The History of the name Clancy
The Clancys / Glancys (in Irish MagFhlannchadha) were part of the old Gaelic aristocracy whose history goes back more than a thousand years in Dartry, an area in West Breifne, which is partly located today in the counties of Sligo and Leitrim in north west Ireland. They are not connected to the Munster sept of the same name which evolved separately from the forename Flann before surnames came into common usage.Flann, from whom the family name of MagFhlannchadha derives, is first recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1114, and later variously written in the State Papers as MaGlannagh, McGlanthie, MacGlanagh, McGlanchy, Glanaghy, but now anglicised to Glancy and Clancy.
The Clancys of Dartry are most fortunate and immensely indebted to a survivor of the Spanish Armada, one Don Francisco de Cuellar, who left a written account of his stay with them in 1588. This document, dated 4 October, 1589, lay undiscovered for three centuries in the archives of the Academia de la Historia in Madrid. Don Francisco stayed at Rosclogher, Clancy's principal residence by the shores of Lough Melvin.
In 1659, Pender's Census shows William McGlanchy as the proprietor of numerous townlands in the ancestral territory of Rosclogher Barony, and also mentions that amongst the principal Irish names and their number in the same barony were: O Rourke 24 and McGlanchy 12. The Clancys / Glancys today in Counties Sligo, Leitrim and surrounding areas are descendants of these families and many are still to be found on the same lands as their ancestors farmed. Anyone of the name who can trace their descent from Dartry can link up with a clan whose origins are lost in the mists of antiquity.
Maria Clancy's book evolved from a collection of historical notes, jottings and photographs gathered over a period of more than thirty-five years - sadly many of the folk who shared their knowledge of the clan history are no longer around. It records the history of the Clancys of Dartry from their outset to the early part of the twentieth century when one descendant of the clan - John J. Clancy - was elected to Parliament in the First Dail, in 1918.
