s, the Nangles MacCostellos; the Prendergasts of
Mayo became MacMaurices, the De Courcys became MacPatricks, the Bissetts
of Antrim became MacEoins, and so on. Roughly speaking, it may be said
that most of the English and Norman families outside of the Pale were
Irish in name and manners from the beginning of the fourteenth to the
middle of the seventeenth century.

In 1465 an Act was passed by the Parliament of the English Pale that all
Irishmen inside the Pale should take an English name "of one towne as
Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke, Kinsale; or colour, as white, black,
brown; or art or science, as smith or carpenter; or office, as cooke,
butler; and that he and his issue shall use this name" or forfeit all his
goods. A great number of the lesser families complied with this typically
English ordinance; but the greater ones--the MacMurroghs, O'Tooles,
O'Byrnes, O'Nolans, O'Mores, O'Ryans, O'Conor Falys, O'Kellys,
&c.--refused, and never did change their names. A hundred and thirty years
later we find Spenser, the poet, advocating the renewal of this statute.
By doing this, says Spenser, "they shall in time learne quite to forget
the Irish nation. And herewithal," he says, "would I also wish the O's
and Macs which the heads of septs have taken to their names to be utterly
forbidden and extinguished, for that the same being an ordinance (as some
say) first made by O'Brien (+brian boruma+) for the strengthening of the
Irish, the abrogation thereof will as much enfeeble them." It was, however,
only after Aughrim and the Boyne that Irish names began to be changed in
great numbers, and O'Conors to become "Conyers," O'Reillys "Ridleys,"
O'Donnells "Daniels," O'Sullivans "Silvans," MacCarthys "Carters," and so
on.

But it is the last sixty years that have made most havoc with our Milesian
names. It seemed as if the people were possessed with a mania for changing
them to something--anything at all, only to get rid of the Milesian sound.
"Why," said O'Connell, once talking to a mass-meeting of Lord Chancellor
Sugden, "you wouldn't call a decent pig Sugden." Yet he never uttered a
word of remonstrance at the O'Lahiffs, O'Brollahans, and MacRorys becoming
under his eyes Guthrys, Bradleys, and Rogerses. It is more than a little
curious, and a very bad augury for the future independence of Ireland,
that men of education and intelligence like Carleton the novelist, or
Hardiman, author of the "History of Galway" and the "Irish