Where the meaning of a personal name can be determined, this is given in Irish Personal Names (O Corrain & Maguire). In the case of Comhghall, a reasonably common name in the early period, none is offered.
We learn that there are some 10 saints of the name, the most famous being Saint Comhghall of Bangor. Giolla Chomhghaill, (servant of St Comhghall), son of Ardghar, was slain in 1013; Giolla Comhghaill, son of Donnchuan, was forcibly carried away from Kildare in 1041, and Giolla Comhghaill O Sleibhin, principal poet of the north of Ireland and ollamh to Maoilseachlainn, king of Ireland, died in 1031.
This personal name was much favoured by the Mac Dermotts.
The surname Mac Giolla Chomhghaill, according to Mac Lysaght's More Irish Families, was that of a sept whose homeland was in the parish of Meeragh in Co Donegal, and were erenaghs in the parish of Galloon in Co Fermanagh, where they looked after the church lands around Edergole in the Co Fermanagh parish of Aghalurcher.
Various anglicised forms of this surname are to be found in The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603) and, in the nature of things, gradually became shorter and more concise. It was Macgillercoell, Macgillehole, Macgilleholly, Macgillelcole, MacGillyole, Mac Gillkolle, Mac Cooil and Mac Cowle and eventually Coyle.
The "census" of 1659 lists McGillaholy among the principal Irish names in the Co Leitrim barony of Rossclogher; McIlchole in the Co Donegal barony of Kilmacrennan, and Coyle was among the Irish names in the Co Roscommon barony of Athlone.
Edmond Coyle, gent, was listed as titulado of Gortnecasagh, in the Co Roscommon parish of Raharrow. The current Northern Ireland telephone directory contains about 300 Coyle entries, while there are 865 in those of the Republic. These latter are most numerous in south Leinster, and in the 07 area of Sligo and Donegal.
As happened to many Gaelic surnames, Mac Ghiolla Chomhghaill was equated with an English surname. This was the similar-sounding Hoyle, a locative (surname based upon a place-name), means "a hole or hollow". The 1659 "census" lists Capt. Edmond Hoyle and his company of troops stationed in "the City of Drogheda and Liberties Therof".
Current telephone directories list but one of the name in the Republic and six in Northern Ireland. Indeed they are very scarce in records.
Among the list of converts contained in The Convert Rolls (Eileen O'Byrne 1981) we read: Hoyle, Anne, Hollywood, Dublin, cert. 28 August 1762, enrolled 18 October 1762. Hoyle, Mrs Anne, conformity 26 April 1758, followed by "Hoyle, Anne, Dublin, cert. 31 March 1763, enrolled 22 April 1763. Now of Dublin, late of Knocknadrue (Knocknadoose), Co Wicklow, conformity 31 March 1763, Hoyle, Ann, otherwise Fitzgerald.
The 1800 will of Robert Heighington, Cross Keys, Co Dublin, requested that he be interred in Donard. "To my natural daughter Mary Heighington the sum of £10 to be raised out of my lands and no more. To the `Hrs. exors. Admrs. and assns' of Rebecca Hoyle one shilling and no more. To my beloved niece Mary Cullen otherwise Valentine, my yearly interest out of Wine Tavern held by lease for three lives from the earl of Aldborough and all arrears thereby by Mottley Hoyle."
The Baker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Shark in protesting charges of "the slightest approach to a false pretence", challenged the crew: "You may charge me with murder or want of sense." Mild accusations when one reads what Joshua Hoyle, professor of theology at Trinity College, a precise and rigorous Calvinist, had to say about William Bedell, appointed provost of Trinity in 1627, and later bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh.
Hoyle accused Bedell (he who supervised an Irish translation of the Old Testament) of "Italinate tendencies", being "modish", anti-Calvinist", "a semi-papist", "heresy", and "Arminianism".
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters relates the revenge capture in 1540 of Donough Dunchadhach by one Edmond Maguire at Gabhal Liuin. He was brought to Aghalurcher (Achadh Urchair), where Edmond cut off one of his feet and one of his hands.
Gabhal Liuin, which O'Donovan, without any apparent supporting evidence explains as "the fork of the lazy man", is the original Irish of the above Galloon.