is called Walterus De Burgo without the addition of Galle, and is there said to be descended from the Red Earl of Ulster. His descendants now all retain the name of Gaul, as do those of his neighbour Stapleton. The Fitzsimons, in Westmeath, took the name of Mac Ruddery, and the Wesleys that of Mac Falrene, &c. &c. Edmund Spenser, secretary to the Lord Arthur Grey (deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth in the year 1580), attempted to prove that many distinguished families then bearing Irish surnames, and accounted of Irish origin, were really English. This, however, is undoubtedly false, and is a mere invention of the creative fancy of that great poet and politician: but as it has been received as truth by Sir Charles Coote and other English writers, we shall show how Spenser deceived himself or was deceived on this point. He instances the following families: 1, The Mac Mahons of Oriel in Ulster, who, as he states on the authority of the report of some Irishmen, came first to Ireland with Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, under the name of Fitz-Ursula: 2, The Mac Mahons of the South: 3, The Mac Sweenys of Munster: 4, The Mac Sheehys of Munster: 5, The O’Brins or O’Byrnes of Leinster: 6, The O’Tooles of the same province: 7, The Cavanaghs: 8, The Mac Namaras of Thomond. But he gives no proof for his assertions but the report of some Irishmen, corroborated by etymological speculations of his own; and as the report of some unnamed persons can have no weight with us when in direct contradiction of the authentic annals of the country, I shall slightly glance at some of the most important of his etymological evidences, and then give my own proofs of the contrary. To prove that the Mac Mahons of Oriel are the Fitz-Ursulas, he says that _Mahon_ signifies _bear_ in Irish, and hence that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula; but granting that _Mahon_ does mean a _bear_, it does not follow that Mac Mahon is a translation of Fitz-Ursula. But we have stronger reasons to urge than to prove that this is a _non sequitur_, for we have the testimony of the authentic pedigree of the Mac Mahons of Oriel, and of the annals of Ulster, that the Mac Mahons had been located in Oriel and had borne that name long before the English invasion. The Mac Mahons and Mac Namaras of the south are a branch of the Dal-Cais, a great tribe located in Thomond, whose history is as certain from the ninth century as that of any people in Europe. The Mac Sweenys and Mac Sheehys of Munster are of Irish origin, but their ancestors removed to Scotland in the tenth century, or beginning of the eleventh, and some of their descendants returned to Ireland in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were hereditary leaders of Gallowglasses to many Irish chieftains. To prove that the Byrnes, Tooles, and Cavanaghs, are of British origin, he has recourse also to etymology, which is a great lever in the hand of a historical charlatan, and says,