The people and the name, Luc(e)y

Chapter 1: THE NAME LUCEY cont'd

n Irish Names and Surnames (Sloinne Gaedhal is Gall) (Dublin, 1923) by Rev. Patrick Woulfe (who was the leading authority on the subject in his time) the following information is given:

Ó Luasaigh - IV

- ÓLwosie, Lucey, Lucy; undoubtedly a corruption of Mac Cluasaigh; a well known Co Cork surname.

Woulfe explained his use of the numeral IV included above, to indicate that class of surnames formed by prefixing Mac or Mag (son) to the genitive case of a native Irish personal name. Examples of Cluasaigh used as a first name, are rare but have nevertheless been encountered.

The Bibliography of Irish Family History by Edward MacLysaght (1981) does not list any history published on any branch of the Lucey family. In another of his books, Irish Families: their Names, Arms and Origins, MacLysaght only mentions the name in an appendix which shows where the various names are concentrated in Ireland. However, in More Irish Families (1982) MacLysaght (who was the premier authority on Irish family names and who had been Chief Herald,) wrote :

(O) LUCEY The Norman name de Lucy was prominent in Ireland in the fourteenth century, for Anthony de Lucy was Justiciar in 1332. It appears in the Gormanston Register even earlier - at Carlingford in 1305. There is no evidence, however, that there are any present-day representatives of de Lucy families, and I think we may safely say that our Luceys are all Gaelic in origin, their surname being Ó Luasaigh in Irish.

Woulfe says this is a corruption of Mac Cluasaigh, but he does not list Mac Cluasaigh in the appropriate place, so if his statement is correct, Mac Cluasaigh must be regarded as quite obsolete.

In 1560, one Robert Mac Clwos of Cork obtained "English liberty" and later in the century several persons named Mac Cluoss &c. appear in the Fiants: possibly this is the name he had in mind - they were living in or near Co Cork.

Ó Lwosie occurs in the same source twice in Co Cork. As Luosy, alias Lousy, we find it in the Kinsale presentments of 1712 among the "Popish inhabitants" against whom execution was obtained.

South-west Munster is almost exclusively its' present location : 41 of the 42 birth registrations for Lucey in the 1890 return were in Munster, 33 of these in Co Cork. Similarly, in 1865, 39 of 43 registrations were in Co Cork. In 1901, there were 42 families of Lucy or Lucey in Co Kerry and 21 of Lucid.

King, who made an analysis of the 1901 census, states that Lucid is a variant of Lucey, both being Ó Luasaigh in Irish.

Although Woulfe gave no separate entry for the "well known Cork surname" (in the appropriate place), he did give the following interesting entry in its' own (and equally appropriate) place: Ó Cluasaigh - I

- O'Closse, Close; des(cendant) of Cluasach (having large ears); an old surname in Antrim and Tyrone.

Mac Lysaght is again critical of Woulfe's entry, as he wrote : CLOSE This is a fairly numerous name in Counties Antrim, Down, and Tyrone, but Woulfe is misleading in implying that it is of Gaelic-Irish origin: he rightly equates it with Ó Cluasaigh and does not mention that it is also a well known English name. In fact the principal families of Close in the Counties mentioned above are known to have descended from settlers from Yorkshire, the earliest being Richard Close, an officer in the English army in 1640. He first acquired property in Co. Monaghan whence the family moved to Co. Antrim, and William Close appears in the "census" of 1659 as one of the tituladoes at Lisnagarvy Co. Antrim. The Hearth Money Rolls of approximately the same date record seven families called O'Cloase, O'Closs, and O'Closse in that county. Two centuries later, one of them was a very extensive landowner in Co. Armagh, for which county he was High Sheriff in 1854 and M.P. at various times between 1857 and 1878. In all fairness to Woulfe, it should be noted that most of Mac Lysaght's information pertains to one English family living in Ireland, and he barely mentions the Gaelic families, other than in bestowing a belittling praise upon Woulfe for getting something right. Perhaps it was perceived as correct to refer to the English before referring to the Irish in Mac Lysaght's circle, but I find this quite out of place considering his subject matter (ie Irish families). Before Woulfe's book, there was very little written in English on the subject, and if it weren't for Woulfe, then Mac Lysaght's own volumes would probably have been slimmer and fewer.

As the spelling Close was adopted by the Ó Clusaigh family of Ulster as an Anglicisation for their name, people in Ulster with the name Close may be of either Irish or English stock. Unfortunately, I have no more knowledge of these people - neither to whom the epithet was applied, nor to the fate of his/her descendants.

Cork is in the south-west of Ireland and Antrim is in the north-east, (it would not be possible for two places to be further apart and still in Ireland.) It was not at all uncommon for identical patronymics to give rise to unrelated families of the same name. For example, it has been noted by several writers that the many names including Murphy (from septs named Mac Murchadha and Ó Murchada) arose independently in all provinces of Ireland. This was due no doubt to the popularity of the given name Muirchu at the time when those surnames arose.

Diarmuid Ó Murchadha (the authority on Co Cork family origins) does not agree with Father Woulfe on the origin that Woulfe gave for Ó Luasaigh, on the ground that both Mac Cluosse and Ó Lwosie are found at the same time in the Elizabethan Fiants. On this basis he believes that they were probably unconnected names, although both could be anglicised as Lucey or Lucy. I cannot locate all of the addresses of those mentioned in the Elizabethan Fiants, but have concluded that there are unconnected families whose name coincidentally had a similar origin. Mac Cluosse, Mc Cluas, Cluost, & Mc Clowes (all using the initial C ) was a name applied in Ulster, and Ó Lwoshie & Ó Lwosie (all using the initial L), in Munster.

I believe that on the evidence available, it is fair to assume that the name Mac Cluasaigh changed approximately in the following ways (ignoring some of the grosser spelling variants):

Ulster	Munster
Mac Cluasaigh	Mac Cluasaigh
M' Cluasaigh	Mac Luasaigh
a' Cluasaigh	'ac Luasaigh
Ó Cluasaigh	Ó Luasaigh
Close	Lucey

When the name Cluasach became established as a family name, its' use as a nick-name applied to individuals would have lessened. With this situation established, it became redundant to use the Mac ~ but with names that were in use both as first names and as family names, it was important to retain the Mac to reduce confusion. It would seem that the Ó may have been one of the many well-intentioned Gaelic revival attempts intended to save Irish from Anglicisation and annihilation, or just as likely, it may simply have come from common usage

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September, 1999

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