An Chlann Mhic Cárthaigh Riabhaigh
~
The MacCarthy Reagh Clan
Fortis, Ferox et Celer ~ Tréan, Misniúil, agus Mear
The Full Story
The Early Modern Family
After almost four centuries of prosperity, power and extensive wealth, the MacCarthy Reagh sept begins to wain under the turbulence of the Elizabethan and Jacobean dynasties in Ireland. The Interregnum being so devastating in Southern Ireland, the family disperses across the nation and even into France - forfeiting any claims to the once prolific principality they held.
Carbery
1532 - 1694
As sovereign princes of Carbery, the MacCarthy Reagh Chiefs held Kilbrittain Castle as their family seat until the 17th century when war and persecution would force them to surrender their good fortunes. The last Chief who ruled as Prince of Carbery, was Donal na Pipi (Domhnall na bpíopaí) MacCarthy Reagh, born around 1593 and died on 10 October 1612. He partook of the Tudor era policy of "Surrender & Regrant," by which he surrendered Carbery to the English Crown, and was re-granted it to hold of the English Monarch. He surrender the territory and the style "Prince of Carbery" to King James I in 1606. From there, especially during the Cromwellian persecutions, the family began to disperse to France and elsewhere, but immediate descendants of Donal na Pipi seem to have held onto the estate until the reign of King James II, when it was sold to the Hollow Sword Co. It was around this time that the last Chief of the Name was known to have been alive - his name was Florence, and was a rather distant cousin of Alexander, the great-great-great grandson of Donal na Pipi (who died circa 1694 in France). That Florence is most commonly known as Finghin of Banduff, and died in 1754, with no known male descendants alive today (although the McCarthy family from Cashloura are believed to have descended from Florence in the female line).
The MacCarthy Reagh
1694 ~ Present
Although many people today a Y-DNA descendants of The MacCarthy Reagh sept, there are no known genealogically proven descendants. The only known pedigree of The MacCarthy Reagh has been reiterated in the all the genealogical works of the 19th century, and all document the only know lineage to survive as descending from Finghin MacCarthy Reagh, who is claimed to have been born in 1625 to Cormac MacCarthy and his wife, Lady Eleanor MacCarthy, daughter of the Viscount Muskerry. However, it has since been proven that this is untrue because Cormac was about 5 years old in 1625, as evidenced by his father's 1636 Post Mortem Inquisition.
