There are two main published accounts of the Irish origin of Bowes (and some variants, notably Bowe and Bogue) -- both essentially heresay in the absence of ancient primary records and/or genetic proof.
Corca Laoidhe Account – Patrick Woulfe
The Irish surname historian Patrick Woulfe reports that the name originated within the Corca Laoidhe. They were an early and relatively small non-Gaelic, or Errainn "tribe" -- more accurately described as a tuath or petty kingdom to convey its political, not familial, focus. They occupied South Carbery in southwest Cork (influenced by the history of Rosscarbery). South Carbery was an ancient territory from prehistoric times to the breakup of the Gaelic order in the 16th century. Woulfe, referring to O Buadhaigh, the name's progenitor, (pronounced approximately "O' Boowig" or "O' Bwee," depending on locale), writes in 1967:
O Boey, O Bowe, O Boye, O Bwoy, O Boige, Bowie, Bowe, Buie, Bwee, Bowes, Boyes, Boyce, O Boyce, Bohig, Bogue, &c.; des. of Buadac (victorious); a very scattered surname, but most common in Donegal, Kilkenny and Cork. In the last-mentioned county, the final “g” is sounded; hence the early angl. form O Bowige and the modern Bogue [becoming Bowe in areas where the dialect omitted the final "g" sound]. The family is a branch of the Corca Laoighdhe, but was erroneously supposed to be a branch of the O'Sullivans [Eoghanachta tribe], on account of the prevalence of the Christian name buadhach in that family; and it is not improbable that some of them have adopted the name of O'Sullivan or Sullivan. [1]
The accuracy of Woulfe's accounts are uncertain. His introduction shows he collected information from clerics, lay people and scholars through his work, travels and communications. Also "newspaper reports, personal observation, lists received from different parts of the country, the writings of Dr. O'Donovan and Father O'Growney, etc." No doubt much of his information is true, though it's only as good as his sources and there are bound to be errors. His books do not tie specific information to its source so there is no way to verify accuracy.
In 1980, Edward MacLysaght, another Irish surname historian who shows in his introduction a detailed grasp of available sources from antiquity to his modern day, has this to say about Woulfe's first work from 1923:
Sloinnte Gaedhael is Gall is a most valuable work, based as it is largely on that of John O'Donovan eighty years earlier, but Father Woulfe makes the mistake of attempting to give derivations for almost every Gaelic name in the book: many of these are guesses and, as that great authority, the late Professor M. A. O'Brien, often mentioned to me, quite untenable. Today we have the advantage of being able to consult both scholars and printed sources not available to Woulfe fifty years ago, notably the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of the Irish Language. In some cases where I had little doubt that Woulfe was right I found competent scholars in that field rejecting his interpretation. [emphasis added] [2]
None of this is to suggest that Woulfe's account of our surname(s) in particular is wrong, but just to put it in perspective -- that we are left with nothing concrete to indicate it is true beyond a doubt.
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< Research Note >
Track down O'Donovan's early surname works and see how he addresses our surname(s).
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Eoghanachta Account – The Book of Munster
Whereas the Corca Laoidhe were an "indigenous" [Celtic?] non-Gaelic tribe, the Eoghanacta were a large Gaelic tribe that came from south-central Ireland into southwest Ireland between 450 and 475 AD, conquering the people there, including the Corca Laoidhe. According to the "Eoghanacht Genealogies" the O' Buadhaigh sept of interest belongs to the Eoghanachta and descends from Oilill Olum, the king of Munster who controlled all of southern Ireland in the 2nd century. The sept appears as a minor branch of the O' Sullivan clan in this passage:
Maolodhar son of Sealbach had five sons: Ealathach, from whom the Mac Ealathaigh [Healy] family; Buadhach, from whom the Ui Buadaigh (O' Bogue) [and Bowe and Bowes according to historians]; Cathalan, from whom Ui Chathalain (Cahalane); Maoilin, from whom Ui Mhaoilin; and Croinin, from whom the Ui Chroinin family (O'Cronin) [3]
The "Eoghanacht Genealogies" were transcribed from the Book of Munster (also called the Psalter of Cashel) in 1703 by Rev. Eugene O'Keeffe, parish priest and poet of Doneraile, North Cork. This is potentially as problematic a source as Woulfe, perhaps moreso. The Psalter was first compiled in the late 9th century during a time when monks were reconstructing ancient texts. The ancient texts are now largely gone and the literature we are left with is considered by modern scholars to be part fabricated but also part truth. [4]
The genealogical section of the Psalter of Cashel was probably drafted c.900 by Cormac mac Cuilennáin, the bishop-king of Cashel. For Munster it draws mainly on records compiled c.740. The Psalter was updated c.1000. After a limited update c.1015 the Psalter was further edited by northern scholars in the eleventh century. Copies reached Leinster in the twelfth, and were included in Rawlinson B.502 and the Book of Leinster. The main stages of compilation are reflected in changes in genealogical doctrines, as the secular genealogies and the genealogies of the saints of Munster show. This section of the Psalter probably contained narrative material as well. [5]
The portion of the "Eoghanacht Genealogies" that contains the passage above about O' Buadhaigh is said to be taken from a poem by Cathan O'Duinnin written in 1320. [6] But what was the poem based on and where can we find a copy? Is what we have in the "Eoghanacht Genealogies" an accurate transcription of the poem? Why did O'Keeffe rely on the poet for this section. Was the work the poet himself relied on absent? Maybe it had been oral tradition.
While Woulfe disputes the Eoghanachta account, just as with his own, there's nothing concrete from him or elsewhere to support either an outright refutation or acceptance of it.
Safely Put – Edward MacLysaught
There's merit in sticking with MacLysaght, who simply reports others' conclusions in the absence of firm evidence:
The sept was located in the Corca Laoidhe country and O'Donovan [whose sept is from the same area] says that they considered themselves to be a branch of the O'Sullivan's [Eoghanachta tribe] who had adopted this alternative surname. Wolfe, however, states that there is no such kinship. [7]
Could Both Accounts Be True?
In a closer reading of the part fabricated/part truth "Eoghanacht Genealogies," an earlier generation of O'Buadhaigh is found in which: "These four were sons borne to Corc by Aoibhinne, daughter of Aonghus folg, king of Corca Louighodhe" (emphasis added). According to this passage (subject to the same problems of authority as the O'Buadhaigh passage), the Corca Laiodhe tribe married into the Eoghanachta tribe before O'Buadhaigh's generation, suggesting it's possible there's some truth in both accounts!
Circumstantial Documentation Favoring Woulfe's Corca Laoidhe Account
Interestingly, MacLysaght prepared a map showing "the location of ... Gaelic septs ... in the period after the Anglo-Norman invasion and before the upheavals of the seventeenth century." [8] On it, Bogue (supposedly later also Bowes and Bowe) is located at the red oval in Corca Laoidhe country, but -- maybe significantly -- in the Gaelic family overlay it is in a McCarthy area rather than an O' Sullivan area. Maybe -- assuming the map is accurate -- MacLysaght lends at least some circumstantial support to Woulfe after all! Or else what is a Sullivan sept doing in McCarthy country?
A Cork Parish Records Researcher Indicates Boohig/Bogue Were Used as a Nickname to Sullivans
Bearers of a very numerous surname began using a nickname as a substitute for their original surname. This frequently happened in County Cork in the case of the Sullivans, some of whom, including several families in the Carrigaline area [south of Cork city], began calling themselves by the nickname ‘Boohig’ or ‘Bogue.’ Bogue was very widely used, in speaking, in ‘my’ five parishes [Passage West, Carrigaline, Douglas, Tracton, and Belgooley]. That is, people who now call themselves Sullivan remember that their parents and grandparents were referred to by one and all as Bogues. Or, rather, that everyone in the area knew that the names were interchangeable. Certainly, however, the name Bogue was understood to be a nickname of sorts, not a full-fledged surname. While most Bogues have now returned to the name Sullivan, some have not ... and it is possible that bearers of the two names are no longer conscious of the relationship.
It was unlikely that a Cork-born priest would write down the name Bogue when an individual said his name was John Bogue. ‘Bogue’ was not a ‘serious’ name, and it rarely got into the parish register. The priest would automatically have written John Sullivan. (There are exceptions.) But this was the case with many names, especially first names, and especially where Irish was still spoken. For example, when a woman identifield herself as Gubby Glaveen (or the Irish equivalent thereof), the priest would automatically have written ‘Abigail Donoghue’. If a man said that his name was Humphrey Canty, the priest would write ‘Oliver Dorney’, since the priest wrote down only ‘proper’ forms of names ... One must not forget that anything sounding too Irish had come to be associated with low class ... When Irish was still spoken, it was considered rude to speak to one’s parish priest in Irish.
This supports the assertion that Bogues in the Cork area considered themselves to be a branch of the O'Sullivan's [Eoghanachta tribe]. Contrast this with Woulfe stating that the related surnames are Corca
Laoidhe rather than
Eoghanachta, but that "it's not improbable" that some erroneously took the name Sullivan. Can we find evidence of this? The early truth remains to be tied down.
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< Research Note >
Locate some modern Bogues in Carrigaline and see if their Y-DNA matches any Sullivan's.
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Can DNA Help?
We hope that over time the Bowes (and variants) DNA Project may shed light on these theories and help to establish specific lineages that have roots as portrayed in one or both of these accounts. The Driscoll DNA project includes a study of genetics in the Corca Laoidhe region. We will be following this study and comparing our DNA results with it. Hopefully someone will initiate a Corca Laoidhe genetic study independent of individual surname studies.
One possible confounding factor is that, if at some point the O'Buadhaigh sept leader did not have sons, a son-in-law could have succeeded him, introducing a different Y-DNA signature to the name.
We also need to keep in mind that it was common for members of the same sept not to be genetically related.
The Irish prefixes of Mac (son of) and O (grandson or descendant of) gave rise at an early date, to a set of fixed hereditary names in which the literal patronymic meaning was lost or obscured. These surnames originally signified membership of a clan, but with the passage of time, the clan system became less distinct, and surnames came to identify membership of what is called a 'sept' of people all living in the same locality, all bearing the same surname, but not necessarily descended from a common ancestor. Adoption of the name by people who did not otherwise have a surname and by their dependants was not uncommon. [9]
This poses a really interesting possibility ... that we may have lines in our DNA Project that are not related genetically, but which nevertheless share a non-genetic, political, ancient history tied to the O'Buadhaigh sept!
A Possible Independent Ulster Lineage
Additionally, Woulfe stated in his 1923 and 1967 volumes of Irish Names and Surnames that Bowes was also an anglicization of O'Boathghalach, meaning foolhardy, in some parts of Ulster.
The head of this family is mentioned by O'Dugan as one of the chiefs of Clan Fergus in Ulster. I have failed to discover any early [anglicized] form of the surname, and am by no means certain that it is still extant. There was also a family surnamed O Baotgail or O Baotgaile in the parish of Skreen, Co. Sligo, but that too seems to have disappeared. [10]
Other anglicizations he associates with this Gaelic name are Bohill and Boetius. His failure to discover any "early" anglicized forms must have been a search for something between the old Gaelic and Bowes, Bohill and Boetius, similar to the way Bogue may have preceded Bowe and Bowes, changes that may have arisen partly from local variations in spelling and pronunciation.
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1. Woulfe, Patrick. Irish Names and Surnames, Collected and Edited with Explanatory and Historical Notes. Genealogical Pub. Co. 1967, p. 447.
2. MacLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland. Irish Academic Press Ltd.: Dublin. 1980.
3. O' Keeffe, Eugene. The Book of Munster: Eoghanacht Genealogies. 1703.
4. O' Croinin, Daibhi, Ed. A New History of Ireland, I, Prehistoric and Early Ireland. Oxford University Press: Oxford. 2005, pp. 186-7.
5. Jaski, Bart. "The genealogical section of the Psalter of Cashel," Peritia, Vol. 17-18, 2003-4, pp. 295-337.
6. O' Keeffe, Eugene. The Book of Munster: Eoghanacht Genealogies. 1703.
7. MacLysaght, Edward. More Irish Families. O' Gorman. 1960.
8. MacLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland. Irish Academic Press Ltd.: Dublin. 1980, Map. "Prepared by [MacLysaght ] and drawn and lettered by Nora O'Shea, one time heraldic artist to the Office of Arms, Dublin Castle."
9. Need cite.
10. Woulfe, Patrick. Irish Names and Surnames. Genealogical Pub. Co.: Baltimore. 1967, p. 434.