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authorities refute this. In any case they have always been prominently
associated with Co. Cavan; and it is in Co. Cavan and adjacent areas
the Bradys are mostly found today. They are indeed very numerous
in Ireland with an estimated population of nearly 10,000 persons
so called. 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 1890 census figures show the name in significant numbers in
Dublin, Antrim, Meath and Longford.
A number of families of Brady are also to be found in the district
around the village of Tuamgraney, Co. Clare. These are in fact not
truly Bradys at all but O'Gradys, of the same family as O'Grady
of Kilballyowen, Co. Limerick: from the time of Henry VIII onwards
these O'Gradys identified themselves with the English cause: for
that reason, perhaps, they adopted the form Brady instead of Grady.
The first Protestant Bishop of Meath, for example, was Hugh Brady,
a Clareman, son of Donough O'Grady. The Limerick branch, on the
other hand, having been Brady for a generation or two, reverted
to the correct form O'Grady.
All the Bradys who have distinguished themselves in the cultural
and political history of Ireland were from Co. Cavan. The most notable
of these are Fiachra MacBrady (fl. 1710), and Rev. Philip MacBrady
(died 1719), both Gaelic poets, the latter of whom became a Protestant
clergyman and was very popular with the people of Co. Cavan, perhaps
because he satirised his colleagues. In this category we may also
place Phelim Brady (fl. 1710), usually referred to as "bold Phelim
Brady the bard of Armagh". Thomas Brady (1752-1827), a farmer's
son from Cootehill, Co. Cavan, became a Field
Marshal in the Austrian service and Governor of Dalmatia; another
who was prominent in military service outside Ireland was Michael
Brady: he was executed for his part in the service of the "Young
Pretender" in 1745. In the ecclesiastical sphere Gilbert MacBrady
was Bishop of Ardagh from 1396 to 1400; and three MacBradys were
bishops of Kilmore in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: in
1580 John MacBrady was succeeded in the same see by Richard Brady
a distinguished Franciscan. Andrew MacBrady in 1454 was the first
bishop of Kilmore to provide a cathedral church for the diocese.
The Cavan Crosier, staff of the early MacBrady bishops, is one of
the few Irish crosiers to have survived the Reformation and is now
in the National Museum in Dublin.
A Catholic descendant of Hugh Brady, first Protestant Bishop of
Meath, Edwin James Brady (1869-1952), had an adventurous life in
many lands and was the author of some fine sea ballads. He was born
at Carcour, New South Wales.
Apart from the Gaelic poets the most important literary man of the
name was William Maziere Brady (1825-1894), author of Episcopal
Succession in England, Scotland and Ireland.
Heraldry
The Chief Herald of Ireland records the ancient sept arms of MacBrady
Sable, in the sinister base a dexter hand couped at the wrist proper
pointing with the index finger at a sun in splendour in dexter chief
or.
No crest or motto is recorded, but in 1766, the arms of James Bernard
MacBrady, Count of the Holy Roman Empire were recorded as above
with the addition of a crest "a cherub proper the wings or" and
the motto "claritate dextra" (which roughly means, the right hand
is clear). This crest and motto appears in the arms of at least
four other Bradys - sufficiently numerous to be regarded as traditional
sept symbols along with the shield.
Brady Family Certifcates -click
here-
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