Tracing their origin to 1266, the MacDermots Roe (MacDiarmata Ruadh) of Ireland served as Biatachs General of the Kingdom of Connacht and were the principal patrons of the Irish composer Turlough Carolan, 1670–1738. The MacDermots Roe exemplify the role played by a leading Irish family under the old Gaelic order and its fate after the consolidation of English rule in the early 17th century.
Origins
The MacDermots Roe descend from Dermot Roe (the appellation Roe or Ruadh meaning red in Irish), grandson of Cormac MacDermot, King of Moylurg, 1218–1244.[1] Moylurg was an ancient kingdom in what is now northern County Roscommon, Ireland and lay within the Kingdom of Connacht which included the modern counties of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
In 1266, Dermot Roe MacDermot, the grandson of Cormac MacDermot, King of Moylurg, was blinded by the Aedh mac Felim Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht.[2] Thereafter, Dermot was known as Dermot Dall (Dall meaning blind in Irish). Dermot Dall had a grandson, Dermot Roe whose descendants adopted the surname Mac (son of) Dermot Roe to distinguish themselves from other members of the MacDermot family.[3]
Biatach General
Cormac MacDermot Roe, who was killed in battle in 1365, was the Biatach General of Connacht.[4] As Biatach General, Cormac was responsible for the welfare of the poor and homeless and for the provision of food and shelter to travellers throughout Connacht.[5]
Some sources state that the position of Biatach included responsibility for providing victuals to the chief's soldiers.[6][7] Thus, MacDermot Roe's responsibilities as Biatach General may have been comparable to a modern Quartermaster General, as well as, head of social welfare services.[8]
Positions of this nature in Ireland were passed down within a given family. For example, the head of the MacDermot family was the hereditary Marshal of Connacht.[9] Such was the case with the MacDermots Roe and the office of Biatach General of Connacht.[10]
In addition to their charitable duties as Biatachs General, the MacDermots Roe were church leaders serving as bishops, abbots and priors. Additionally, in 1385, the MacDermots Roe established the Dominican Priory of the Holy Cross at Cloonshanville, near modern-day Frenchpark in County Roscommon.[11]
In 1455 and again 1471, the MacDermots Roe are described as Lords of Coilte Conchoghair, a small territory between the Feorish and Arigna Rivers, now the northern portion of Kilronan Parish, County Roscommon. By the 16th century, the MacDermots Roe, apparently displacing the MacManus family, controlled all Kilronan including valuable iron mines and iron works around Arigna.[12]
While the family eventually spread, not only, throughout Moylurg, but also, further south in County Roscommon,[13] their headquarters remained in Kilronan at Alderford, formerly Camagh, near Ballyfarnon.[14] By the end of the Gaelic period, the MacDermots Roe accounted for about one third of the MacDermot Clan.[15]
The MacDermots were vigorous supporters of Ireland's Nine Years War against England and were conspicuous in the Irish victory at the Battle of Curlew Pass in 1599.[16] However, the MacDermots Roe were more cautious. In a report dated September 1597, Sir Conyers Clifford, English President of Connacht, wrote that the MacDermots Roe had come to him and were living about Boyle Abbey.[17]
English colonial period
Thomas Charles MacDermot Roe of Alderford,1847–1913
In 1607 Conor MacDermot Roe, a cousin of Ferghal, the last MacDermot Roe chieftain elected under the Gaelic brehon legal system, surrendered MacDermot Roe lands in Kilronan to King James I and received them back in fee simple as a grant from the King. In the grant, Conor is referred to merely as a "representative" of the family.[18]
The 1607 surrender and re-grant to Conor MacDermotRoe was illustrative of the eclipse of the Gaelic order. The English abolished the Irish brehon legal system and along with it the Irish system of clan land ownership and the Irish practice of electing clan chiefs. Henceforth, the chief's property and his title passed to the eldest son under primogeniture.[19]
Despite their support for the Stuarts, the MacDermots Roe of Alderford continued to have substantial landholdings in Kilronan while remaining Catholic.[23] However, following the death of Charles MacDermot Roe in 1759, Charles' brother John, who had become a Protestant, evicted Charles' family from Alderford.[24]
The MacDermots Roe were the principal patrons of the Irish composer Turlough Carolan. Carolan is often referred to as the last of the great bards and is considered by many to be Ireland's national composer.[27]
The MacDermots Roe patronage of Carolan was particularly significant since it came at a time when Gaelic culture was vigorously suppressed by English measures such as the Penal Laws.[28] Since ancient times, Irish bards played an important cultural role preserving Irish myths, histories and genealogies in the oral tradition. Bards served as officials of kings and chiefs and, like Carolan, they travelled the kingdom composing songs for notables.[29]
Coat of arms
MacDermot Roe Coat of Arms
The coat of arms of the MacDermot Roe of Alderford was:
While the motto of the MacDermot Roe of Alderford was "Honor Probataque Virtus", an American branch of the MacDermots Roe has published the motto "Justice and Charity" reflecting the family's Biatach tradition.[31][32]
The MacDermots Roe Today
After the 17th century, the use of the appellation Roe went into steep decline and the Roe was generally dropped outside County Roscommon. While a substantial portion of the thousands of MacDermots living today descend from the MacDermots Roe, only a handful in Ireland, the United States and Australia have retained the appellation in their name.[33] One branch of the family who emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century dropped the MacDermot and the family become known as Roe.[34] To the extent the name has survived in modern times, it is expressed as one word:
Bernard was Prior of the Dominican Priory at Cloonshanville in 1698 when he was forced into exile.[36]
Ambrose MacDermot Roe
In April 1707, King James II of England, in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France recommended Ambrose as Bishop of Elphin to Pope Clement XI.[37] Ambrose, who served as Bishop 1708–1717 during the Penal Laws, reported in 1714 that he had ordained 32 priests in his Diocese.[38]
Thomas MacDermot Roe
Thomas, the third son of Carolan's patrons, was Bishop of Ardagh, 1747–1751.[39]
Brother of Owen, Thomas, born circa 1751, was Colonel of the Athleague Rangers, a Roscommon militia organisation. During the French Revolution, Thomas joined Lord Edward Fitzgerald and other Irish nationalists in Paris to enlist French support for Irish resistance to English rule.[42]
Cornelius MacDermot Roe
Cornelius was George Washington's mason at Mount Vernon from 1784 to 1788.[43] After leaving Washington's service, Cornelius was hired to lay the foundation for one wing of the United States Capitol but did not complete the project due to a contract dispute.[44]
^Biatach, also, spelled biadhtach, is a Gaelic word translated as farmer and provider MacBain, Alexander, An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, 2nd ed. 1911, reprinted 1982.
^In 1611 Cormac MacDermot Roe was in Athleague, County Roscommon, well south of Moylurg, as shown in the 14th report of the Keepers of the Record, apparently a list of persons affirming their loyalty to the English government.
^O'Sullivan Donal, Carolan, The Life and Times and Music of an Irish Harper, 1958, Volume One, p. 46
^MacDermot Roe pedigree GOMs 169 includes a copy of Conor MacDermot Roe's 1607 grant
^Curtis, Edmond, A History of Ireland, 1936, pp. 222–223: Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland, 1988, p. 65
^It was common for members of the MacDermot clan, including MacDermots Roe, to abandon the "Mac" in the early 18th century only to resume it at the end of the century. Compare the MacDermot listings in the Elphin Census of 1749 to those listed in the Index to Griffith V aluations 1848–1864, CD No. 188, Heritage World & the Genealogical Publishing Co.
^MacManus, Seukmas, The Story of the Irish Race, 1921, republished 2005, pp. 179–186. See, also, Rutherford, Ward, Celtic Lore, The History of the Druids and Their Timeless Tradition, 1993, pp. 50, 132 for the connection between druids and bards.
^O’Hart, John,Irish Pedigrees, P. Murphy & Son, New York, 1915, pp. 521–523; Burke’s General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Harrison & Sons, London, 1884, p. 637
^For example, out of thousands of North American MacDermots only four families have been identified that use the appellation Roe as part of their surname.
^McNamee, Bishop James J., History of the Diocese of Ardagh, pp. 393–395
^The recollections of Skeffington Gibbon, from 1796 to the present year, 1829; being an epitome of the lives and characters of the nobility and gentry of Roscommon, 1829, p. 74
^Hayes, Richard, Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France, Dublin, 1949, pp. 175–176 and see Hayes' Ireland and Irishmen in the French Revolution, London, 1932, pp. 101–103
^Murphy, Nathan, AG, Cornelius MacDermot Roe: Indentured Servant to George Washington, National Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 95, No.2, June 2007, pp. 135–137
