Sir,— Brendan Smith argues in his response to my letter (HI winter 1993) that the surname Delany, ‘where it appears in north Leinster’, derives from the Norman del Anie or De Launee. This speculation may or may not be well-founded, but it should not obscure the fact that the surname is at present concentrated in Laois and adjoining counties and that there is no equivalent concentration in north Leinster. As the original territory of the Uí Dubhshláine was the Laois barony of Upper Woods, one must conclude that the great majority (if not all) of modern Delanys are descended from that pre-Norman group.
The occurrence of ‘Tracytown’ as a townland name in an area of Norman settlement may seem to support the Norman attribution of ‘Tracy’, but even a cursory examination of Wexford place names shows this reasoning to be unsound. It is enough to note that the south Wexford baronies of Forth and Bargy (surely the area of most intensive Norman settlement in all of Ireland) contain townlands called Ballybrennan, Ballycleary, Ballyconor, Ballydoyle, Ballygarvey, Ballyhealy, Ballykelly and Ballyreilly. Indeed a townland called Ballytracey is also found in the north Wexford barony of Gorey, a district which remained under the control of the MacMurroughs until the sixteenth century. It may also be relevant that the barony of Bargy derives its name from the Uí Bairche, the population group of which the Uí Treasaigh were chiefs in the eleventh century. In view of this background, there seems to be no reason to postulate a non-indigenous origin of the name ‘Tracy’.
Whatever doubts may exist concerning the presence of Norman Tracys in twelfth-century Wexford, it can be said with certainty that Jacqueline Kennedy did not visit the county in 1963. I would tentatively identify the person pictured on page 40 of your winter issue as President Kennedy’s sister-in-law, Lee Radziwill. — Yours etc,
VINCENT MORLEY
17 Clonmore Court
Ballymun Road
Dublin 9
Sir, — Vincent Morley did not offer: Etienne — Fitzetienne — MacEtienne — Ceitian — Keating? Or: Birmingham — Joris Birmingham — Mac Joris — Mac Górrus — Corish?
Perhaps the picture on page 40 (HI winter 1993) is Lee Bouvier Radziwill, the First Lady’s sister, and not Mrs Kennedy, who had already returned to Washington from Europe. — Yours etc,
MICHEÁL UA NUALLÁIN
Dúnradharc,
Wexford.
Sir, — I am afraid Vincent Morley (HI winter 1993) is wrong in stating that the initial letter of ‘Costello’ is derived from the final letter of mac. The Irish form is universally and unequivocally Mac Goisdealbh, and it would seem therefore that the surname is derived not from the French Joscelin but from the alternative Flemish form Gocelin (with a hard G-). Furthermore, the -sd- of the Irish form seems to indicate that the -c- of Gocelin had the Germanic (and Eastern European) value of -ts- rather than that of -S-. — Yours etc,
KENNETH NICHOLLS
Dept. of History,
UCC.