middle of the third century.[3][4] From the 13th to the 17th centuries, the Maguire family were kings of
Fermanagh.
The surname has been
anglicized variously as McGuire, McGwire, McGwyre and most commonly, Maguire (from variant form Mag Uidhir).
Male
Daughter
Wife
Wife (Short)
Mac Uidhir
Nic Uidhir
Bean Mhic Uidhir
Mhic Uidhir
History
The Maguire
sept is primarily associated with modern-day
County Fermanagh. They possessed the entire county, also known as Maguire's Country, from about 1250 C.E. and maintained their independence as Lords of Fermanagh down to the reign of
King James VI & I, when their country was confiscated like other parts of Ulster. The Maguire's supplied Chiefs or Princes to Fermanagh, from about A.D. 1264, when they supplanted the former Chieftains (
Ó Daimhín, or Devin/Devine). They were inaugurated as Princes of Fermanagh on the summit of
Cuilcagh, a magnificent mountain near
Swanlinbar, on the borders of Cavan and Fermanagh; and sometimes also at a place called Sciath Gabhra or Lisnasciath, now
Lisnaskea. The family was first mentioned in the Annals as early as 956 AD and have always been closely associated with the other leading septs of
Ulster such as the
O'Neill and the
O'Donnell. They spawned several well-known branches which became septs in their own right, including Mac Manus, Mac Caffrey, Mac Hugh, and several others. The name is among the forty most common names in Ireland, among the top twenty-five in Ulster, ten in Co. Cavan, thirty in Co. Monaghan and is the single most common name in Co. Fermanagh.
Maguiresbridge in Co. Fermanagh (
Irish: Droichead Mhig Uidhir) takes its name from the family.
In the
Nine Years' War (1594–1603),
Hugh Maguire, the Lord of Fermanagh, took the rebels' side, while his subordinate kinsman
Connor Roe Maguire of
Magherastephana sought to displace him and was nicknamed "the Queen's Maguire" for his support of
Queen Elizabeth's forces.[5] Connor was granted the whole of Maguire's Country (Fermanagh) by
letters patent in 1601, but this was disregarded by the
Plantation of Ulster in 1609, which granted him only twelve thousand acres of the
barony of Magherastephana.[6] Connor's son
Bryan was made
Baron Maguire of
Enniskillen in 1627; both of his sons supported the
Confederate Ireland rebellion of the 1640s.
Connor, 2nd Baron was executed and
attainted in 1645, while
Rory Maguire was killed in fighting in 1648. Rory's son,
Roger Maguire, was a
Jacobite politician and soldier. During translation in the
Ulster Plantation, various English translations of the original Mag Uidhir appeared, including Maguire, Mac Guire and McGuire. In South West Donegal, the name is re-translated into Gaelic as Mac Guibhir. An unusual version is Meguiar, an American spelling best known from "
Meguiar's Wax."[7]
Enniskillen Castle was the medieval seat of the Maguire (Mag Uidhir), chieftains of Fermanagh, who policed the lough with a private navy of 1,500 boats.[citation needed] Nearby is
Maguiresbridge. At the castle, the King got wind of a large army that had been sent to attack. Fearing the loss of all his clan, he sent half of his people to the northwest of Scotland, who adopted the surname of
MacQuarrie.[8]
The Maguire clan motto is Justitia et fortitudo invincibilia sunt, which is Latin for "Justice and fortitude are invincible".[9]
Notable people
Maguire
Andrew Maguire (born 1939), American politician and former member of U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey
Baron Maguire, Two Barons Maguire of Enniskillen in the Peerage of Ireland
^Harris, F. W. (1980). "The Commission of 1609: Legal Aspects". Studia Hibernica (20). St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra: 31–55.
doi:
10.3828/sh.1980.20.2.
JSTOR20496159.
^Sources: 1) The Fermanagh Story by
Peadar Livingstone, published 1969, Cumann Seanchais Chlochair; 2) Irish Families, Their Names, Arms, and Origins by Edward MacLysaght; 3) Historic Maguire Chalices by The Maguire of Fermanagh, published 1996 by Fermanagh District Council; 4) Irish Book of Arms plates; 5) Irish Chiefs and Leaders by Rev. Paul Walsh, published 1960, Dublin
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surnameMaguire. If an
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