An Chlann Mhic Cárthaigh Riabhaigh
~
The MacCarthy Reagh Clan
Fortis, Ferox et Celer ~ Tréan, Misniúil, agus Mear
The Full Story
The Prehistoric MacCarthy Family
While the MacCarthy Reagh family has its distinct origin in the medieval era, through its royal ancestors the earliest sources record the lineage into pre-history. In this section we explore the prehistoric roots of Irish families generally, and the biblical origin story of the Irish people in which the MaCarthy Reagh find their ultimate beginnings.
The Drombeg Stone Circle
Of course, one of the most popular and well-known prehistoric sites in Carbery is the Drombeg Stone Circle. In the center of the stone circle archeologists had found a pot containing the cremated remains of an adolescent. Although not much is known about the circle, samples were radiocarbon dated and suggest that the site was active about 3,000 years ago, sometime between 1100 B.C. and 800 B.C.
The Genetic Story
In the study of genetics scientists use haplogroups to identify groups of alleles in a human which are inherited from a single parent. As Y-DNA is passed from father to son, sometimes there can be a small mutation in the genetic material called a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). With a large sample size, scientists can start to identify SNPs with certain haplogroups and build a map of the genetic evolution of groups of people. Furthermore, because certain SNPs have certain mutation rates, we can identify approximately when a particular SNP emerged!
Over the years, the great work done by the researchers working on the McCarthy Surname Y-DNA Study has discovered from which haplogroup the MacCarthy Reagh sept stems. While not all people belonging to this haplogroup are MacCarthy Reagh, the study has been able to identify many SNPs which do descend from the common MacCarthy Reagh ancestor - Donal Goth MacCarthy. Indeed, one such SNP is known as BY7779 and it marks a very particular branch of the McCarthy Reagh.
Known to have emerged most likely in the 14th century, the R-BY7779 haplogroup stems from R-L51 (R1b1a1a2a1) which itself seems to have most likely emerged sometime around 4100 B.C., and R-L51 descended from R-L23 (R1b1a1a2a) which had emerged about 300 years earlier. This haplogroup was the most recently known mutation to occur to it’s parent haplogroup, called R-M269, which emerged about 13,300 years ago. So while there are about 13 millennia between the emergence of R-M269 and R-L23, we don’t need to look very far into the genetic past for our answers.
A human male, known as ‘I0124 (Samara)' was a hunter-gatherer from Samara and lived between the years 5640 B.C. and 5555 B.C. - just before the emergence of the R-L51 haplogroup. After sequencing the DNA of I0124, researchers determined he was a Neolithic male who belonged to haplogroup R1b1 and was in fact an ancestor of the people belonging to the R-L23 haplogroup — the Irish!
Graphic borrowed from: Gilbert, E., O’Reilly, S., Merrigan, M. et al. The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland. Sci Rep 7, 17199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17124-4
Amazingly, the existence of ‘I0124 (Samara)' seems to lend some intriguing support for the medieval origin story of the Irish. A member of the Noble Society of Celts published an article titled "The Milesian Migration" in that society's quarterly newsletter discussing how genetic genealogy seems to be building support for the origin of the Irish people preserved in the story of Milesius, who settled Ireland and whose progeny are the royal Irish clans and dynasties alive today.