There is a well known rumour about the group of Irish people called "the black irish". Normally the story goes that these are decendants of survivors of the Spanish armada who landed on Ireland. The Black irish are those with black hair and blue eyes.

One story that is told to Kilkie children is that we "Kilkies" are a branch of  the black irish who "washed up in Kilkee in County Clare in 1588.

Until the 10th century people had no family name. they lived in small villages and had a first name to identify them from one and other. Ireland is thought to be one of the first countries to begin to use Surnames.

Today most if not all surnames are inherited from parents. In the past (as explained elsewhere) surnames had other derivations, ie from places or occupations and a common surname was no guarantee of a similar origin. One route to discover the origin of particular families is to use the science of genetics and molecular biology to study and compare DNA composition in different individuals and derive origin from connections in composition.

Phelim Caoch O'Neill ( Irish Féilim Caoch Ó Néill) was a Prince of the Cenel nEogain from 1517 to 1542. He was the first son of King Conn Bacach O'Neill 1st Earl og Tyrone.

Conn came from a long line of Ulster kings and was known throughout all the O'Neill provinces as "The O'Neill" or the most supreme among all the O'Neill Lords. Phelim's mother was Lady Alice Fitzgerald, the daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare. His father and maternal grandfather were probably the two most powerful men in Ireland in the 1540s.