DEATH OF THE O'GRADY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 50, 11 April 1874, Page 9

DEATH OF THE O'GRADY.

The ' Times ' records the death of the head of one of those ancient "septs "or clans of Ireland which claim Milesian descent far more venerable and illustrious that) th;>t of any of the members of the Irish peerage, except, perhaps, the O'Briens, representatives as tln*y are of the Princes and Kings of Thomond — we refer to the O'Grady, of Kilballyowen, in the county of Limerick, who died a few days since, at the age of fifty-jeven. Ihe late William de Courcy O'Grady, was the eldest son of the O'Grady," J.P. and D.L., and formerly High Sheriff of the County of Limerick, who died in 1862. He was bom in the year 1816, and was educated at Westminister and at Trinity College, Dublin, where h? took the usual degrees, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1840. Hemarried, in 1851, Anne Grogun, daughter of Mr T. de Rinzi, of Cloberaonhall, county Wexford, by whom lie had, with other children, a son, Thomas DeCourcy, born in 1811, who now b»comes the o'Grady.A.ccording to Sir Bernard Burke, the Milesian family of O'Grady is one of the most ancient in the far west of Ireland ; and Dr. O'Brien, the late Catholic Bishop of Cloyne, in his 1 Irish and English Dictionary,' assigns Conal Eachluauth, King of Minister, A.D., 366, and eixth in descent from Oliol-Olum (of the race of Heber, eldest son of Milesius, King of Spain, who colonized Ireland), a* the common auceator of the O'Gradtes and the O'Briens, now represented by Lord Inchiquiu, of Dromoland, count} of Clare. Tho same authority tells us that, " when the !atte<" house subsequent ly, iv the person of Brian Brien Boroimhe, the renowned monarch of IreUnd, established an ascendency of power in North Munster or Thomond, of which they became hereditary rulers, the O'^radrs c;ime to acknowledge their paruinount sway, and were arrayed as dynasts or chiefs of ' a sept ' under tho banner* of these provincial princcf. — 1 Freeman's Journal.'