Ringaskiddy, a townland in the Co. Cork parish of Barnahely, is situated on a headland protruding from the west into Cork harbour. The name derives from Rinn an Scidigh, `Skiddys' Point'. This was rendered Reenny Skyddy in a document of 1536 which informed that R. Skyddy, after the Irish fashion, was `chief of his nacion'. Scideadh is the Irish for this Norse-Gael surname from the Scottish island of Skye.
From 1360 they were mainly associated with the city of Cork and provided many mayors up to 1646 when Catholics were precluded from holding that office. Skiddy's Castle, on west of Main Street, built by John Skiddy in 1445, was demolished in 1785; in 1594, R. Skyddye was Chaplain of our Layde Chapel, while Andrew Skiddie, who had possessed the North Abbey of the Friars of Shandon died in 1596. On a bell in Trinity Church is inscribed - `Andrew Skiddie, Mayor - R. Pennington made me in the yeare of our Lord 1621'.
This surname was mainly of Co. Cork, but it was found also in other parts of Munster, particularly in Co. Waterford. At the Waterford Pleas of the Crown and Delivery of Gaol in 1313, John le Palmer and others, were charged with stealing by night out of the house of Henry Rymbaud a piece of blue cloth, a cuirass, two crannocks of malt mash, one pair of gauntlets of whale skin, and a basinet. One of the jurors at this hearing was Andrew Skedy. In his 1563 Will `now exhibited before Patrick, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore' Mr James Goghe stated that his ring which Mr Andrew Skiddie `hath for pawn for 10s.', was to go to his wife, seeing the money paid. One of the inscriptions under the tower in the Franciscan Friary in Waterford reads: Hic Jacet Johannes Skydye, civis quandam at major hujus civitatis Waterfordiae qui obit A.D. 1641.
Listing the principal men of Co Cork, The Description of Ireland in Anno 1598 has Skiddies among `sundrie other of the meaner sort'. In 1542 Harye Skyddye was among the jurors in a case relating to `Two County Cork Deeds', and in 1545 Andrewe Skyddye played the same part regarding `Two Butler Deeds', relating to lands at Cloghran, Ballytarsney (Ballytrasna in the Co Cork parish of Little Island), Rathcowne, etc. And there was a Co Kerry connection. Sometime around 1620 one Robert Rice married Joanna, daughter of Nicholas Skiddy of Dinglecoush. This place-name derives from Daingean Ui Chuis. The Irish form has in recent years been shortened to An Daingean, while the English have long been rendered Dingle. Some time between 1654 and 1658 Margaret Long alias Skiddy, of Cloghane, Co. Cork, was transplanted to the Co. Roscommon barony of Boyle, where she received 333 acres.
The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns list this surname 23 times (twelve being Andrew Skiddy) between the years 1552 and 1603- were of Cork, of Mucrumpa (from Magh Chromtha, now Macroom), of Graungehae, Co. Cork, of Ballemollin, and of Youghill. In 1566 Andrew Skiddy was granted the site of the house of the Franciscan Friars of Cork, with appurtances, amoity of the friars mill, and a third part of another mill, a fishery for salmon, and a weir for salmon, called Gowles weire, land in Tampulnemraher, co. Cork, and in 1583 Nicholas Skiddy of Cork was granted a license `to import wine provided he shall not sell any portion to rebels;.
The 1654 Civil Survey relating to Cork city lists Skiddys 13 times - at Mill Street, Key Lane, Castle Lane, Blarney Gate, Bohernamontane East side, Croghtavoynshoge - and Skiddys Lane. The Census of 1659 lists James and Nicholas Skiddy as Tituladoes of Shandon and St. John's, while O Skiddy was among the principal Irish names in the North Liberties. The name Skiddy is listed eight times in The Irish Statute Staple Books, 1596-1687 (Dublin Corporation 1998. Editors Ohlmeyer and O Ciadrha), all of Cork city bar a single Dublin resident.
In Smith's State of the County and City of Cork we read of Skiddy's foundation, a Cork city hospital, established to house `ten honest poor of the said city, of the age of 40 years at least', funded by an annual £24 willed by Stephen Skiddy in 1581 for this purpose. Smith gave Scudamore as an alias for Skiddy, and on looking up Scudamore in the Penguin Dictionary of Surnames we are directed to see Skidmore. This is a locative meaning `muddy moor', derived from Old-English scite scandinavianized. And whereas there is not a single Skiddy entry in the combined current telephone directories of Ireland, there are two Skidmores -One in Dublin and the other in Cobh, Co. Cork.