Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, 9th Lord of Muskerry

"Cormac MacCarthy" redirects here. Not to be confused with Cormac McCarthy.

Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, 9th Lord of Muskerry (1411–1494), was an Irish chieftain. He founded Kilcrea Friary and built Kilcrea Castle.

Cormac Laidir MacCarthy
Lord of Muskerry
Tenure	After 1448 – 1494
Predecessor	Cormac, 8th Lord
Successor	Cormac Oge Laidir, 10th Lord
Born	1411
Died	1494
Buried	Kilcrea Friary
Spouse(s)	Mary Fitzmaurice
Issue Detail	Cormac & others
Father	Teige, 6th Lord

Family tree

Cormac Laidir MacCarty with wife, father, and other selected relatives.^[a] Dermot 1st Lord 1310–1367 Cormac 2nd Lord d. 1374 Teige 6th Lord 1380–1448 Owen 7th Lord Cormac 8th Lord Cormac Laidir 9th Lord 1411–1494 Mary Fitzmaurice Owen MacCarthy d. 1598 Cormac Oge Laidir 10th Lord 1447–1536 Catherine Barry Teige 11th Lord 1472–1565 Callaghan 12th Lord Dermot 13th Lord 1501–1570 Ellen FitzGerald Cormac 14th Lord d. 1583 tanist Callaghan 15th Lord tanist resigned 1584 Cormac MacDermot 16th Lord 1552–1616 Legend XXX Subject of the article XXX Lords of Muskerry

Birth and origins

Cormac was born in 1411,^[4] the eldest son of Teige MacCarthy. His father was the 6th Lord of Muskerry. His father's family were the MacCarthys of Muskerry,^[5] a Gaelic Irish dynasty that had branched from the MacCarthy-Mor line in the 14th century^[6][7][8] when a younger son received Muskerry as appanage.^[9] Nothing seems to be known about his mother, not even her name.

He had a younger brother Dermod, ancestor of the MacCarthys of Drishane, and a sister Ellen, married first Donal MacCarthy Reagh, Prince of Carbery, and then secondly Eoghan of Rathduane.

Marriage and children

Muskerry married Mary, daughter of Edmond FitzThomas Fitzmaurice, 9th Baron Kerry (died 1498),^[10] who is also called Baron Lixnaw instead of Baron Kerry.

Cormac and Mary had at least one son:

• Cormac Oge (died 1536), his successor,^[11][12]

—and two daughters (birth order unknown):

• Sheila or Julia, married Thomas FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Desmond as his 1st wife^[13][14]

• Ellen, married Donal MacCarthy Reagh, 12th Prince of Carbery^[15]

Later life

His father died in 1448^[16] but MacCarthy did not succeed immediately. Two uncles, Owen the 7th Lord and Cormac the 8th Lord, reigned based on tanistry.

MacCarthy improved Blarney Castle by enlarging its keep.^[17] A Latin inscription on the machicolation of the added part reads "Cormac Macarthy fortis me fieri facit AD 1446", which translates into "Cormac MacCarthy the stout had me built anno domini 1446". He might also have built Carrignamuck Tower House unless that was his son. According to the legend Maccarthy discovered and enshrined the Blarney Stone.

In 1465 he founded and built Kilcrea Friary^[18] and built nearby Kilcrea Castle.

Death

Muskerry died in 1494 having been killed by his brother Owen^[19] and was buried in the chancel of the church of the Kilcrea Friary. No epitaph is found there now,^[20] but earlier observers have recorded the following Latin inscription:

Hic Jacet Cormacus fil. Thadei, fil. Cormaci, fil. Dermatu magni Mc Carthy Dnus de Musgraigh Flayn ac istius conventus primus fondator, an Dom. 1494^[21]

which translates as: Here lies Cormac, son of Thadeus, son of Cormac, son of Dermot the elder, Prince of Muskerry, the initial founder of this friary, anno domini 1494. Interestingly the Latin text uses the Irish word "Flayn", "Prince", in addition to Dominus as his title.

Notes and references

Notes

1. This family tree is based on a tree of the Lords of Muskerry,^[1] and on genealogies of the MacCarthys of Muskerry family.^[2][3] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Citations

1. Gillman 1892, fold-out.
2. Lainé 1836, pp. 74–78Genealogy of the MacCarthy of Muskerry family
3. O'Hart 1892, pp. 122–125. Genealogy of the MacCarthys of Muskerry
4. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, right column, line 1. "119. Cormac Laidir: his son; b. 1411;"
5. Gibson 1861, p. 84, line 9. "There were at this time four distinct chieftainships of the Mac Carthys; the Mac Carthys Mor, or lords of Desmond, and their off-shoots, namely, the Mac Carthys Reagh of Carbery, the Donough Mac Carthys of Duhallow, and the Mac Carthys of Muskerry."
6. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, left column. "116. Dermod Mór: son of Cormac Mór, Prince of Desmond; b. 1310; created by the English in A.D. 1353, 'Lord of Muskerry' ..."
7. O'Hart 1892, p. 112, right column. "115. Cormac MacCarthy Mór, Prince of Desmond: his son; b. 1271; d. 1359."
8. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, top. "Cormac MacCarty Mor, Prince of Desmond (see the MacCarty Mór Stem, No. 115,) had a second son, Dermod Mór, of Muscry (now Muskerry) who was the ancestor of MacCarthy, lords of Muscry and earls of Clan Carthy."
9. Lainé 1836, p. 72. "Dermod-Môr, Mac-Carthy, fils puiné de Cormac-Môr, prince de Desmond et d'Honoria Fitz-Maurice, eut en apanage la baronnie de Muskery ..."
10. Lodge 1789, p. 189, line 21. "... Mary, married to Cormac, Mac-Carthy, lord or chief of Muskery ..."
11. Archbold 1893, p. 435, right column, line 26. "MacCarthy, Cormac Laidir Oge: (d. 1536), Irish chieftain, and Lord of Muskerry, was son of Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, lord of Muskerry (d. 1494) by Mary Fitzmaurice, daughter of Edmund, ninth lord of Kerry."
12. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, right column, last line. "120. Cormac Oge, lord of Muscry: son of Cormac Laidir; b. A.D. 1447; d. in 1537; buried at Kilcrea ..."
13. McCormack 2009a, 1st paragraph, 3rd sentence. "...[Thomas FitzGerald] who was married to his sister Sheila ..."
14. McCormack 2009b, 1st paragraph. "He [Thomas FitzGerald] married first Sheila (Gille), sister of Cormac Óg Láidir, who was still living in 1505."
15. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, right column, line 4. "... and a dau. [daughter] who married Donal MacCarthy-Reagh of Carbery."
16. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, left column, line. "118. Teige (or Thadeus), Lord of Muscry: his son; b. 1380, d. 1448."
17. Woods 1896, p. 344. "As the two castles were built by the same lord of Muskerry, who was killed in 1495, and as Carignamuck keep is a finished copy of what the Blarney keep became with its later addition, it may be inferred that the order of building was first the original small keep (a) of Blarney, next the addition (b) bringing this keep to its existing form, and last the smaller copy of this form at Carrignamuck."
18. O'Hart 1892, p. 122, right column, line 6. "This Cormac, in 1465, founded the Franciscan Monastery of Kilkredhe or Cillcredhe (now 'Kilcrea') ..."
19. O'Donovan 1856, p. 1213. "Cormac (i. e. Mac Carthy) the son of Teige, son of Cormac, Lord of Muskerry, was slain by his own brother, Owen, and his sons."
20. Westropp 1908, p. 159. "Of his tomb nothing but a plain recess is to be found, but its inscribed slab was long legible and a copy is preserved."
21. Windele 1839, p. 223, line 6.

Sources

• Archbold, William Arthur Jobson (1893). "MacCarthy, Cormac Laidir". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XXXIV. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. pp. 435–436. OCLC 8544105.
• Gibson, Charles Bernard (1861). The History of the County and City of Cork. Vol. I. London: Thomas C. Newby. OCLC 1046580159. – to 1603
• Gillman, Herbert Webb (1892). "Historical Pedigree 1380 to 1641 A.D., of MacCarthys, Lord of Muskerry, Co. Cork" (PDF). Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. 1 (10). fold-out.
• Lainé, P. Louis (1836). "Mac-Carthy". Archives généalogiques et historiques de la noblesse de France [Genealogical and Historical Archives of the Nobility of France] (in French). Vol. Tome cinquième. Paris: Imprimerie de Bethune et Plon. pp. 1–102. OCLC 865941166.
• Lodge, John (1789). Archdall, Mervyn (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. II. Dublin: James Moore. OCLC 264906028. – Earls (for Earl of Kerry)
• McCormack, Anthony M. (October 2009a). "MacCarthy (Mac Carthaigh), Cormac Óg Láidir". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
• McCormack, Anthony M. (October 2009b). McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). "FitzGerald, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 5 December 2021. – "The bald", earl of Desmond
• O'Donovan, John, ed. (1856). Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the four Masters, from the Earliest Period to 1606. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co. OCLC 1039472242. – 1373 to 1500
• O'Hart, John (1892). Irish Pedigrees: Or, the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation. Vol. I (5th ed.). Dublin: James Duffy & Co. OCLC 7239210. – Irish stem
• Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1908). "The Monastery of St. Brigid, Kilcrea, and the Castle of the MacCarthys" (PDF). Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. 14 (80): 157–177.
• Windele, John (1839). Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork and its Vicinity. Cork: Luke H. Bolster. OCLC 20432940.
• Woods, Cecil Crawford (1896). "Blarney Castle, County Cork, Double Structure of its Keep" (PDF). Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaelological Society. 2 (20): 337–344.