Clan MacMhuirrich - The Curries


Tartan and Crest of the Curries

    Do you have literary talent? Like to write, or keep records? Fascinated with genealogy?  Then perhaps you have a wee drop of Currie blood in you.
        They have a long and honorable history, being one of the earliest constituted Clans of the Scottish Highlands. Through the MacMhuirrichs, the literary torch was preserved for generations. They were recognized as the most illustrious body of learned men who were specialists in the heroic literature and genealogy of the ancient Gaelic world.
    The founder of this family was Muiredach O'Daly (1180-1222 A.D.). He was an outstanding poet of his time, and a member of the most famous family in the Celtic world. The O'Daly's were established in their literary role as a bardic family by the 12th century. When Mael Iosa Ua Dalaidh, Muiredach's great grandfather died in 1185, he was described in the contemporary Irish annals as Ollamh of Ireland and Scotland.
    O'Daly's ancestry, which is fully recorded in the Office of Genealogies and Arms in Dublin Castle, show's his family's descent through the royal race of Ireland back to Conn of the Hundred Battles, the 110th High King of Ireland, in 177 A.D.
        Muiredach fled from Ireland to Scotland in 1213, after making himself a mortal enemy of the powerful chief of the O'Donnels. The O'Donnel's steward had the temerity to demand rent from the Royal Bard, and the Royal Bard's response was swift enough - he promptly split the steward's head in two with a battle axe. Then, in typical Bardic arrogance, he was surprised at all the commotion he had caused. He penned these words:

                Trifling our quarrel with the man
                A clown to be abusing me
                And me to kill the churl,
                Dear God, is this a cause for enmity?
    But it was a cause, at least according to the O'Donnells. Muiredach arrived in Scotland in 1213 at Finlaggan on Islay, the stronghold of Donald Lord of the Isles. The addition of the famed Bard to the Macdonald court brought the Lord of the Isles additional prestige, and the two men became great friends.
    The office of the Bardic poet or "Sennachie" was hereditary, and it was the duty of the father to dedicate and train one of his sons, who showed the greatest talent. Their principal duties were to keep in verse the historical, genealogical, and legal records of the Clans and the Chiefs. Many Bards had considerable learning, some were creative poets, others, versed in literature.
    Poet, historian, genealogist - the Bard's mind was the Clan's library. He was the most important man in the Clan's social life. The great families required two Bards, one at home to assign every man his place at the table, which he indicated with a white rod, and no word spoken, the other to travel with his chief.
    Muiredach's sons and their sons held the office of hereditary bards and historians to the Lords of the Isles, and later to Clan Donald. Nineteen years after the death of Muiredach, Donald Lord of the Isles passed away, and his son Angus Mor, was inaugurated as the first Macdonald Lord of the Isles, by Niall, the first MacMhuirrich. From this point on, through the existence of the Macdonald Lordship of the Isles, it was a MacMhuirrich Bard who performed this offica at each successive Lord's inauguration.
    Niall MacMhirich (1637-1726) the last of the Bardic race, chronicled the wars of Montrose in the last body of Gaelic Prose to be written in Scotland in the ancient Irish Script style. When he died in 1726, the Bardic Order became extinct in Scotland.
    The MacMhuirrics were herediatry poets for Clan Donald for some five centuries, therefore, so long as there has been a Clan Donald, there has been a Clan MacMhuirrich to preserve it's history. Some of MacMhuirrich's work is still in existance today, notable the "Red Book of Clan Ranald."


The Red Books of Clanranald, written by the Currie Bards

    At the decisive battle of Harlaw in 1411, when the Lord of the Isles sought to enforce his claims to the lands of the Earldom of Ross against the Stewarts, it was Lachlan Mr MacMhuirrich (1370-1438) who composed the incitement to Battle. The Clan motto ever since that day, has been "Inspire to Victory".

            O battle-loving Warriors,
            O brave, heroic firebrands
            The Children of Conn of the Hundred Battles,
            O Children of Conn, remember
            Hardihood in time of battle.

    Niall Mor MacMhuirrich is the first who appears under Clanranald patronage and the earliest dateable poem from his pen comes from the year 1613. The Clanranald bards produced the largest collection of MacMhuirich writings. Niall MacMhuirrich (1637-1726) the last of the bardic race chronicaled the wars of Montrose in the last body of Gaelic Prose to be written in Scotland in the ancient Irish script style. When he died in 1726, the bardic order became extinct in Scotland.
    The MacMhuirrchs were a Clan in their own right and not just a sept of Clan Donald. In a document written from South Uist in 1707, Macdonald of Clan Ranald grants land to Donald McMureac:

"I give and grant the lands of Staoligarry to Donald MacMureach in virtue of the station and office he presently serves me as bard and Sennachie and failing heirs of his own body I bind and oblige me and my descendants to warrant the Tack unto any other of the same Clan and tribe McMureach."

    The Currie Tartan came into existence in 1822, when Lord Alexander Macdonald 10th Baronet of Nova Scotia Chief of the Macdonalds of the Isles, granted to James Currie of Balilone, 23rd Chief of the Clan, the right to use the Lord of the Isles Tartan as the basis for his own tartan. The grant from Lord Macdonald states "In recognition of you as the representor of the Highland family or Clan of Currie, anciently Clan MacMhuirrich, who of old were the Historians of the Lords of the Isles."

Source: Clans, Septs, and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, page 317.
Source: The Islands of Western Scotland, by W. H. Murray, page 19, 198, 289


Books on Curries:
"The History of Clan Currie" by the late Major General Sir William McMurdo Currie, 30th chief of Clan Currie.
 

Back to Main