Hi MaryPat, I forgot to add that during the pagan period our tribe's ancestor-god was Conn ('Head', "Wisdom", etc.), the god whose severed head chants poetry and presides over the Otherworld Feast. Connacht is short for our tribe's name, Connachta, which literally means 'Descendants of Conn.' Remember that our Celtic ancestors were ritual head-hunters until the 17th century. At that late date we still placed the enemy's head in a position of honor within the home, took it out to recount the great deeds of its previous owner on important occasions (we were measured in part by how great our enemies were), and perhaps still inlaid it with precious stones, gold, and silver. As for the body, we gave it a good Christian burial in hallowed gorund with all the appropriate rites. As an example, this was the manner in which one of our kinsmen (an Ó Ceallaigh of the Uí Fhiachrach) treated the head of Sir Conyers Clifford (the right-hand man of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Viceroy of Ireland) when he took that head in battle in the Curlew Mountains in 1599. The basic idea behind this ritual is apparently the old Celtic concept that the soul and thought (sometimes called 'fire in the head of man' in the old Irish texts) are inseparable and reside only in the head and nowhere else in the body. So the head of a great man or woman, even if an enemy, is to be revered and not mutilated or disrespected as the English did during the same period as a tactic of mere political terrorism. Our ancestor-god Conn, his favorite feast, and our Celtic concept of 'fire in the head of man' are still celebrated every October 31 by quite a few people. Hope that's helpful, Jerry Kelly NA GAEIL MAGAZINE (coming soon to an internet near you) ----- Original Message ----- From: Jerry Kelly To: IRISH-AMERICAN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 5:01 PM Subject: Re: [Irish-American] Gibbons & Murphy Hello MaryPat, or I should say Hello Kinswoman, Thank you. As you know, there are about 10-12 separate, unrelated families of Ó Murchadh / O'Murphy ('Grandson of Sea-Warrior'), but because you are feminine your Murphy surname is Ní Mhurchadh ('Grand-daughter of Sea-Warrior'). Nearly all Irish surnames are miniature genealogies for which gender is important. Mur is from Muir meaning 'ocean'. The chadh part of the name is related to Cath meaning 'battle.' The Ó Murchadh of Mayo are apparently a branch of the Uí Fhiachrach Muaidhe (U.F. of the Moy River valley) of the Uí Fhiachrach of the Connachta of the Féni. Woulfe (Sloinnte Gaedheal 7 Gall) points out that this family were "chiefs of a district on the southern shore of Sligo Bay, now comprised in the parishes of Skreen and Templeboy, but were dispossessed and dispersed in the 13th century." That would have been when the Norman De Búrca ('Burke') family moved into the neighborhood. My branch of the Uí Fhiachrach Muaidhe (the Ó Ceallaigh Theampall Buí) were right there in the same parish of Teampall Buí ('Templeboy') and wound up in Mayo as well. We might have migrated south together. As for the De Búrca family which moved into the neighborhood and quickly went completely Gaelic like nearly all the other Norman families in law, dress, custom, manner, world-outlook, clan structure, and language, one of their principal branches is the Mac Giobúin ('Gibbons') family, the other side of your family who were seated to the west of Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo. Hope that's helpful, Jerry Kelly NA GAEIL MAGAZINE (coming soon to an internet near you) ----- Original Message ----- From: CMARYPATC@aol.com To: IRISH-AMERICAN-L@rootsweb.com ; jerrykelly@att.net Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 7:03 PM Subject: Re: [Irish-American] Gibbons & Murphy Hello Jerry, HAPPY ST PATRICK"S DAY TO YOU Should you have a chance I would really love to know of the Gibbons and Murphy name beginnings.. Mine are both from Mayo - towns of Castlebar and Turlough.. MaryPat