The surname Fitzpatrick is an anglicised version of at least two different surnames: Mac Giolla Phádraig; and Ó Maol Phádraig. In a study completed in 1997 it was ranked as the 60th most common surname in Ireland with an estimated 12,700 individuals bearing the name. While both Mac Giolla Phádraig and Ó Maol Phádraig have similar meanings, they are likely unrelated; yet both have arrived in the modern era as Fitzpatrick. Despite the prefix "Fitz-", Fitzpatrick is not a name of Hiberno-Norman descent.
The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.
John FitzPatrick, 1st Earl of Upper Ossory lived in County Cork in Ireland.
The kings of Osraige reigned over the medieval Irish kingdom of Osraige from the first or second century AD until the late twelfth century. Osraige was a semi-provincial kingdom in south-east Ireland which disappeared following the Norman Invasion of Ireland. A number of important royal Ossorian genealogies are preserved, particularly MS Rawlinson B502, which traces the medieval Mac Giolla Phádraig dynasty back through Óengus Osrithe, who supposedly flourished in the first or second century. and one in the Book of Leinster. Recent analysis of ninth and tenth century regnal succession in Osraige has suggested that in peaceful times, kingship passed primarily from eldest to youngest brother, before crossing generations and passing to sons and nephews.
Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Ossory also known as Red Piers, was from the Polestown branch of the Butler family of Ireland.
During the Tudor conquest of Ireland (c.1540–1603), "surrender and regrant" was the legal mechanism by which Irish clans were to be converted from a power structure rooted in clan and kin loyalties, to a late-feudal system under the English legal system. The policy was an attempt to involve the clan chiefs within the English polity, and to guarantee their property under English common law, as distinct from the traditional Irish Brehon law system. This strategy essentially sought to assimilate the Gaelic leadership into the new Tudor Kingdom of Ireland and Anglican Church, contrary to more radical opinions which sought outright extermination.
Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig was an Irish poet and priest. He is not to be confused with any of the Barons of Upper Ossory, his relations, several of whom bore the same name in Irish.
Earl of Upper Ossory was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 5 October 1751 for John FitzPatrick, 2nd Baron Gowran, who later represented Bedfordshire in the House of Commons. He was the son of Richard FitzPatrick, who had been created Baron Gowran on 27 April 1715, also in the Peerage of Ireland. Lord Gowran had represented Harristown and Queen's County in the Irish House of Commons before his elevation to the peerage. The first Earl's son, the second Earl, also sat as Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire and was Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire. In 1794, he was created Baron Upper Ossory, of Ampthill in the County of Bedford, in the Peerage of Great Britain. However, all three titles became extinct on his death in 1818.
Baron Castletown, of Upper Ossory in the Queen's County, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 10 December 1869 for John FitzPatrick, the former Liberal Member of Parliament for Queen's County. He was the illegitimate son of John FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory.
John FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory FRS DL, styled 'Lord Gowran' from 1751 to 1758, was an Irish peer and member of parliament.
Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret, was the son of Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret and Eleanor Butler.
Barnaby Fitzpatrick (c.1478–1575) was the last person to have claim to the kingship of Osraige; forfeiting his ancestral title in favour of being created the first Lord Baron Upper Ossory by King Henry VIII of England, by patent dated 11 June 1541, as part of the King's policy of Surrender and regrant. Barnaby Fitzpatrick was subsequently knighted on 1 July 1543.
Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron Upper Ossory, was educated at the court of Henry VIII of England with Edward, Prince of Wales. While he was in France he corresponded regularly with King Edward VI. He was active in suppression of Wyatt's rebellion in 1553. He went home to Ireland, where he had had a lifelong feud with the Earl of Ormonde. His wife and daughter were abducted in 1573 by the Grace family, supposedly at Ormonde's instigation. He killed the rebel Rory O'More in 1578.
Upper Ossory was an administrative barony in the south and west of Queen's County in Ireland. In late Gaelic Ireland it was the túath of the Mac Giolla Phádraig (Fitzpatrick) family and surviving remnant of the once larger kingdom of Ossory. The northernmost part of the Diocese of Ossory and medieval County Kilkenny, it was transferred to the newly created Queen's County in 1600. In the 1840s its three component cantreds, Clarmallagh, Clandonagh, and Upperwoods, were promoted to barony status, thereby superseding Upper Ossory.
Mac Giolla Phádraig (pronunciation) is a native Irish dynastic surname which translates into English as "Son of the Devotee of (St.) Patrick". In the medieval period, the Mac Giolla Phádraigs were hereditary kings of Osraige; today, the name is commonly translated to "Fitzpatrick".
Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd Baron Upper Ossory, was the third son of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 1st Baron Upper Ossory and his wife Margaret Butler, and inherited the title upon the death of his older brother Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron Upper Ossory in 1581. He married Catherine O'More, daughter of Patrick O'More of Abbeyleix, and had six children, including his son Teige, who succeeded as 4th Baron, and Joan who married John Butler of Dunboyne, by whom she was the mother of Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne.
Teige Fitzpatrick, 4th Baron Upper Ossory (d. December 1627) was the son and heir of Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd Baron Upper Ossory, by his wife Catherine O'More. He married Joan Butler, the daughter of Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan.
Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 5th Baron Upper Ossory was the son and heir of Teige Fitzpatrick, 4th Baron Upper Ossory.
Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 6th Baron Upper Ossory, was the heir and successor of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 5th Baron Upper Ossory. The eldest son of Barnaby Fitzpatrick by his wife Margaret Butler, he took his seat in Parliament on 16 March 1639. He married Catherine Everard, daughter of Sir Edward Everard, and his heir was his eldest son, Barnaby.
Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 7th Baron Upper Ossory, was the eldest son, heir and successor of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 6th Baron Upper Ossory by his wife Catherine Everard.
