FROM THE ARCHIVES:Shortly before his first election as taoiseach, Charles Haughey commissioned a family tree from a young researcher – one Thomas Broughan, later Labour TD for Haughey's former constituency – because of queries from Haugheys worldwide about their relationship to him, as Frank McDonald revealed.
AN INVESTIGATION has been commissioned by the Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, into his family ancestry, it was learned yesterday. It traces the Haughey name back to the medieval kings of Uladh and the hereditary canons of the Armagh diocese in the 11th and 12th centuries.
The work on the Haughey family tree was carried out by a Dublin-born historian, Thomas Broughan. It has been in hand for some time – long before the claim was made last week by the Fine Gael leader, Dr [Garret] FitzGerald, that Mr Haughey was unsuited to high office because of his “flawed pedigree”.
The work has now been completed and the manuscript, running to 400 pages, is being typed up for the Taoiseach’s perusal. Entitled “An Leabhar Ui hEochada Ulad”, the book confirms that Ua hEochada – the old Gaelic name for Haughey – was the royal surname of the kings of Uladh, whose territory comprised the modern counties of Down and Armagh.
Mr Broughan notes the name was mentioned in the ancient Annals of Ulster and in the Four Masters. It also appears in the Primatial registers of Armagh, although he believes the Armagh Haugheys were a different branch of the family. “They were members of the Clan Sinaigh, the most famous ecclesiastical dynasty of the old Catholic Church,” he said. “Indeed, it could be said they were the best politicians in medieval Ireland.”
Muintir Eochaidh next crop up in the land inquiry of 1609, just prior to the Plantation of Ulster. Later, in the 1660s, it can be established that the largest concentration of them was still in the Armagh and south Tyrone area – particularly near Armagh itself and around Carrickmore, where many Haugheys still live today. Carrickmore will also be remembered as the town where a BBC “Panorama” team recently filmed a Provisional IRA “patrol”.
Mr Broughan estimates there are about 1,000 Haugheys now living in Ireland, mostly in the North. Many more can be found in Glasgow, to where they emigrated during the last century. It was from Glasgow that a large number of Haugheys made their way to the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It is believed Mr Haughey has been besieged during his years in politics by their descendants, who seem madly keen to find out whether they are related to him. It was because of these requests for information on the Haughey family tree that Mr Haughey commissioned Mr Broughan to carry out the study.
It is a line that goes back to the old Gaelic poets who wrote verses about “Eocha”, the father of the Irish pagan gods and the Gaelic equivalent of Zeus and Jupiter.
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