Fox Sites in Ireland new Fox History new Fox Genealogy and links Fox Lines The Fox Septs Pictures from September 2000 Fox News The Fox Septs
Unlike most other Irish surnames, Fox divides into two distinct septs. Many of us, especially descendants of immigrants, do not have enough distant genealogical knowledge to determine which of these two septs is really ours. This is why it is important to promote both septs on this site. But to make things more complicated, one of those septs can be divided into several different branches or family lines. The primary division or distinction is between:
1)Foxes of Celtic origin, who originated from Ireland's midlands
and
2)Foxes of Cambro-Norman origins, who invaded Ireland in 1169
Celtic Foxes
The first sept can be traced back in time much further than the second, and the lineage itself can be traced back even beyond the use of surnames in Ireland, which did not begin until sometime in the 11th century. More information can be found about the first mention of the Sionnach (Irish for Fox ) clan and its chief in the Fox History section of this link. This site concentrates on these O'Catharnaigh Foxes mainly because they are the oldest Fox sept and there appears to be generous amounts of information available on them.
The complication begins with the fact that Fox was originally a nickname for a man who had already assumed the surname of O'Catharnaigh (also Ua Ceithernaigh) by the 11th century. As chief of his clan, instead of being referred to as The O'Catharnaigh , which would have been customary, he was referred to as The Fox or The Sionnach . Eventually his direct descendants - and perhaps other close relatives, though this is not certain - began using Sionnach as part of their name as well. Sources from that time period often (but not always) refer to The O'Catharnaigh Sionnach rather than just The O'Catharnaigh . Soon enough a separate but certainly related line of O'Catharnaighs developed, their last name eventually abbreviated and anglicized to O'Caharny, Kearny, Kenney, Kinney, and other spelling variations.
But another problem arises. As English rule increased and families were more or less forced to anglicize their surnames, the Sionnach-Foxes had to either decide on a direct translation of their surname OR accept an anglicization of it. Although those of us who are Foxes today know which decision our ancestors took, at some point, and it is not yet clear exactly when, one branch of the Sionnach Clan chose to anglicize Sionnach - it became Shinnick. Their coat of arms differs from the "Sionnach Abu" coat of arms, and they are referred to as the Munster Foxes, which comprises southwestern Ireland. There is also a Shinnick genealogical group based in the US, and you can see their excellent website at http://www.shinnick.org/. Other related names would be Seaney, Shanaghy, Shanahan, and perhaps Shannon. The Seaneys also have a website at
http://www.members.aol.com/DL7715/index.html
Fox Clan welcomes Kearnys and Shinnicks and Seaneys (and all their variations) to the website, and is happy to include them here as "other related septs".
Cambro-Norman Foxes
Arriving in Ireland first as invaders, many Cambro-Normans later turned against the English crown and fought on the side of those Irish who also opposed foreign domination. Originally their last name was De Bosc or de Bhosc, though there do not seem to be any Irish of that name in Ireland today. The de Bhoscs were Norman, and not English, in background, and it is likely they had not been in England for very many generations before they entered Ireland; in fact, a listing of the knights who accompanied William the Conqueror in his 1066 invasion of England includes two knights by the de Bhosc name. The distinction is made between Cambro-Norman (Welsh-Norman) and Anglo-Norman since many Normans in England preferred living in Wales and intermarried with the Welsh people, learning their language and adapting/adopting their customs. Due to the similarities at that time between Welsh and Irish, many of the these Cambro-Normans integrated quite easily into Irish society, and also intermarried when they came on the Irish scene in the late 1100s. It is likely that the de Bhoscs were Cambro-Norman given their subsequent break with the English crown as well as other historical evidence.
It should be stressed here that in Irish as well as other languages, "b" and "bh" often were pronounced with a "v" sound, and that the contemporary Dutch name which translates as "of Fox" is written as "De Vos".....phonetically speaking, this is not that far from the old Norman "De Bhosc", and indeed contemporary Netherlands is very close to what historically was considered Norman territory, thus possibly explaining some relationship. What is most imporant to stress here is that the Norman Foxes we are discussing also used the image of a fox for their surname.
Seamus Fox, who heads up the de Bhosc background for this website (see also Fox Events), for years assumed he was a Sionnach Fox, since his records from school days showed the Irish spelling of his last name as Sionnach. A little further research showed that this was merely a mistaken assumption by a school employee, and that in fact his family line did indicate de Bhosc in almost every other case. These Foxes stem from County Limerick area, particularly Doon, and somewhat into Tipperary as well. Most of their recorded history begins in the 15th century, and will be included in Fox History when that time period is reached.
Origins of the Sionnach Name
No doubt there are several of us who have read or heard that the origins of the Fox name have to do with 11th century Tadhg O'Catharnaigh's cleverness in battle as well as ability to acquire land. When you travel to Ireland, you can even buy a plaques and scrolls which make this claim. Since this was a time period when nicknames were not uncommon and surnames began to be used, this seemed and still seems plausible. However, recent close reading of the Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters as well as The Annals of Loch Cé and the Annals of Ulster reveal a quite different story, one that is also quite plausible, but perhaps not as charming or pleasant!
Collectively, these sources report that in the year 1024, Ireland's chief poet and historian Cuan Ua Lothchain (Cwan O'Logan) was killed in Teathbha by "the men of Teathbha". Here the story splits: one version is that the murderer thereafter acquired a strong odor, making him "easily known among the rest of the land". He was therefore nicknamed "Fox"; anyone who has ever experienced the scent sprayed by a skunk has a very good idea of what fox smells like too. The other version of the story is that men who killed him were killed within an hour after the poet's death, and they wre not buried, but left as carrion for the birds and beasts, and one can imagine the stench in the air from that.
Another argument against the "stench argument" is that the Annals of Inisfallen actually report the name of the man who killed the poet - Gillaultain Mac Roduibh, who lived near Lough Ree and was not a Fox relative. Moreover, it is not difficult to see how, through time and perhaps bad translating, the name of a Fox from the latter part of the 11th century, Bec An Sionnach Odhar (Bec the Pale Fox or Bec the Pale-faced Fox), could have had the last part of his name assumed to have a similar meaning to the English word "odor". This is particularly so since "Odhar" has a few spelling variations, two of them similar to the English "odor".
However, this reasoning does not help to explain the ancient name for the site called Cloghatenny (Stone of the Fox), which in Irish was Tolghannebrennye. Local legend claims the nearby mound or tulachan is the burial site of a once-important person, and that the site is even more important than the Fox Coronation Stone. Its ancient name unfortunately looks and sounds a bit too much like "tulchan na breine" or "mound of the stench". Other explanations for the Fox name origins exist, and they will be brought out in the next edition.
The problem with the first line of explanation is that it is hard to believe descendants of someone nicknamed in such a deragatory way would opt to keep that name through the generations, "Fox" being equivalent to "Stinking Assassin". The second explanation makes even less sense, since no one would want to name themselves after a relative or relatives who were not even worthy of burial after the murder of a great poet and historian. To go one step further, one of the sources listed above which links those particular "men of Teathbha" as "ancestors of the Foxes" claims to have gotten its information from one of the other sources above! A littel investigation indicates that this is simply not true, since I have both of these sources in my possession. So it may well be that the murdering "men of Teathbha" at this point in time were not necessarily immediate Fox ancestors, nor were they nicknamed Fox, nor, if they indeed were killed within an hour, nicknamed anything at all!
This brings us back to the first line of explanation - that old Tadhg O'Catharnaigh was skilled in battle as well as in acquiring land. Since Tadhg died in 1086, he most likely could not have taken part in a murder from 1024 unless he died a very old man (for that time period) and was born well before 1024. Although none of the reading I have done so far supports or even suggests he was a skilled warrior/landowner, the reasoning behind it nevertheless makes more sense than the "Stinking Assassin" story. However, it's always good to be aware of alternative explanations.
Fox Clan would love to hear from anyone who does find information which substantiates or supports the "skilled warrior/landowner" explanation. Merely quoting a contemporary author, however, who does not provide reliable references for the information, is not particularly useful. Just email us if you do find anything helpful!