Looking for information on Father William McNulty - Callow Church Pastor

My grandmother, Ann Marie McNulty, was born and reared in the townland of Callow, in Killasser parish, and I think that Anthony and Bridget (Lynskey) McNulty were her aunt and uncle, though I don't have a firm paper trail for that conneciton.  That would make my grandmother a first cousin of your great-grandmother, Mary McNulty, although Mary was a good bit older (my grandmother was the youngest of at least eight children, and I suspect that her father, Thomas McNulty, was a younger brother of Anthony).   Thus far, I've located the baptismal and/or birth records for Mary (born 1860) and three younger sisters, Bridget (1863), Catherine (1868), and Margaret (1876), in case you lack any of that info.  If my surmise is correct, then Anthony was a brother of Thomas/Tadhg McNulty, my great-grandfather (born in Callow around 1831), and their parents were James McNulty and Bridget McAndrew. 

In any case, I can answer some of your questions about the church in Callow and the Mayo McNulty's.

In Irish, the surname McNulty is Mac an Ultaigh, which literally means “son of the Ulsterman” (Ultach = Ulsterman, and Ultaigh is the genitive case of the word), but it may simply refer to descent from the Ulaid, a people for whom Ulster is named (in ancient Ireland, the Uluti tribe), which in remote times ruled the entirety of the North of Ireland.  According to MacLysaght’s “Surnames of Ireland”, the McNulty surname originated in County Donegal, and that is where the Mayo McNulty’s came from.  A family of McNulty's migrated to the Callow Lakes area in East Mayo in the 1640's, according to a history of the parish of Killasser, and in the course of time, McNulty’s became numerous in the region.  There are also still McNulty’s in Donegal and nearby counties.  In Killasser, McNulty and Durkan were the most common surnames in 1911, each of them with double the number for any other surname.

McNulty emigrants from Ulster are also known to have moved to Counties Louth and Meath (in Meath, they usually just use the name Nulty).  There are also people in Mayo named MacNalty or MacAnalty.  They’re generally from a different family, whose name comes from the Irish name Mac Conallta (“son of the wild hound”).  There are a number of old histories of the McNultiy family in Ulster, containing various theories about the how the name arose, and a possible connection to the Ulster family MacDonlevy (in Irish, Mac or Ó Duinnshléibhe).

The surname Lynskey/Lynsky, by the way, is an anglicization of the Irish surname Ó Loinscigh, found principally in Mayo and Galway.  The name is sometimes found in older parish registers as “Lynsk” or “Lensk” (as is the case for your Mary McNulty's baptismal record).  The families in the area would have been entirely Irish-speaking in the mid-1800's, but most people did not know how to write Irish anymore (they were taught to read and write in English in school, where Irish was not allowed).  As pronounced in Irish, the name could be misheard by an English-speaker as something like “Linshky”, and even the priest who made the register entry may have been unsure how to spell it.  In later years, it settled down in most cases as Lynskey or Lynsky, which can be seen in later register entries.  There is another surname, Ó Loingsigh, used by several different families in other parts of Ireland, which is believed to be related, but which was usually anglicized as Lynch or Linchy.  Ó Loinscigh was also sometimes anglicized as Lynch, but the Lynskey form is much more common in Mayo.

There was a history book published in 2011 in Ireland, entitled “Killasser:  Heritage of a Mayo Parish”, which discusses the McNulty family (among many others).  The author was Bernard O’Hara, who was apparently working with the Killasser/Callow Historical Society.  It may now be out of print, but I was able to find my copy on Amazon a few years ago.  The ISBN is 978-0-9850753-1-6, in case you want to look for it.  In one section, it discusses the main parish church, All Saints’, and the chapel at Callow, which is locatd to the west, by the Callow Lakes.  In Irish, Callow is caladh, which can mean a low-lying area near water, or else a landing place, in either case referring to the nearby Callow Lakes. The Callow chapel is believed to have first been built in 1811 or 1812, at the behest of the then parish priest, Michael O’Brien, and it was remodeled several times after that.  The book lists the Killasser parish priests (in modern times), starting with Jonin Ruane in 1704, up through the current one, John Durkan.  Only one McNulty is listed, John McNulty, who served from 1830 to 1848.

I'm not aware of any locations called Ballyshannon in Mayo, but there are several places of that name elsewhere in Ireland.  I know of no connection to the McNulty family, though.

I hope some of that info has been of interest.

Hi Kevin,

We cross paths again!  Thanks for more info.  I have the Killasser Parish book and adore it!  Lots of McNulty references.  I'm still working on family information, hoping to visit there later this year.  So far, I've not located a living relative but at least hope to visit the area family farmed which was listed on Griffiths.

Part of the fun of a trip is the planning and I'm absorbing all I can about Mayo and another county famiy originated.  Since Ireland is my once-in-a-lifetime trip, I want to know all I can about family areas before I arrive.

Blessings!

Audrey