Éile
Ely · a people name of uncertain origin
Éile, in English Ely, said AY-leh. A kingdom.
The Offaly and Tipperary border. A small kingdom with one very large family in it.
The name
a people name of uncertain origin
Where
The country either side of the modern Offaly and Tipperary border.
In today's counties: Offaly (Uíbh Fhailí), Tipperary (Tiobraid Árann).
When it mattered
A vassal kingdom of Munster, prominent under the Ó Cearbhaill from the eleventh century.
Éile was never big, but the Ó Cearbhaill who ruled it were. The name became Ely O'Carroll in English, and the family held on to a lordship there long after kingdoms of that size had been swallowed elsewhere.
Its position explains its history. Éile sat where Munster, Leinster and the midlands meet, so it was useful to everybody and safe from nobody, and its kings spent most of the record accepting one overlord to keep off another.
What is left of the name
Ely O'Carroll is still used for the district, and the baronies of Eliogarty and Clonlisk preserve it.
Names out of it
Families on this site that belong to Ely. A surname is not a pedigree, and plenty of people carry these names for reasons that have nothing to do with the old kingdom.
- Carroll (Ó Cearbhaill)
Next to it
- Urmhumhain (Ormond)
- Uí Failge (Offaly)
- Osraige (Ossory)