MacMurrough name
MacMurrough name — There's a running "joke" throughout the novel based on the MacMurrough name. Father Taylor refers to it as "a lodestar in the Irish firmament" (Ch 1.3). In greeting Eveline, he speaks of his "pleasure" in meeting "a scion of your famous name" (ibid). He assures her later (Ch 5.1) that her "name alone is worth its weight in gold".
It is true the name in Ireland is "imperishable, ineradicable, sempiternal" (Ch 1.3) – but precisely because it is reviled. Dermot MacMurrough, 12th century king of Leinster (on whom Dermot James William MacMurrough, Eveline's father, is based) was the "traitor" who first invited the "English" to Ireland. And he gave the hand of his daughter, Aoife, to their leader, Strongbow.
| Historical correspondences | |
|---|---|
| Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster | Dermot James William MacMurrough, Eveline's father |
| ancestral seat at Ferns | member of parliament for "the borough of Ferns" Ch 1.3 |
| Hy Cinsellagh, the ancestral lands in Wexford | High Kinsella, the country house in Wexford Ch 5.1 |
| daughter's name Aoife | daughter's name Eveline, and called by her nephew "Aunt Eva" passim |
| abducted the wife of the king of Breifni | shared a train compartment with "that Breifne woman" Ch 11.1 |
| escaped to Bristol and sought refuge in England | "prudently dispatched to Bristol for the season" Ch 11.1 |