My Connections

My Brady Connections

By Michael W. Caughey

Ellen Brady married Thomas Tierney, father of my son's mother-in-law Rosaleen Tierney.

BRADY
Brady is among the sixty most common names in Ireland, among the forty most common in Ulster, among the twenty most common in Monaghan and ranks third in Co Cavan, the homeland of the sept.The name is properly MacBrady from the Gaelic Mac Bradaigh, the derivation of which is uncertain.
The MacBradys were a very powerful Breffny sept controlling a large territory from their headquarters east of Cavan town. There are many references to them in the Irish annals, and Cavan Bradys and MacBradys became famous in many different fields. General Thomas Brady, 1752-1827, who was the son of a Cootehill farmer, became a field marshall in the Austrian army and governor of Dalmatia.
There were three MacBrady Bishops of Kilmore and one of Ardagh. The Cavan Crozier, staff of the early MacBrady bishops, is one of the few croziers to have survived the Reformation and is now in the National Museum in Dublin, Ireland.

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