Mac Aodhagáin

Mac Aodhagáin was the name of an Irish family of Brehons who originated among the Soghain people in what is now central Co. Galway.

They were hereditary lawyers firstly to the Ó Conchobhair Kings of Connacht, and later to the Burkes of Clanricarde. The earliest surviving Irish law manuscript, "In Senchas Már", was written prior to 1350 at their famed school located at Duniry, near Loughrea. Other branches of the clann maintained schools at Park, outside Tuam, and at Ballymacegan in Co. Tipperary. The work known as Leabhar Breac was produced by one of their students, while Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh appears to have studied at Ballymacegan under Flann Mac Aodhagáin up to the year 1643 (although this, as with much else concerning MacFhirbhisigh, remains mysterious).

The surname is now rendered in a variety of ways, mainly Mac Egan, Egan, Eagan, Keegan, Keigan, McKiegan, McKagan, among others.

ee also

* Duff McKagan
* Redwood Castle

External links

* http://www.clanegan.org/aodhagain.htm
* http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~egan/
* http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/celtic/22papers/simms.pdf#search='Aodhag%C3%A1in'
* http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G402027/header.html
* http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~quibellg/galwaye.pdf
* http://genforum.genealogy.com/egan/
* http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=surnames.egan

ource

"Oxford Concise Companion to Irish Literature", Robert Welsh, 1996. ISBN 0-19-280080-9