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MILLENNIUM USHERS IN FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

The first decade of this millennium, beginning with the year 2000, is coincidental with the four hundredth anniversary of the downfall of the Gaelic Lords of Northern Ireland and the Anglicization of the Irish clan name "O'hAilbheartaigh", the root name for our Gaelic/Irish surname.

According to "Sheridan's Dictionary of Irish Names and Surnames" the Halferty name means "noblebright (1), accomplished (2) or learned". The Irish surnames Halferty, Helferty, Hilferty, Helverty and their O' variations are anglicized forms of the Gaelic surname "O'hAilbheartaigh". The name is of patronymic origin, in that, it belongs to the category of surnames derived from the first name of the grandfather of the original bearer. In this instance, the name indicates "grandson of Ailbheartaigh", an old personal name derived from the Gaelic "ilbeartach". The earliest Halferty families were found in Donegal and later in County Londonderry and County Armagh. The "O'hAilbheartaigh" were classified as a Sept of the O'Donnell clan.

(1) The Reverend Patrick Woulfe, Priest of the Diocese of Limerick and a member of the council, National Academy of Ireland, on page 548 of the book he authored entitled "Irish Names and Surnames" chooses to interpret the Gaelic-English translation of "O'hAilbheartaigh" as "noble-bright" in describing the meaning of the Halferty name.

(2) In the book titled "The Surnames Of Ireland" authored by Edward MacLysaght as noted on page 122 the author chooses to interpret the Gaelic-English translation of "O'hAilbheartaigh" as "accomplished" in describing the meaning of the Halferty name.

Throughout the last half of the sixteenth century the English encroachment on Ulster with their plantation policy in Munster and Leinster alarmed the Gaelic Ulster lords. By 1595 Hugh O'Neill, Red Hugh O'Donnell and Hugh Maguire were waging open war on the English (3). This culminated in their defeat by the British at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 (4) and the subsequent "Flight of the Earls" in 1607 when the Earl of O'Donnell (Donegal), the Earl of O'Neill (Tyrone), the Earl of Maguire (Fermanagh) and nearly one hundred of their princes and chiefs fled to Europe when falsely accused by the British of plotting to surprise the Castle of Dublin and murder the Lord Deputy and council, and set up a government of their own. Six entire counties of Ulster were at once declared forfeited to the Crown.

(3) The Nine Years' War which began with Red Hugh O'Donnell driving the English out of Donegal back into Connacht and continued with Red Hugh following up the reeling English army by sweeping them out of Connacht as well. Hugh O'Neill came to the conclusion that there was no longer any possibility of living peacefully with the British and cleared Tir-Owen and most of the North and East of Ulster of the English garrisons. Then a youth not quite a man named Eoiny O'More the son of Rory O'More, who had been raised by Feach O'Byrne, produced startling upsets in Munster. This was followed by the decisive victory of The Yellow Ford for what had now become the Ulster Confederation of Hugh O'Neill, Red Hugh O'Donnell, Hugh Maguire and Angus MacDonnell, the son of Sorley Boy MacDonnell. At a council of the Princes and Chiefs before the battle the hereditary historian of Tir-Conaill, Feareasa O'Cleary, reminded the group of leaders that nine centuries earlier one of the four profits of Ireland, Berchan, had had a vision while walking by the Yellow Ford and that he had written down that far into the future the men of Erin would meet and defeat their foe. Hugh O'Neill then made a one sentence golden speech, "Victory lies not in senseless armor, nor in the vain din of cannon, but in living and courageous souls". 

The battle was fought and won by the Ulster confederation in August of the sixth year of the war in 1598 against the English who were lead by Sir Henry Bagenal, who ironically was the brother of the beautiful Mabel Bagenal who fell in love with Hugh O'Neill and who was married and whisk away to Dungannon by Hugh O'Neill against the wishes of Sir Henry two years before. Portsmore and Armagh surrendered to O'Neill. O'Neill's authority was now recognized over most of Ireland. Queen Elizabeth now sent Essex, her favorite, to Ireland with the largest army yet sent and O'Neill outwitted him at every turn. O'Neill and Essex had a meeting on the banks of the Lee River in which O'Neill dictated terms and Essex accepted. When Essex returned to England Elizabeth had him beheaded. Queen Elizabeth then directed Mountjoy and Carew to use treachery, bribery and deceit which in time whittled away many of the allies leaving O'Neill and O'Donnell to fight alone. O'Donnell defended the coast of Ulster against some English invasions and O'Neill the southern boarder, back to back so to speak, until the long awaited Spanish invasion landed in Kinsale.

(4) Following the Battle of Kinsale the senior Hugh O'Neill fought his way back to Ulster and held his own for months. Red Hugh O'Donnell went to Spain to seek more aid from the Spanish, in which he was encouraged. He fell ill and died there at the age of twenty eight, having never married and was with out an heir. He was buried with princely honors in the Cathedral of St. Francis, Valladolid. It was not known for three hundred years after, until documents and letters were discovered, that the British had sent an agent to Spain to poison Red Hugh. The Irish never recovered from his loss.

After the "Flight" and during the "Ulster Plantation" which followed in 1609, the British confiscation of the property of the Earls resulted in the removal of the remaining Gaelic-Irish clansmen from their ancestral lands and their relocation to infertile or marginally productive land in the counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan and Coleraine (now called Derry) in Ulster. Large tracts of the prime land were then given to British institutions and landlords who agreed to lease only to English or Scots tenants (5). Hard times fell upon the Gaelic peoples of Ulster and with the resulting emphasis upon the English language, Irish names became gradually anglicized from their traditional Gaelic form and subsequently the O' was dropped as well.

(5) Within the next decade following the "Flight", the "Plantation" was implemented by James I of England (formally James the Sixth of Scotland). Four million acres of Ulster's finest land was handed over to debtors, thieves and the homeless fleeing justice from British law in Scotland and England. The Irish land owners were driven like wild fowl and beast into the bogs, moors and barren crags of Ireland in hopes that they might starve.

And so it was, that the "O'hAilbheartaigh" became known as the Halferty, Helferty, Hilferty and Helverty (6) that we use today and the Princes and Chiefs of County Tyrone, Tir Eoghain, County Donegal, Tir Conaill, and County Fermanagh who died in exile in Rome were buried on St. Peter's Hill in the church of Monte Aureo thousands of miles from their kin and the ancestral land which had been in their families for 1200 years, more than thirty generations ago (7).

(6) From the twelfth century through the seventeenth century during the English conquest of Ireland as the English language was introduced in each successive area of conquest Gaelic names were abandoned in favor of anglicized equivalents. For example: Instead of the ancient Gaelic family name O'Dalaigh the forms O'Daly, Daly, Daley, Daily, Dailey, Dayley and several others began to be used. Instead of the ancient Gaelic family name O'Raghailligh the forms O'Reyly, O'Riellie, O'Realy, O'Rielly, Rawleigh, and several others began to be used. "As many as fifty variants of the same surname are on record". The deviation and diversity in the spelling of a name was by in large attributable to local and regional accent or dialect in the pronunciation and writing of the Gaelic name by English speaking people. In many cases the translation was simply an attempt at a phonetic rendering while in others a direct translation was resorted to such as the Gaelic MacGobhann translated to Smith because in fact the Gaelic Gobha was a "smith" and the O'Sionnaigh translated to Fox because the Gaelic Sionnach meant "fox". There was no standardization in the English translation in contrast to a thousand years of a single Gaelic form. This change of name was not simply a result of convenient usage or that of the result of an imposition but, it was one which was commanded by new English law which was designed to destroy the historic Irish nation.

(7) The three Irish princes buried on St. Peter's Hill in the church of Monte Aureo are Hugh O'Neill, Ruari O'Donnell, the older brother of Red Hugh who assumed the O'Donnell Lordship upon Red Hugh's death and Connor Maguire, the brother of Hugh Maguire who had also died.

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