Origin of O'Hearn's - Chapter III

After the Battle of Dysart O’Dea in 1318, the Ua hEchtigern sept

next appears in history in the person of Ailin o hEichthighirn, or in English

Alan O’Hathern alias O’Hachierane, Bishop of the Diocese of Ardfert which

included Kerry and West Munster. He was bishop from 1336 until his death

on 2 December, 1347.

In the late 14th Century, Denis Eachaerna alias Ahern, was a canon

appointed to the parish of Ardcanny in the Diocese of Limerick, and was

transferred to to Kyllfintynagh in the year 1400 after he was found to be

practicing medicine for pay. Another clergyman, Maurice Echiernay, was vicar

of the parochial church of Ballingaddy, who bound himself to the Apostolic

Chamber for the first fruits of the canonry and prebend of Dysert, also in

the diocese of Limerick, in the year 1428. In the year 1500, Dionysus O

Chachern another clergyman in the Order of St. Augustine, was a canon of

Limerick who bound himself to the Apostolic Chamber for the first fruits of

the priorship of B.V. Ragille (now Rathkeale, Limerick County).

In the 17th Century, another clergyman from the Diocese of Limerick, Rev. T. O’Hearn,

was removed or transported apparently to America in the year 1652, with other

priests including one named Owen MacNamara, perhaps to the island of Barbados

in the Caribbean Sea, during the Puritan government administration of Oliver

Cromwell in England. In the year 1679, John Haghieren is listed among

passengers aboard the ship Encrease arriving in Maryland from Youghal, County

Cork, and who apparently became indentured servants in Maryland by warrant of

Lord Baltimore. During this time, Murrough O’Brien known as "Murrough of the

Conflagrations", the 1st Earl of Inchiquin, was a member of the Privy Council

of Charles II in exile in France. Also at about this time, the Bishop of Limerick

was Dr. Edmund O’Dwyer, who died in Brussels in 1654. Another member

of the O’Dwyer sept, originally from Leinster and then settled in central

Tipperary near Limerick, has yet to appear in the next Chapter.

According to O’Hart, the O’Aherns were a prominent family in County Cork

to the end of the 16th Centuries. At this time they were a medical family

of physicians and surgeons on good terms with the Norman Lords

Fitzgerald, Earls of Desmond, and Lords Roche. In southeast Cork the town of

Aghern may commemorate the territory in which the family settled, as this is

also a common spelling of the patronymic name. The town was later occupied

by the Fitzgerald Earls of Desmond in the 18th Century. The O’Ahern’s

apparently settled in southeast Cork and crossed over into Waterford where

they took the English sounding name Hearne or Hearn, as Waterford had been

occupied by the English for centuries after the Normans arrived, and families

of English settlers with these names, although never very numerous, were in

southern Leinster from the 13th century, as mentioned in the last Chapter.

Other Irish family names also became anglicised as Hearne, Hearn,

Heron, etc. Among these were the sept of O’ hUidhrin of Offaly, although

MacLysaght indicates that O’Heffron, Heffron, and Haveran are more common in

English. Among these is Giollananaomh O’ hUidhrin (d. 1420), called O’Heerin

in English, who completed O’Dugan’s "Topographical Poem." Another sept is O’

hEearain of the Oirgialla in the North. Perhaps the Anglo-Irish sept, from

one of these septs, derives the coat of arms described by Burke in The

General Amory for Hearne, or Hearn, as follows: "Per fesse argent [white or

silver] and azure [blue] three chaplets [wreaths] counterchanged. Crest -- On

a mount vert [green] a horse [white] at full speed, saddled and bridled

proper."

In southeast Cork and Waterford, the Ua hEchtigern or Hearne

families were apparently living in close proximity with some of the related

families, including the McGraths of Cork and Waterford, the O’Briens of

Waterford, the O’Regans of Tipperary, and the O’Kennedys of Wexford. As

stated for the surname McGrath is Ida Grehan’s book mentioned in the first

chapter: "There are various links with the McGrath name around Dungarvan,

County Waterford. In the town itself, what is known as Abbeyside, or

McGrath’s Castle, dates from the 12th or 13th century. Only the west wall

remains.

In the nearby ruins of the 13th century Augustinian priory is a tomb with the

inscription "Donald Mcgrath, 1490." He was one of the County Waterford

sept, which had migrated there from Clare and Limerick." However,

the infamous Bishop of Cashel named Miler MacGrath, born in the year 1523 in

County Fermanagh, who was a Franciscan friar and became a Protestant, was of

a different MacGrath family originating in the northwest of Ireland, at

Termon Magrath on the shores of Lough Erne in the neighborhood of Pettigoe.

He reportedly became reconciled to the Catholic Church before his death in

1622.

In Ormond or the County Tipperary, O’Hart lists O’Hern (Hearne, Heron,

Ahearne, Ahern), chiefs of Hy-Cearnaidh, as among the chiefs and clans

of note, along with the other Dalcassian septs of O’Kennedy, O’Hurley and

O’Shanahan. An example of the wide dispersion mentioned in Chapter II

appears in the Hearth Money Rolls for the year 1665. In the parish of

Killavinogue is listed Donnogh Aghiron of Aghanoy, and Teige Agheron. The

parish of Templeroe lists William McGrath. As late as 1850, according to

Richard Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland, Margaret Ahern is listed as a tenant

in a house in Ballysorrel Big, in the parish of Killavinogue.

During the time after the Restoration of the Stuart dynasty in England, many

Irishmen served in European armed forces on the Continent.    Among these,

in 1662 is found Capitaine O’Ahern in the Irish Brigade in the Service of

France, Regiment of Muskerry, becoming a Lieutenant. His death is

recorded in the year 1675, while fighting against the "Gendarmes Anglais" in

France. There is also mention of a Capitaine Edward O’Ahern of the 1st

Battalion Irlandais in 1805.

Finally, Major Symon o’Hougherne (?o’Aherne), is listed along with the commanding

officer Patrick Sarsfield in the "Retinue of James II in Ireland in 1690". Another valiant

fighter in the army of King James was Teige O’Regan who held out against all

odds to stop the advance of William’s men. As will become clear in the next

Chapter, the flight of King James II to France after the Battle of the Boyne, and

the rise of King William of Orange and Queen Mary in England, marked a turning

point in Irish history in which the fate of many of the Ua hEchtigerns and other Irish

families would lead them to military service in the nations of Europe, or the British