Notables and Namesakes

Famous and Notorious Cuindlis Family Members

Various ancestors and relatives have notably stood out from the crowd, attracting in-depth coverage in historical, biographical, and pop-culture materials:

Cuindles or Coinndles (fl. 713–724), 17th abbot of Clonmacnoise in the ancient kingdom of Uí Failghe (now County Offaly, Leinster, Ireland); he was originally of Soghain, another minor kingdom (originally possibly of the Cruithin, the Irish Picts) in what today is east-central Co. Galway, Connacht. [Image: Ruins of medieval monastery surrounded by high crosses and grave markers]Ruins of Clonmacnoise
(by Klaus Bärwinkel)
Domnall Ó Cuindlis (or Domhnall Ó Coinleisc; d. 1342), historian in Uí Mháine (present-day Galway and Roscommon, Ireland); mentioned in the Annals of Connacht. [Image:Stylized scribe with book, bordered by Celtic knotwork, from medieval Irish manuscript]
Medieval Irish scribe as depicted by medieval Irish scribes
Murchadh Riabhach Ó Cuindlis (fl. 1398–1411), scribe in Uí Mháine and in Múscraige Tíre (present-day North Tipperary). He wrote most of An Leabhar Breac (The Speckecled Book), helped write An Leabhar Mór Leacáin (The Great Book of Lecan), and is also credited with the now-lost An Leabhar Ruadh Muimhneach (The Red Book of Munster). He was originally from Duniry, Galway. Other spellings of his name include Muircheartach or Murchad, and Ó Cuinnlis. Riabhach may have been a by-name/nickname, as it means ‘grey’ (or ‘streaked’), perhaps a reference to an elderly scholar’s hair. [Image:Detail from page of medieval manuscript; it is really not clear what it illustrates, but it is interesting.]
Detail from a page of An Leabhar Breac, ca. 1411
Cornelius Ó Cuinnlis, OFM (also spelled Ó Cunlis or O’Cunlis), Catholic Bishop of Emly (1444–48) and Clonfert (1448 – ca. 1463), in east Co. Galway. Afterwards he was a “bishop in the universal church” (without a diocese), serving as a nuncio or papal ambassador in Ireland, tasked with fundraising against the Ottoman Turks. In 1469, he co-consecrated a new bishop, Thadeus, of Down and Connor11. He died in or after 1469 (after retiring to Rome). While at Clonfert, he is believed to have been responsible (under patronage of the 4th Earl of Ormond) for a major phase of expansion of the Clonfert Cathedral of St. Brendan10, famous for its elaborate entry arch. [Image:Extremely elaborate stone church entrace, with mutiple decorative arches, over which is a peaked design featuring human heads and other motifs]
Entrance of Clonfert Cathedral
(by JohnArmagh)
[There’s a huge 1469–1730s gap here. Biographical dictionaries may be a good place to start filling it in. Have an entry to propose? Contact us.]
John M’Candlish, Provost (Mayor) of the royal burgh of Whithorn, Wigtownshire, ca. 1730s–40s; his wife Jean (Houston) died 1748 and was already a widow3. Whithorn is famous as the site of the first Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa (‘White/Shining House’), founded by Saint Ninian around 397 AD.
Robert Smith Candlish (1806–1873), Edinburgh minister; a founder of the Free Church of Scotland, a leader of the non-intrusion party, and a central figure in the Great Disruption of 1843; author of at least 11 theological works; father of James Smith Candlish. [Image: Late-middle-aged Robert Smith Candlish, with neck-beard, rather wild hair, and a black overcoat]
Wilson McCandless (1810–1882), US federal distrinct judge of the Western District of Pennsylvania (1859–76), and for a while the state Secretary of Internal Affairs; McCandless Township (see below) was named after him in 1857. [Image: Portrait of Wilson McCandless in later years with grey or white hair, in formalwear]
John Candlish (1816–1874), Liberal Party member of Parliament for Sunderland, Durham, England, 1866–1874; glass bottle manufacturer. [Image: Detail of bronze statue of John Candlish MP, a middle-aged man with a large beard]
(by Craigy144)
John MacGregor McCandlish, WS FRSE (1821–1901), Scottish lawyer; first president of the Faculty of Actuaries.
David Colbert McCanles (1828-1861), rancher, former sheriff in North Carolina, and later an alleged outlaw of “the McCanles Gang” (see below) in Nebraska; killed by “Wild Bill” Hickok5. [Image: David C. McCanles in a rather outlandishly large hat, with a decorative scarf]
William “Buck” McCandless (b. 1834, Ireland or Pennsylvania; d. 1884, Philadelphia), Union Army officer in the American Civil War, and later member of the Pennsylvania State Senate (1st District, 1867–69), and first Secretary of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania (1875–79). [Image: William McCandless probably aged about 45, a full-bearded man in a high-necked, buttoned coat]
James Smith Candlish (1835–1897), minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and a professor of theology in Glasgow; author of 7 books on theology; son of Robert Smith Candlish.
Margaret Ann McCandless (Fulton), author in Northern Ireland. Wrote the temperance song “Catch My Pal”, popular as far away as London; and the book Arthur, or The Choirister’s Rest1 (1861, republished 1880, 1883, 1897 – a remarkable print run for a Victorian Christian children’s story). [Image: Book cover featuring two-colour art of a preacher talking to a boy of about 10]
Lincoln “Link” Loy McCandless (1859–1940), American cattle rancher, industrialist, and politician; member of Republic of Hawai’i House of Representatives, 1898–1900 (Republican); Territory of Hawaii Senator, 1902–06 (Republican); Territorial Delegate to US House of Representatives, 1933–35 (Democrat). [Image: Portrait of Lincoln Loy McCandless in an early-20th-century tuxedo]
Patrick Dalmahoy McCandlish, CBE, VC, DSO (1871–1942), of Edinburgh, was a distinguished British military officer, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, rising to lieutenant-colonel in 1919, and serving as the Assistant Quartermaster-General for the Army. Later a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant of West Lothian. [Image: P. D. McCandlish probably in his early 30s, in late-Victorian army jacket with high, decorative collar. He has a wide moustache, and short, parted hair.]
Byron McCandless (1881–1967), vexillologist, inventor, and commodore in the US Navy; became commanding officer of the USN Destroyer Base (San Diego, California) in 1937, after several other high-profile appointments; a street in San Diego is named after him. [Image: Byron McCandless late in his career]
Benjamin Vaughan McCandlish (1886–1975), US Navy flag officer; 36th naval governor of Guam; recipient of the Navy Cross. [Image: Benjamin McCandlish in his 20s, young man with parted dark hair, in a period US Navy peacoat]
Edward Gerstell McCandlish (1887-1946), American illustrator, mapmaker, toymaker, and author of the Bunny Tots series of children’s books (1920s); perhaps best known for illustrating Laboulaye’s Fairy Book. [Image: Two photos of Edward G. McCandlish, one in his 20s and one in his 50s]
Raymond (Ray) Beebe McCandless (1889–1931), American college sports coach. [Image: Ray B. McCandless in a tanktop]
Alva John McAndless (1890–1954), a president of the American Institute of Actuaries and of the American Life Convention, and a director of the Institute of Life Insurance, among various other leadership and advisory positions in the insurance and finance sector. [Image: Alva McAndless at about age 45, a balding man in a light suit and dark necktie]
Scott Cook “Jack” McCandless (1891–1961), Major League Baseball player (Baltimore Terrapins).
John (Jack) McCandless (1892–1940), Irish football (soccer) player (in England) and manager (in N. Ireland); co-founder of Coleraine FC. [Image: Jack McCandless in an Edwardian suit]
William (Billy) McCandless (1894–1955), Northern Irish football player and manager, most active in Scotland and Wales. [Image: Billy McCandlish, cut-out from a team promotional picture]
Timothy (alias Harry) Quinlisk (1895–1920), an Irish Brigade member and former WWI German POW, who later acted as a double-agent for the British; executed by the Irish Republican Army at Ballyphehane, County Cork, Ireland, for trying to betray the location of a key IRA leader, Michael Collins. [Image: Two rather rough photos of Timothy Quinlisk, the only known pictures of him.]
Stanley Russell McCandless (1897–1967), considered to be the first theatrical-lighting educator. [Image: Stanley McCandless late in life, a balding man with a white goatee, in a light suit and dark tie]
John Edward Chalmers McCandlish, CB, CBE (1901–1974), British Army major-general, of the Royal Engineers; was Deputy Adjutant-General of the British Army of the Rhine (1945–46), among other high appointments. [Image: J. E. C. McCandlish in uniform, with glasses]
(by Walter Stoneman; from
National Portrait Gallery, London)
Bruce McCandless I (1911–1968), US Navy rear admiral, and Medal of Honor recipient. Also the author of Service Etiquette;: Correct Social Usage for Service Men on Official and Unofficial Occasions (1959). [Image: Bruce McCandless I in white US Navy uniform with Navy Cross medal.]
Rex McCandless (1915–1992), Northern Irish motorcycle road racer, designer of the Norton Featherbed motorcycle frame; brother of Cromie. Subject of the biographies Sweet Dreams: The Life and Work of Rex McCandless by G. Small (1989) and To Make a Better Mousetrap by R. L. Jennings (2004). [Image: Rex McCandless fairly late in life, probably mid-50s; a smiling man with greying light hair, in a plaid suit]
James Conlisk Jr. (1918–1984), 51st Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, 1967–73. [Image: James Conlisk Jr., middle-aged, in glasses, and in police uniform.]
W. A. C. “Cromie” McCandless (1921–1992), Northern Irish motorcycle road racer; brother of Rex. [Image: Cromie McCandless at 31, a dark-haired man smiling, in a leather jacket and a white scarf]
James Sutton McCandless (fl. 1922), Imperial Potentate of Shriners North America. [Image: A late-middle-aged James S. McCandless in a mid-20th-century suit]
William Leslie McCandlish, British dog breeder; chairman of the Kennel Club, 1925–1935. [Image: William McCandlish about 45, a man with short dark hair, a pronounced widow's peak, a monocle, and a club-collared shirt]
Alfred (Al) A. McCandless (1927–2017), US Congressman (Republican of California) 1983–1995. [Image: Al McCandless smiling, in a suit.]
Bruce McCandless II (1937–2017), US Navy capitain (pilot), and NASA astronaut who made the first untethered spacewalk, on 11 January 1984 as part of Challenger space shuttle mission STS-41-B. Among McCandless’s many honours were the National Defense Service Medal, Defense Distinguished Service Medal, and Legion of Merit. [Image: Bruce McCandless II in NASA space suit without helmet]
John Louis Conlisk PhD (1939–2021), Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego; his work on Markov chains was acknowledged by giants in the ecology field. [Image: Two photos of John L. Conlisk, in this 30s and much later in life]
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. (1947–), American jazz woodwind player and composer. He was part of the band Oregon (with Ralph Towner, Collin Walcott, and Glen Moore); has released solo albums as well as collaborations with Spencer Brewer, Art Lande, David Samuels, Kostia, David Oliver, Blair Braverman, Peter Barshay, Alan Hall, Steven Halpern, and others; and has performed live with String Cheese Incident, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, etc. [Image: Peter McCandless in his 30s in 1981, and elderly in 2010]
(1981 press pic; 2010 by Svíčková)
Christopher (Chris) Johnson McCandless (1968–1992), American hiker and itinerant traveler who starved to death in Alaska; the subject of multiple non-fiction books and documentaries, beginning with Into the Wild (1996), and has his own chapter in the book Great Misadventures, Vol. 1. Coined the slogan “Happiness is only real when shared”, and has built up something of a posthumous fandom. [Image: Chris McCandless smiling outdoors, sitting against his repurposed bus]
Louise Candlish (b. 1968, Hexham, Northumberland), author of at least 15 novels, including The Heights, The Other Passenger, Those People, The Only Suspect, and Our House, the last of which was the winner of British Book Awards “Crime & Thriller Book of the Year 2019” and adapted into a 2021–2022 television series on ITV in the UK.8 [Image: Louise Candlish with a striped shirt and a microphone, looking to her right]
(2021, by Roger Green)
Mackey “Avatar” McCandlish, animator; co-creator of the film Blahbalicious.
Sanni McCandless Honnold (b. Cassandra McCandless, 1992), an American actress who has appeared in Motherhood Unstressed (2020) and the rock-climbing documentary Free Solo (2018). She has more lately become an Internet personality on social media with outdoors-focused life-coaching material, and is a co-founder of the Outwild.co adventure-sports event series and online community. She is married to pro climber Alex Honnold.7 [Image: Sanni McCandless Honnold in a blue blouse, with hair pulled back]

Namesakes

Various places and things have been named after family members, or have names from the same derivation as Cuindlis:

McCandless Archeological Site, an 8000 BC – 1000 AD prehistoric quarry of the “Delaware Chalcedony Complex”. Near present-day Elkton in Cecil County, Maryland, it has been listed as a National Register Historic Place since 1983, and is part of a complex of sites used during various phases of stone tool production by ancient Native Americans. It is unclear whom it was named after, but such sites are often named for the owner of the property on which they are discovered.  
Kells, Co. Meath, Leinster, Ireland: a town best known as the home of the Abbey of Kells (founded legendarily ca. 554 by St Columcille/Columba who later started the first mission to heathen Scotland, and certainly no later than 804–814), for centuries home of the famous Book of Kells (ca. 800), and believed to be the same place as Cúil Sibrinne in the 12th-century epic Táin Bó Cúalnge, the seat of High Hing Diarmait mac Cerbaill (d. ca. 565). It was called one of the five “greatest towns of estimation that was in ancient time in Ireland” in the 16th-century Book of Howth. One of the names of this place was variously recorded as Cenalas, Keneles, Kenelles, Cenlas, Cenles, Kenles, Cenlis, Kenlis, Kenlys, Kelles, and eventually Kells, from the medieval to modern periods. The ultimate origin of these versions of the name, with an l, is believed to be Ceann Lios literally ‘Head Ring-fort’, more loosely ‘Headland Fort’, ‘Fort of the Chief’, or ‘Leading Fort’, depending on interpretation. The Ceann Lios/Kenlis forms are essentially the same name as Cuindlis, composed of the same cean[n][d]/cuin[n][d]/con[n][d] ‘head’ and lios/lis/leas ‘enclosure, ring-fort’ elements. This is probably a linguistic coincidence, and it is unlikely that Kenles/Kells was named after a Cuindlis, but is rather a descriptive place-name. Regardless, it was certainly interpreted as ‘head’ + ‘fort’ by the late medieval period, as local Taylor gentry used the titles Barons later Marquesses of Headfort at a Headfort House/Demesne there, and Headfort Place remains a nearby village. These versions of the name seem to have come about later, as the forms without l go back to ca. 690. In Modern Irish, Kells is named Ceanannas (lenited Cheanannais), from an Old Irish form possibly meaning ‘head seat, chief dwelling’, but maybe ‘fair/white headland’. This was anglicized as Kenenus and the like.12 Though the original monastic settlement was walled, Ceann Lios/Kenlis may have come about after a castle was built by the de Lacys, as an Anglo-Norman stronghold against the Gaels of Bréifne (later Co. Cavan) in the late 12th century, and the whole town was walled by 1326; the name based on these structures eventually came to mostly eclipse the original, until Ceanannas was officially re-imposed in the 20th century. A record of 1568 refers to it as “Kenles alias Kelles”, indicating name transition to Kells probably around the 16th century.13 [Image: Most of a stone Celtic cross, some grave stones in a green lawn, and in the background some trees and a tall, thin stone tower.]
(Abbey of Kells ruins, Meath,
by Sitomon, 2007)
There is another lately-named-Ceanannas, in Co. Kilkenny (and legendarily founded in the early 6th century by St Ciarán of Saigir, but certainly established by ca. 1183–1193 as Kells Priory), also anglicised as Kells and also called Kenles in the 13th–14th centuries, and more recently Kenles, Kenelis, Kenlis, Kenlys, Kenllis, definitely from the same Irish words for ‘head/chief’ and ‘enclosure/ring-fort’, and possibly so named for being the seat of kings of the medieval realms of Munster and Ossory (Osraige). It was once a walled/fortified town which could also explain the ‘enclosure’ version of its name.14 [Image: Ruins of a stone wall and massive gate, with building in the background, including a fairly intact tower, and peaked church from which the roof is long gone.]
(Kells Priory ruins, Kilkenny,
by Humphrey Bolton, 2014)
A third Kells, near Connor in Co. Antrim (and founded legendarily before 514, for certain by 828), seems instead to be from Na Cealla ‘The [monastic] Cells’ later ‘The Churches/Chapels’ (and it was long called that, with Na Cealla remaining its official name in Modern Irish). However, it too was referred to historically sometimes as Ceneles, Kenles, Kenlis, and Kenlys, so possibly (in that form) from the same roots as Cuindlis. (Historically, that Kells was also called Disert, Diseart, Dysart, etc., an unrelated name.)15 [Image: Remains of part of a small stone church building, surrounded by green grass, trees, and vines.]
(Kells Abbey ruins, Antrim,
by Mary Byrne Orr, 2008)
Ballymaganlis (Parish of Dromore, Barony of Iveagh Lower, Lower Half), Co. Down, in Irish is Baile na Ceann Lios, Baile-na-ceann-lios ‘Town of the Head/Chief Ring-fort’. The rath or ring-fort that the area is likely named for (again, not after a Cuindlis person) is the Mound of Dromore, “in early times a place of great importance”, the earthenworks of which are around 600 feet (183 m) in circumference, and 60 feet (18 m) high; it is surrounded by some 20 minor forts and other mounds.18 (An alternative Irish name of this place has been suggested but is linguistically improbable and likely a modern imposition.19) The nearby townland of Magheraconluce/Maghereconlish, in the same barony, may likewise be from Machaire Cinn/Ceann Lios (‘Plain of the Head Ring-fort’) or could be a corruption of Machaire Cluana Lios (‘Plain of the Meadow of the Ring-fort’) as it also has appeared as Magheraclonelish. (See footnote for details, leaning toward the former interpretation.16) [Image: Two-tiered mound of an ancient hill-fort, covered in green grass.]
(Mound of Dromore, Ballymagalis,
by Eric Jones, 2017)
Caherconlish (modern Irish Gaelic: Cathair Chinn Lis, meaning ‘fort of the head[land] of the enclosure’), a small town, townland, and civil parish in the barony of Clanwilliam, County Limerick, Munster, Ireland. The Conlish/C[h]inn Lis element is again exactly cognate with Old Irish Cuin[d]lis. Probably this is coincidental and it was not named after someone called Conlisk/Cuinlis, though it is only a little south-west of the lands in North Tipperary, Munster, where families by such names are attested outside of Connacht. (See map here.) The town was once home to a college and several castles. It seems to have been fortified in stone (thus Caher/Cathair ‘fort’, though it could also mean ‘fortified town or monastic settlement’) by the Anglo-Normans (probably William de Burgh, ca. 1160–1206, namesake of Clanwilliam), on a pre-invasion earthenwork site, probably originally Conlish/Cinn Lis. In the reign of Edward I of England, it was spelled Karkenlis by the English4. In 1304, it was razed by one Turlough O’Brien and his Gaelic army, only to be rebuilt later. It was formally incorporated on 9 November 1358 in the reign of William III, when it was spelled Catherkenlyshe by the English. It has also been spelled Cahirconlish, Cahir Conlish, Caher-Kinlish, Kahirkinlish, Caher Kenlish, or Carkinleshe into early-modern times. In earlier Irish, it was spelled Cathair C[h]innlis, Cathair Chinn-lis, Cathair Chinn Leis, Caithair-cin-lis, or Geathir Chinnlis).2 Caherconlish is mentioned, as a “cathir Chinn Lis“, in a Middle Irish poem commemorating the raiding exploits of Donnchadh Ó Ceallacháin (d. 1577) of Dromaneen Castle in Cork.20 Caherconlish was later to be hit hard by the Potato Famine, as revealed in parliamentary reports of 1846.17 [Image: Ruins of castle, overgrown with ivy vines.]
(Carrigarreely Castle ruins,
Caherconlish; by Liam)
There are other places in Ireland that have been called Kenlis, Kells, Kinlestown, Kenleston, Maghereconlish, Clonlisk, and Conlastown, all possibly to certainly from unrelated etymologies (see footnote for details16).
McCandless, Pennsylvania, a town (technically township) of approx. 29,000 people and 16.6 square miles (43 km2), on the Allegheny Plateau in north Allegheny County. It was incorporated in 1857, and named after judge Wilson McCandless (see above). Today it has become a suburb of Pittsburgh, with the city’s growth. McCandless has been ranked among Money Magazine‘s “Best Places to Live” since 2011. [Image: Town logo featuring a streetcar, a tree, and a radio tower]
McCandlish Hall, a community centre in Straiton, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Built in 1912, it is unknown who it was named for. If you have details, please contact us. [Image: Whitewashed building with tile roof on cobbled street; it features 'McCandlish Hall' in Art Deco lettering.]
(by Allmhurach)
McCandless Hall, the Greek Revival building that houses Griffin Auditorium, Fiddlers Museum, and the Delmore Brothers Museum, and is the home of the drama, music, art, and academic affairs departments at Athens State Univesity in Athens, Limestone Co., Alabama. Built 1912–1914, when the institution was Athens Female College, and renovated in 2013, it is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. The building is named for former faculty member and concert pianist Katherine (Kate) Leslie McCandless. It has been claimed to be haunted by the ghost of an opera singer named Abigail Burns who performed at the hall’s opening in 1914 and died the same night (though researchers of ghost stories have turned up no evidence of any such singer or death).9 [Image: Red brick building with Greek Revival entrance in white, with prominent 'McCandless Hall' labeling.]
The McCandless Method, a system of stage lighting developed by Stanley McCandless (see above) in his 1932 book A Method of Lighting the Stage (currently in its 4th edition, 2020) and the 1964 followup A Syllabus of Stage Lighting. The McCandless Method remains in wide use for modern theatrical productions. [Image: McCandless Method theatre lighting diagramme, showing various lighting positions and angles.]
(by Theatre Tech Club)
The McCandless M4, a single-seater ultra-light autogyro (gyrocopter) first flown in 1961, and powered by a series of motorcycle engines. It was devised by Rex and Cromie McCandless (see above) of Northern Ireland, who built 8 of them; some of which are in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. [Image: McCandless M4, a one-seat gyrocopter with registration
(by Aviastar)
USS McCandless (DE 1084, later FF 1084, FFT 1084), a United States Navy destroyer escort (later fast frigate and training frigate). It launched 20 March 1971, and was in commissioned service 1972–1994. Named after Navy men Byron McCandless and Bruce McCandless I (see above). Ship motto: Illumino Marem (‘Illuminating the Sea’). [Image: USS McCandless starboard bow view]
McCandless Business Park in San Jose, California; McCandless Technology Park in Milpitas; and McCandless Towers in Santa Clara; all named for Silicon Valley real estate developer and former US Navy pilot Birk McCandless (of McCandless Management Corp.), who was murdered in 2000. [Image: Wide-angle view of McCandless Business park]
McCandless Business Park
(by Dicklyon)
McCandless Lunar Lander, an unmanned cargo spacecraft designed in 2018–19 for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). It remains in the design stage as of 2023. It is named after astronaut Bruce McCandless II (see above). [Image: Computer-generated image of proposed McCandless Lunar Lander on the Moon with the Earth in the background.]
McCandless Grove, a small planting of trees in the Calendonian forest seeded on 2020-05-12, by Malcolm, Ian, George, Roselyn, Pauline and Theresa McCandless of [location unknown]. This is part of a re-wilding project of 7,500+ mini-groves of native trees in the Highlands, run by the charity Trees for Life. The groves are planted in Dundreggan, a bit north of Glenmoriston, to the west of Loch Ness. More trees can be added to the grove for a £6 donation each, and of course a new grove can be started (£30 minimum). Conservationally, this is a great idea, because the English planted invasive non-native trees that over the last several centuries have been sorely crowding out the native Scottish species.

Fictional

[Image: charcoal or pencil drawing of 'Wild Bill' Hickok fighting 5 men]
“Wild Bill” Hickok fighting the supposed “M’Kanlas Gang”
(from Harper’s Magazine, February 1867)5 McCandless and related names pop up here and there in movies, books, and TV shows. These are the “sightings” to date:

  • The McCanles, M’Kanlas, or McCandless outlaw gang was essentially a fiction invented by “Wild Bill” Hickok. David Colbert McCanles (see above) was a real person, but there is no evidence he ran an outlaw gang, and by all credible accounts, Hickok murdered him and his elder son in cold blood. The “McC. Gang” has made various appearances in fictional and pseudo-historical accounts, ranging from Harper’s Magazine of the period, to later western films, to poorly researched old west “history” books.5
  • The 1946 western film Duel in the Sun (directed by King Vidor), centers on a fictional McCanles family: Senator Jackson McCanles (played by Lionel Barrymore), wife Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), and sons Lewton (Gregory Peck) and Jesse (Joseph Cotten). The movie is based on the 1944 novel of the same title by Niven Busch.
  • [Do you know the name of this film? Contact us!] There is a ca. 1950s to early 1960s film, a precursor of Saving Private Ryan, about three or four brothers named McCandless all ultimately killed in WWII and who had a ship named after them. (The ship is fictional and not to be confused with the real USS McCandless; see above.) The story seems to be loosely based on that told in The Fighting Sullivans (1944), based on a true story about brothers of another name.
  • John Wayne played the titular Jacob “Big Jake” McCandles in the 1971 western movie Big Jake (dir. George Sherman). Maureen O’Hara plays wife Martha, and Patrick Wayne (John’s real-life second son), Christopher Mitchum, and Bobby Vinton play their sons James, Michael, and Jeff, respectively. Grandson Little Jake was played by John Wayne’s own youngest son Ethan Wayne.
  • Wanda Nell McCandless was a one-off character appearing in the 1970s–80s TV series M*A*S*H (season 3, episode 13, “Mad Dogs and Servicemen”; originally aired on 10 December 1974). She was named for Douglas Montrose McCandless (a son of Bruce McCandless I, see above), acquainted with the daughter of one of the writers of the episode, who apparently needed an interesting name to use. [Who played her role? Contact us if you know. Even IMDb doesn’t have this detail.]
  • Capitol, a 1982–1987 soap opera, focused on a feud between two political families, the McCandlesses and the Cleggs, of Washington DC. The patriarch, Judge Tyler McCandless Sr. was played by Rory Calhoun; daughter Clarissa by Constance Towers; son and politician Tyler Jr. by David Mason Daniels and later Dane Witherspoon; son Thomas by Brian-Robert Taylor and later Michael Catlin; son Wally by Bill Beyers; son Matt by Chris Durham; and adoptive daughter Gillian by Kelly Palzis. Some later actual celebrities were in this show, including Teri Hatcher. The series, which ran on the CBS network and was produced by John Conboy (The Young the Restless) was the very first “daytime serial” (soap) to be introduced into American prime-time programming, and thereby started a lasting subgenre (The Sopranos, etc.). Head writers included Stephen & Elinor Karpf, Joyce & John William Carrington, Peggy O’Shea, and Henry Slesar. The show frustrated some viewers by ending with a cliffhanger that was never resolved.
  • Capt. Phillip McCandless, his mysterious demise, and his thrice-widowed wife Rachel Fleming Barlow Newman McCandless are the subject of the steamy 1991 romance and southern American historical novel (set in 1895) Promise Me Forever by Jannelle Taylor.
  • Ian “Mac” McCandless, an evil or at least morally ambiguous tycoon, is played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1992 sci-fi movie Freejack (dir. Geoff Murphy), also starring Emilio Estévez, Mick Jagger, Rene Russo, and David Johansen. The film is loosely based on the 1959 novel Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley.
  • Archibald McCandless, narrator of Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer, a “Victorian sci-fi” (steampunk) novel by Alasdair Gray; generally favoured in reviews. Adapted into a 2023 film, Poor Things (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos; starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael); the character’s name was changeed to Max McCandles.
  • Col. Hector McCandless of the British East India Company merchant marines is a recurring and heroic role in Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series of historical novels set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (and adapted into a TV series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe).
  • Ramona McCandless of Silent Vale Corporation and the LinkNet Alliance is a character in the massively-multiplayer game Eve Online (2003–), a combination of sci-fi roleplay and space combat sim, which is mostly written on-the-fly by the players rather than by a team of professional authors.
  • Ray McCandless is a “wise yet firm chauffer” serving as a (Mormon) mentor to the main character, during his journey out of a delinquent childhood, in One Last Chance: A Novel, by Jerry Borrowman, 2009.
  • Faolchu Mac Cuindlis, in the video game Mount & Blade: Warband (2010), is a 9th-century Irish monk in Glendalough, Leinster, Ireland, and destined to be slaughtered during a Viking raid6. We’re told that the name was arrived at with a random Gaelic name generator, and not based on any particular historical person. It’s cool that Cuindlis was included in the generator.
  • Sasha McCandless is the titular heroine in an ongoing series of legal thrillers by Mellisa F. Miller (15 volumes between 2011 and 2022, many reaching the USA Today bestsellers list).
  • Sean McCandless is “an apparently crazed gunman” who actually turns out to be hunting sex criminals, in a weird and rather adult 2014 novel, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, by Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting fame. (It’s a little odd that this Scottish author picked the predominantly Nothern Irish spelling of the name.)
  • Carey McCandless, private detective, is the main character of McCandless & Company (2016–), a comic book and graphic novel series in the crime noir vein, by writer J. C. Vaughan (24; Stargate Atlantis; Vampire, PA) and artists Gene Gonzales (Tales of the Cherokee), Harry Roland (best known for painted covers for Heavy Metal, comics, and novels), Ben Dale (Little Knight, Zombie Jr.), Chris Chua (Six, Rockets & Robots, Thrills & Chills), and J. Kevin Topham (Battlestar Galactica); published by American Mythology and later by Well-Defined Productions and Century Comics.

Footnotes

This page re-uses material from the Wikipedia articles “Candlish“, “McCandlish“, and “McCandless (surname)“, and others, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Other sources

1: McCandless, Sarah Adeline; “Some Annals of the West Branch of the Highland Family of McCandlish-Buchanan”; A Ready Reference Sketch of Erin and Alban; Pittsburgh: self-published; 1918. Reprinted, Salem, Massachusetts: Higginson Book Co.; 2006; pp. 134–135, 167. This source truncated the book title to “Arthur’s Rest“, but the full title is readily identifiable, along with publication dates, publisher (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), and other details, via bibliographic databases.

2: Sources for various spellings:

  • “Cathair Chinn Lis”, at “Archival Records”; Logainm.ie: Placenames Database of Ireland; 2023; Digital Respository of Ireland, Government of Ireland; https://www.logainm.ie/en/1514 (accessed 2023-09-08).
  • Vicars, Arthur (ed.); Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland, 1536–1810; 1897; Dublin: Edwad Ponsonby; pp. 87, 168, 411, 493, 495.
  • Cokayne, G. E.; “Pedigree of Maunsell”, The Genealogist; Vol. XIX (New Series); 1903; London: George Bell & Sons / Exeter: William Pollard & Co.; p. 237; https://www.google.com/books/edition/Genealogist/W4EXIQ2RIVcC?hl=en&gbpv=0

3: Grant, Francis J.; The Commissariot Record of Wigtown: Testaments, 1700–1800; Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society; 1904; pp. 9, 10.

4: Mills, James (ed.); Calendar of the Justiciary Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office of Ireland, XXIII to XXXI Years of Edward I; 1905; Dublin: HM Stationery Office; pp. 297, 514.

5: The lurid and largely fictional account of “Wild Bill” Hickok versus the “M’Kanlas Gang” is from: Nichols; George Ward; “Wild Bill”; Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, vol. 34, issue 201; February 1867; pp. 273–286; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b000541577&view=1up&seq=283; via Hathi Trust. For more reliable accounts of the murder of David C. McCanles and his elder son, see:

  • Rosa, Joseph G.; They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok; 1964; University of Oklahoma Press; pp. 34–52.
  • Connelley, William E.; “Wild Bill – James Butler Hickok: David C. McCanles at Rock Creek”; Collections, vol. 17; 1926–1928; Kanas State Historical Society; pp. 1–27.
  • Hansen, George W.; “True Story of Wild Bill–McCanles Affray in Jefferson County, Nebraska, July 12, 1861”; Nebraska History Magazine, vol. 10; April–June 1927; pp. 67–146
  • Dawson, Charles; Pioneer Tales of the Oregon Trail and of Jefferson County; 1912; Topeka, Kansas: Crane & Co.; pp. 178–184, 208–224.

6: “Faolchu Mac Cuindlis”, Historica.Fandom.com, 2020-05-15; https://historica.fandom.com/wiki/Faolchu_Mac_Cuindlis (accessed 2023-09-23).

7: “Sanni McCandless”; IMDb; 2023; https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10133509/ (accessed 2023-09-23). Sources conflict as to her birth-place, either Washington state or Washington DC. Photo is a cropped screen-shot from an interview: “Alex and Sanni McCandless Honnold talk diversity in climbing”; Olympics.com; 2020; International Olympic Committee; https://olympics.com/en/video/alex-and-sanni-mccandless-honnold-talk-diversity-in-climbing (accessed 2023-09-23).

8: Louise Candlish is her birth name, and used in publishing years before she was married. For the privacy of her non-celebrity husband and daughter, she does not reveal her married name in any interviews or other media.

9: Brown, Alan; “McCandless Hall”, Haunted Places in the American South; 2002; University Press of Mississippi; ISBN: 1578064775; pp. 15–19.

10: Manning, Conleth; “Clonfert Cathedral: Its medieval building phases and the date of the chancel”; Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature; 20 April 2023; DOI: 10.1353/ria.0.0010; https://muse.jhu.edu/article/892670 (subscription or instititional access required for full text, but abstract is freely available).

11: Lynch, Anthony; “A Calendar of the Reassembled Register of John Bole, Archbishop of Armagh, 1457–71”; 1992; Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society‘ Vol. 15, No. 1; DOI: 10.2307/29742537; pp. 175–176, at entry “Oct. No. 615, S. typescript, p. 1390, fo. 393v/(340v), 10 September 1469”. Quote: “Letters testimonial of Mark, cardinal priest of St Mark, bishop of Vicenza, to all, stating that on this date, by special commission and by order of Pope Pius II, Simon, bishop of Antivari, resident in the Roman curia, with the assistance of Cornelius [O Cuinnlis, O.F.M.], formerly bishop of Clonfert, now bishop in the universal church, and Nicholas [O Flannagain, O.P.], bishop of Elphin, in the church of St Mary Minerva, consecreated Thadeus, elect of Down and Connor.”

12: From Old Irish (first recorded c. 690) Cenondas, Cenannus, Cenannas, Middle Irish Ceannanas, Ceanannas, Ceannanus, Ceanannus, Ceannadhnus, Ceannadas, Cennadus, Ceanadas. See next footnote for sources.

13: Sources used for the material on Kells in Meath:

14: Sources used for the material on Kells in Kilkenny:

15: Sources used for the material on Kells in Antrim:

16: There was another place sometimes named Kenlis/Kenles/Kenlys/Kynles/Kynlis in the 13th–16th centuries, today Kellistown (Cill Osna), in the baronies of Forth and Carlow, Co. Carlow, Leinster. It was probably Cill/Ceall Osna[idh] ‘Church of Osnadh’ or perhaps Cinn Losnada/Losnaidh ‘Losnadh’s Head[land]’ all along (variants of both are attested in the early medieval period) and just corrupted into Kenlis for a while. Curiously, forms from Cill Osnadh, like Cellasnad, Kealasna, Kallasny existed alongside the Kenlis, Kenles, etc. variants, as well as more anglicized Killeston, Calleston, Kellyeston, Kellestoun and so on, with transitional/blended forms like Kenleston, Kenlesten (plus some strange divergences like Osaghned, Osaghened, Osaghenende).

Additional places named Kells are in Co. Clare, Co. Kerry, and Co. Limerick, all from Na Cealla ‘The Cells/Chapels’, and were never called anything like Kenlis. Nor was the Kells in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, probably from Gaelic cill ‘chapel, church, churchyard’ (< Old Irish cel[l] ‘church, monastic cell’, whence Modern Irish cealla and cill), though Samuel Lewis (1846) thought that it might “derive its name from its elevated situation” from a Gaelic word suggestive of that – without specifying what that word might be (and we have yet found no suitable term in Gaelic dictionaries) – or else from a Brittonic word cell meaning ‘woods’ (cognate with Irish coill[e], coillidh). Yet another Kells, in Cumbria, England, seems completely unrelated.

A place today called Kindlestown (home of Kindlestown Castle) in Delgany Parish, Rathdown Barony, Co. Wicklow (with a nearby street of Kendalstown Rise), was formerly often called Kinlestown and similar spellings, back to at least 1377 (it didn’t appear with a d in it until 1635). By all accounts, this is a “false friend”, and was named after the Anglo-Norman sheriff (ca. 1300) of Kildare, Albert de Kenley or Kenleye. In modern Irish, the place is named Cinléigh or Baile an Chinléigh, a gaelicization of Kenley[e]. However, Ordnance Survey notes on the place say that it was proposed to rename the place in Irish as C[h]inn Léis[h], which is obviously from the same ‘head[land] enclosure/fort’ origins as Cuindlis (as with Caherconlish, Cathair Chinn Leis, elsewhere on this page). This idea was based on this place-name appearing in the Leabhar Branach (Book of the O’Byrnes, ca. 1550–1630), which bardically covers much of the late-medieval history of the region. Following the itinerary described in that manuscript, the OS notes suggest that this actually was a confusion of Kinlestown with a place further east, in Co. Kildare (near Athy, in the Barony of Narragh and Reban West today) and later known as Greystown (but not to be confused with Greystones in Wicklow, nearby to Kin[d]lestown). This Greystown/Cinn Léis in Kildare has not yet been identified with a surviving modern place, but Graysland seems tentatively likely.

However, an extract from the Leabhar Branach that is available online mentions a Baile an Chinn Léith which could mean ‘Village on the Side of the Head[land]’ or ‘Village of the Uneven Head[land]’ if from le[a]th, or ‘Village of the Grey Head[land]’ if a variant of líath[a]. The latter interpretation is tempting, if this really amounts to modern-day Graysland, earlier Greys Land. However, Graysland was even earlier (back to at least the time of William I) called Cro[e]sland[e] and Crasland in a variety of spellings, and this rather English-form name might not have originally had “Grey/Gray” in it at all, but have been a reference to cross or crow. Cros[s]land[e] being also a fairly common English surname, it may simply have been imposed by Anglo-Norman settlers. If it does have an Irish element, it might be cráes/cróes ‘mouth, maw, gullet’. But it could instead derive from cró, another alternative word for cean[n][d]/cuin[n][d]/con[n][d] in its ‘enclosure’ sense (meanings of cró include ‘enclosure’ generally, ‘pen/stall/sty’, ‘hut’, ‘cell/prison’, ‘encircling band of warriors’, ‘container’, ‘hereditary property’, ‘household’). But this doesn’t sway us either way in choosing C[h]inn Léith versus C[h]inn Léis[h] – and the Leabhar Branach excerpt examined is not the entire book, which might still mention a C[h]inn Léis[h] in it somewhere. A further complication is that Baile an Chinn Léith has instead been said to be equivalent to a Ballykinley, also known as Kinleston/Kynleston (not to be confused with other similarly named places), which has not yet been identified – not a Graysland/Crosland. Sorting out the history and nomenclature may be a tall order, as Kildare was heavily Normano-Anglicized, as an extension of the Pale, even before the Tudor [re-]conquest of Ireland starting in 1534. By 1568–9, for example, a lease including Croslande specified “not … to let to any but English by both parents”. Ultimately, it is possible that the writer of the OS notes simply mistook Chinn Léith for Chinn Léis and that the latter name for a place in Kildare is a phantasm. In searching for such places in old records, a Buaile spelling is also possible (though it had a different meaning from Baile, of ‘cattle pasture’).

In the 16th century, there was yet another Kenleston, also known as Ballykelly, in Co. Dublin, but no trace of it seems to remain, and the origins of its name are unknown.

Magheraconluce, earlier Maghereconlish, is a small townland (between Dromore and Ballynahinch) in Annahild Parish, Barony of Iveagh Lower (Lower Half), Co. Down. The first part of the name is Maghera (Machaire, Maigh ‘the Plain’, Old Irish Macha). The second half of the name would seem to be the same cean[n][d]/cuin[n][d]/con[n][d] ‘head[land]’ and lios/lis/leas ‘enclosure, ring-fort’ construction as Cuindlis and various other C[h]inn Leis[h] place-names. However, the place was also called Magheraclonelish, Machaire Cluana Lios ‘Plain of the Meadow of the Enclosure/Ring-fort’. It is not clear whether Magheraclonelish was corrupted into Maghereconlish/Magheraconluce, or whether Machaire Cluana Lios and Machaire Cinn Lios names for it existed side by side. The latter is suggested by the presence nearby of Ballymaganlis/Baile na Ceann Lios ‘Town of the Head Ring-fort’, and in a neighboring barony (Iveagh Upper, Lower Half), a larger Maghera area, officially in Gaelic Machaire Rátha ‘Plain of the Ring-fort’ or ‘Ring-fort on the Plain’, where rá[i]th[a] is another Irish word signifying ‘ring-fort’ as sometimes does lios/lis/leas, though the former can also mean ‘quarters, billeting, garrison’, while the latter tended to generalize more broadly to other sorts of enclosures like ‘courtyard’ or ‘cattle pen’. The Hiberno-English word rath still means ‘ring-fort’ (i.e. a generally circular earthwork around an old-time chief’s stronghold). This broader Maghera, of which Magheraconluce is basically an outlier due to splitting up of the original Iveagh barony, lies between Castlewellan and Newcastle, and includes the town of Maghera and townlands of Drumee, Tollymore, Ballyginny, Ballyloughlin, Carnacavill, and Murlough Upper, and is home to monastic ruins known collectively as the Maghera Churches and Round Tower, also the site of the original ca. 5th century rath the region was probably named for, Rath-murbhuilg or Rathmurbhuilg ‘Ring-fort at the sea wall/inlet’, associated with St Donard (Domhanghart), and legendarily a Druidic college site in pre-Christian times. It is entirely plausible that the whole general area was called, basically, ‘Ring-fort Plain’ in one form or another. As with Kells/Kenlis/Ceann Lios and Caherconlish/Cathair Chinn Lis, the naming of Magheraconluce is unlikely to have anything to do with Cuindlis personages rather than being a descriptive place-name. (There is an unrelated Machaire Rátha, also now called simply Maghera in English, in Derry/Londonderry; it has no connection to -conlish naming.)

The townland and barony of Clonlisk (Cluain Leisc[e], Cluain Leisg, ‘meadow of laziness’), in what is now Co. Offaly, Meath, but formerly within Munster, is fairly frequently misspelled Conlisk, but there is no evidence of any relation to Cuindlis names. Earlier spellings include Clonliske, Clonlesk[e], Clounleske, Clonlyske.

Conlanstown (in Parish of Kilmacnevan, Barony of Moygoish), Co. Westmeath, was rarely (just in one 1792 record so far) referred to as Conlastown. There is no evidence of any relation to Cuindlis names. Conlan is a contraction of [O’]Connellan, which has multiple derivations, in Irish names like Ó Coinnialláinn, Ó Coinndealbhán, and others. The con[n]/coinn element in these is likely the same as the cean[n][d]/cuin[n][d]/con[n][d] ‘head’ in Cuindlis, but the other parts of the names are unrelated. For more linguistic background on such naming patterns, see “Variants, § Ó Cuind, Cuin[d]-“.

Sources for the above:

17: Accounts and Papers: Twenty-eight Volumes, 13: Scarcity in Ireland; Session 22 January – 28 August 1846; Vol. 37; 1846; London: British Parliament / William Clowes & Sons / HM Stationery Office; https://www.google.com/books/edition/Parliamentary_Papers/rXkSAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 (via Google Books). The volume numbering of this source is confusing. It seems that each of the “twenty-eight volumes” was itself divided into numerous sub-volumes (e.g. at least 37 of this larger-volume 13). The “p. 20” references below are to pages of sub-works collected within; there are over 500 pages total. The easiest way to find the applicable material is to search the PDF version from Google Books for “Caherconlish”. The collected work is also known by the short name Parliamentary Papers 1846, Vol. 37.

Caherconlish is mentioned twice: First at “Scarcity Commission Weekly Report … for the week ending the 14th day of March 1846”, p. 20 (of that sub-work, about half-way through the total volume): “Parishes Caherconlish, Ballyhood, Kilmany, Rathjerdan, Herbertstown, Kilteely, Cahercorney, Ballyhuscan, Caherelly, and Isartlawrence, in the baronies of Clanwilliam and Small County. Petition of the inhabitants of the parishes of Ballyhood, Kilmany, Rathjerdan, Herbertstown, Kilteely, Caherjerdan, Ballylinkeen, Caherelly, Isartlawrence, in the baronies of Clanwilliam and Small County, to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. Complaints of scarcity which have been made during the week: states that if ample employment be not afforded them to procure food and seed, nothing short of starvation will be the result. The application for relief: suggests that the execution of a line of road from Caherconlish to Herbertstown, being a work selected at a meeting under 1 Vict. c. 21.”

The townland is mentioned again at an included sub-work that is confusingly also titled “Scarcity Commission Weekly Report … for the week ending the 14th day of March 1846”, at another p. 20 (of that sub-work, toward the end of the total volume): “Barony of Clanwilliam, Caherconlish. Correspondent: Noble Seward, esq., M.D. Progress of disease in the potatoes: Pitted potatoes considered sound a short time since, now quite decomposed. Complaints of scarcity which have been made during the week: poor of locality are on the verge of starvation, both sound and diseased potatoes in many instances being commenced. The poor have no seed. It is reported that many have not a week’s provisions, and others starving. Fever is also apprehended to rage if relief be not afforded in course of a week. The application for relief: the works recommended should be commended without delay, and local depots of food be established.” How bad things got after that is not revealed in this material.

18: Sources for Ballymaganlis:

19: “Ballymaganlis Townland, Co. Down”; Irish Townlands; 24 April 2022; https://www.townlands.ie/down/iveagh-lower-lower-half/dromore/dromore-urban/ballymaganlis/ (accessed 2023-10-14). This appears to be a community-built site based on OpenStreetMap data.
This website asserts that the Modern Irish name of the place is Baile Mhig Amhalaidh, without providing a meaning (or any further sourcing). This may be a modern invention, would more probably have anglicized as something like “Ballymigawley”, and simply isn’t linguistically reasonable as the origin of Ballymaganlis, even if it be used today officially (which is not proven). It seems to translate as ‘Town of the Sons/Folk of Amhalaidh’, ‘Mac Amhalaidh’s Town’. That is a well-attested variant of [Mac] Amhalghaidh, a name that in various forms has been anglicized as Cauley, Cawley, McAlley, McAulay, McAuley, McAuliffe, McCally, McCauley, McCawley, McCowley, McGawley, Magawley, Gawley, McGaulay, McGauley, McGawlay, etc., though several of these also have other derivations (and some have entries on our “Variants” page, in the section for superficially similar but unrelated names). None are related to Cuindlis of course, but more to the point, it’s unclear what connection such a family name might have to Ballymaganlis, especially since those families were prominent in other parts of Ireland (counties Westmeath and Fermanagh), not Down. Further information on these surnames:

As of this writing, no information has been found regarding what Ballymaganlis was called in pre-modern times, but such data might be dispositive as to the name’s real origins. No name like that (or like “Ballymigawley”) appears in A Census of Ireland Circa 1659, nor in Index to Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536–1810. Unless this settlement was established in very recent times, we should expect – in some sources somewhere – one or more variants like Ballynacanlis, Ballynaganlis, Ballymacanlis, or further divergences like Ballenekenlis, Ballinecanles, Ballimaginlas, Balmaganlis, Balnacanlis, Bellaganlis, Bellnacunlis, Bellimaganlis, Bellymiganloss, Belnacanlis, Bolligonlace, etc. (or similarly varying versions derived from names like Awley/Caulay/Gawly/Cowley/Auliff/Calley, if the other etymology were legitimate).

20: “Cathir Chinn Lis“, in an undated Middle Irish poem of unknown authorship, known by the incipit “Deacair comhaireamh a chreach“, at stanza 23:

Ar foslongport faoi do chuir
d’éis na gcreach dho do dhénamh
agaidh a gcathir Chinn Lis
linn is fachain da aithris.

This speaks of a raid on the settlement (in a long litany of raiding). The work is a long deibhidhe poem in the dán díreach form, of 105 stanzas. It is labeled (in Irish): “Fragment for [the] triumph of Donnchaidh meic Ta[i]dhg Ruaidh [Uí Cheallacháin]”. This appears to be Donnchadh Ó Ceallacháin (O’Callaghan) (d. 1577) of Dromaneen or Dromine Castle, son of Tadgh Ruadh Ó Ceallacháin (d. 1532 or 1537), of the late-medieval gentry of Cork. A chapter is devoted to Tadgh Ruadh in Clan Callaghan: The O Callaghan Family of County Cork by Joseph F. O’Callaghan.

Last modified 2024-02-11 by SMcCandlish.