Donlevy, Donleavy and Dunleavy are Irish surnames derived from the Gaelic Mac Duinnshléibhe/Ó Duinnshléibhe 'son/descendant of Donn Sléibhe'; a given name meaning 'Donn of the mountain', i.e. 'dark mountain'. The MacDonlevys were the hereditary rulers of Dál Fiatach and styled as the Kings of Ulaid, i.e. rulers of (east) Ulster,[1][2] in present-day County Down.[2]

History

Arms of the MacDonlevy

The family's eponymous ancestor is Donn Sléibe mac Echdacha, who ruled as king of the Irish petty-kingdom of Dál Fiatach, as well as its over-kingdom, Ulaid, in the late 10th century. The power-base of the MacDonlevys was Dál Fiatach, a territory which spanned south from the Mourne Mountains north to the River Lagan; at times they exerted control over the entirety of Ulaid (eastern Ulster; present-day counties Down and Antrim).[2]

In the aftermath of John de Courcy's conquest of Ulaid in 1177, MacDonlevy's power was vanquished. As a result, the last-remaining members of the clan migrated to Tír Conaill (present-day County Donegal), whilst others went to Scotland.[2] In Donegal, they became the hereditary physicians (Old Irish: ollahm leighis) of the O'Donnells of Tír Conaill.[2][3] Indeed, since 1177, the MacDonlevys became renowned as a medical family and were among the foremost Irish medical families, employed across Gaelic Ireland and the Scottish Highlands and Isles.[2]

After the Battle of Kinsale in 1602, the sept migrated to the province of Connacht, where their name is now most common.[4][5] Some MacDonlevys in Donegal adopted the surname Mac an Ultaigh, meaning "son of the Ulsterman", which was anglicized as McNulty.[6]

Notable people

Donlevy

Donleavy

Dunleavy

Mac Duinnshléibhe

Ó Duinnshléibhe

List of Mac Duinn Sléibe kings of Ulaid

  • Donn Sléibe mac Eochada 1081–1091, the eponymous ancestor of the Mac Duinn Sléibe dynasty.
  • Donnchad mac Duinn Sléibe 1091–1095
  • Eochaid mac Duinn Sléibe 1095–1099
  • Donnchad mac Duinn Sléibe 1099–1099
  • Eochaid mac Duinn Sléibe 1099–1108
  • Donnchad mac Duinn Sléibe 1108–1113
  • Áed mac Duinn Sléibe 1113–1127
  • Cú Ulad mac Conchobair Chisenaig Mac Duinn Sléibe 1131–1157
  • Áed mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe 1157–1158
  • Eochaid mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe 1158–1166
  • Magnus mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe 1166–1171
  • Donn Sléibe mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe 1171–1172
  • Ruaidrí mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe 1172–1201
  • Cu-Ulahd Mac Duinn Sléibe (fl. c. 1178)

List of physicians

  • Muiris MacDonlevy (died 1395) is the first member entered in the Irish Annals where they are listed as ollahm lieghis chenel Conaill, the physician to the Cenel Conaill, the ruling dynasty of Tír Conaill.
  • By his agnomens Paul Ultach or Paul the Ulidian, Muiris's father is also mentioned at this 1395 A.D. entry to be a physician who flourished both before and after Muiris.
  • Murtough Ultaigh Donlevy is recorded as being a physician under an entry for 1497.[7]
  • Donnell Ultaigh Donlevy, the son of an unnamed Ultaigh "ollav" to the O’Donnell in Tir Chonaill, is recorded as having been slain in the year 1567.
  • Donnchadh mac Eoghan Ó Duinnshléibhe (Donnchadh MacDonlevy, died 1527) is recorded as a physician.
  • Eoghan MacDonlevy or Owen Ultach (died 1586) was the son of Donnchadh. Considered throughout Ireland and much of Europe as the finest physician of his time, with his skills not only recounted by the Irish Annals and at the Dictionary of National Biography but also by Stanihurst.
  • Cormac MacDonlevy (fl. c. 1460) was an influential medieval Irish physician and medical scholar, who advanced Irish medieval medical practice by, for the first time, translating seminal continental European medical texts from Latin to the vernacular. His translations provided the then-exclusively Gaelic language-speaking majority of Irish physicians with their first reference access to these texts.

The Annals note further that the branch of the MacDonlevy, who had been the physicians, still existed near Kilmacrenan, County Donegal in the early 17th century.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Armagh: History & Society. Geography Publications. 2001. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-906602-36-2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Woulfe, Patrick (1923). "Mac Dhuinnshléibhe - Irish Names and Surnames". www.libraryireland.com.
  3. ↑ Woods, J. Oliver (September 1981). "The history of medicine in Ireland". Ulster Medical Journal. 51 (1): 35–45. PMC 2385830. PMID 6761926.
  4. ↑ Keating, p. 728.
  5. ↑ Bell (2003), p. 60.
  6. ↑ Bell (2003), p. 180.
  7. ↑ Hack, pp. 18–21.
  8. A New History of Modern Ireland, p. 611

Bibliography

  • Bell, Robert (2003). The Book of Ulster Surnames. The Blackstaff Press. ISBN 978-0-85640-602-7.
  • Keating, Geoffrey (1983). Keating's History of Ireland. Irish Genealogical Foundation. ISBN 978-0-686-44360-5.
  • Hack, G.H. (1901). Genealogical History of the Donlevy Family Columbus, Ohio. Chaucer Press, Evans Printing Co.</ref>
  • T. Moody; F. Mortin; F. Byrne (1993). A New History of Modern Ireland (Early modern Ireland 1534–1691). Oxford University Press.</ref>
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