Dave White's Field

“The great families in Ireland, the Chieftains of the Gaels, were usually distinguished by having an `O' or a `Mac' at the start of the their surname. Five hundred years ago," she says grandly, "the `O' meant `son of' and the `Mac' stood for `grandson' or `descendant'.”

And more grandly still: “Even Brian Boru of nearly a thousand years ago, the last High King of all Ireland, whom you are all descended from, had a `mac' in his full name: `Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig'. And some of the direct descendants of King Brian Boru are the O'Briens, many of whom live in Waterford.”

King Brian Boru

`WHOM YOU ARE ALL DESCENDED FROM.'

Wow! Auntie Mary, effortlessly in passing, crowns us all princes and princesses at a stroke. Now, puffed up with the pride of royalty, we are ready to hear stories of our ancestor, King Brian Boru, and his kingdom of Ireland.

“The great families would have names like ... ” says Auntie Mary, rolling her eyes up in her head searching her memory, as if picking names of the royal clans from the ceiling,

“the O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Briens, O'Learys, O'Connells, MacDonalds, MacCarthys, Mackrills, McSweeneys ... ”

Is it a coincidence that the names she lists are, without exception, the familiar names of some of the families we know in our street or at our school `Our Lady of Dolours' here in Paddington?