---

(O)Hurley

O'Murhila, Murrily, (O'Herlihy) The well known surname Hurley is used as the anglicized form of two distinct Gaelic patronymics. The Thomond sept of O hUirthile descends from one Uirthile or Urley (an obsolete christian name) who was of the race of Blod, son of Cas, the progenitor of the Dalcassians O'Hurley was one of the principal chiefs of Thomond in 1309, but after that they are mainly met with in Co. Limerick, in the Kilmallock area, and in north Tipperary where there is a place-name Rathurley in the parish of Kilruane. Kilmallock was represented in the parliaments of 1585 and 1689 by an O'Hurley of Knocklong Castle,and Sir Maurice o'Hurley of the same family was prominent in the activities of the Confederate Catholics in 1646. Two were Bishops Emly in the stormy seventeenth century, and one of the most famous prelates of the first persecution era was Dermot O'Hurley (1519-1584), Archbishop of Cashel, who for his part in the struggle against English aggression in Ireland was first tortured and then hanged. One of the most remarkable character of late seventeenth century Ireland was the informer Patrick Hurley of Co. Clare, self-styled Count of Mountcallan, whose adventurous and infamous career was finally brought to a close by his trial and conviction in 1700.

It may here be mentioned that some Clare Hurleys have acquired the name Commane by a process of erroneous translation, caman being the Irish word for a hurley {Hurley}

The great majority of present Hurleys are from Co. Cork. This was the case, too, in the seventeenth century when the name was also recorded as numerous in Counties Limerick and Clare. To Co.Cork belonged. the second sept referred to above. These in Irish are O Muirthile, sometimes phonetically anglicized as Murhilla and shortened to Murley, but nearly always Hurley, for no obvious reason. They were located in the neighbourhood of Kilbritain ( in Carbery East): one of them, who became Bishop of Ross in 1517, is recorded as John O'Murily or O'Murhila. In early record confusion is caused by reason of the fact that the Co. Limerick o'Hurleys sometimes appear as Murilly.Further confusion in case of the Co.Cork o'Hurleys arises because the name of the sept O Hlarlatha, normally anglicized O'Herlihy, has become Hurley in some places. This family were erenaghs of St.Gobnait's Church, Ballyvourney. One of them, Thomas O'Herlihy, was Bishop of Ross from 1562 until 1570 when he was forced to abdicate and was incarcerated in the Tower of London until his death ten years later.

Brother Donogh O'Muirhily (d. 1586) was one of the many Franciscans who suffered martyrdom in the the many Franciscans who suffered martyrdom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.