Publisher's Synopsis
With comprehensive indexing and 20 black & white illustrations, this revised standard paperback edition explores the genealogical traditions of the MacMahon family of Thomond (North Munster, especially Co. Clare) for centuries BEFORE they took the surname Mac Mathghamhna Thuadhmhumhan ('Son of Mathghamhain of Thomond'). This name is also spelled McMahon and Mahon in English.
Once considered lost, these are the genealogical secrets of the Celtic Iron Age and Migration Period. To tell this story, the author has accessed the mass of information preserved in the Irish Language since the 7th century in Ireland's most important genealogical manuscripts. These precious documents had been hidden away in a handful of collections since the physical and cultural genocide of the Gaeil in the 17th century, and were therefore inaccessible until recently to almost all Irish, their diaspora, and their genealogists. Happily, these Irish Language manuscripts have finally been set in type and published after waiting between 350 and 850 years.
Because this book uses and translates into English this ancient but newly-available genealogical tradition as it relates to the MacMahon family of Thomond, it is the first of its kind about this family in the modern era.
Caveat - Mac Mathghamhna ('MacMahon') is the surname of two, distinct, unrelated sloinnte (extended, surnamed families): MacMahon of Thomond and MacMahon of Monaghan. This book examines the pre-surname genealogies, history, myth and Brehon Law of the MacMahons of Thomond.
Physical description - This is the revised standard paperback edition of 218 pages, 7 X 10 inch format, including 20 black & white illustrations and comprehensive indexing.
