The Beginning

of 1999 I have been able to come up with information on the area that he lives in that explains the eviction of two thousand Irish families to substandard land in the Province of Connacht and the migration within Ireland to other counties. Noel O'Gara sent me the following e-mail

I live in the Malone Ancestral home. It's called Ballinahowen Court and is located about halfway between Athlone and Clonmacnoise. Bald John O'Connor the original Maolone owned lands east of the Shannon and this is it. He owned Closmacnoise and it is in all probability buried there. The Malones have their own Crypt and church in the grounds
Noel O'Gara

It was because of this e-mail that I have been able to put the following together for all the Malone's. It is a beginning for all of us and we just have to fill in the blanks.

O'CONOR

     The O'Conor clan is one of the most influential in Irish history. In Irish, the name is O Conchobhair or O conchuir, from the personal name meaning champion. There are six distinct septs, with the Connacht and Kerry ones being the most important. The Connacht sept included high Kings of Ireland, the last of whom, Rory, was born in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, in the 12th century. He died in 1198 and is buried in Clonmacnoise.
      Clonalis House in Co. Roscommon is the ancestral seat of these O'Conors, whose ancestry includes 11 High Kings of Ireland and 24 Kings of Connacht. The magnificent house contains many priceless treasures relating to the O'Conors and is open to the public.      Ballintober Castle, Near Castlera, was the stronghold of the O'Conors of Connacht from the early 14th to the 17th centuries. In Co. Kerry, Carrigafoyle Castle, built in 1490 by the chieftain Conor O'Connor, was the stronghold of the Kerry O'Connors. Denis O'Conor is the present O'Conor Don, the head of the family, who claims direct ancestry from the High Kings of Ireland.

MALONE

     The name originally came from the Irish name O Maoil Eoin. Maol is Irish for bald and refers to the tonsures sported by Irish monks. The name also means servant of St. John.
     The Malones are an offshoot of the O'Connors of Connacht and their early history is centered around Offaly. In the early middle ages, Clonmacnoise, that splendid ecclesiastical site near the River Shannon, not far from Athlone, had a number of Malone Abbots and Bishops. The site is well preserved and has an informative visitors center.

Clonmacnoise, Ireland's Famous Monastic Settlement

The ancient monastic site of Clonmacnoise is situated at the crossroads of Ireland in County Offaly and dates back almost 1,500 years. St. Ciaran, the son of an Ulsterman who had settled in Connacht, chose the site in 545ad because of its ideal location at the junction of river and road travel in Celtic Ireland.
The monastery is on the east side of the river Shannon, in what was then the Kingdom of Meath, but occupying a position so central it was the burial place of many of the Kings of Connaught as well as those of Tara.

CONNACHT

web site: www.svpal.org/~colleeng/connacht/frame.html This is a very long but informative site that explains the area of Connacht and how it wasn't confiscated following the wars of the 17th century because of its poor land and remoteness. In 1653, the English Parliament issued the order to transplant those who were still alive in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster to the barren bogs of Connacht. It explains how 2000 Catholic Landowners and their families were transplanted to the "reservation" west of the River Shannon. Cromwell gave the Irish a choice of going to "hell" or to Connacht. On penalty of death no Irish man, women, to child was to be found east of the River Shannon after May 1, 1854. The site also states how some were shipped to the American Colonies as slaves which "could" explain some of the early dates of Malones here in the states.

"Irish Families" By Edward Maclysaght
In the section on Malone the author agrees with the above information but points out that a Rev. Professor John Ryan, S.J. disagrees with the O'Conor/ Malone theory and that the Malones from County Wexford would be from another sept altogether.

Updated: February 18, 2002 11:36 AM

The Beginning...