CLEARY FAMILY ROOTS

The Gaelic family name which is now regularly found in English as CLEARY and CLERY was O’Cleirigh, which means “the descendant of Cleireach.”  Cleireach means, selected or chose, and was the Gaelic word used to translate the Latin “Clerus” from which we have the words, cleric and clergy.

The family took its name from Cleireach, a descendant of the famous Guaire, the hospitable, 8th century King of Connacht.  Historically the O’CLEARYS were the chief family of that district in County Galway comprising the ancient diocese of Kilmacdaugh.

Towards the middle of the 13th century the influence of the CLEARY chieftains in their native district began to wane.  Thereafter we find the name appearing on the records in various other parts of Ireland.  An important branch migrated to County Donegal.  Here they had lands in the barony of Tir Hugh and the ancient Castle of Kilbarron was their stronghold.  Many members of this family distinguished themselves as poets, ollavs and antiquarians under the patronage of the Lords of Tirconnel.  Another sept of the clan settled in County Cavan.

A third offshoot of the CLEARY clan settled in medieval times in Kilkenny.  It is from this branch that the majority of the CLERYS, now numerous in Counties Tipperary and Waterford, spring.

Historically the CLERY family has been more outstanding in the literary than in the military or political fields.  A long litany of O’Cleary bards and historians appear in Irish annals.  But the most famous of these are Michael O’Clery, his brother Conery, and cousin Cucoigchriche.  These three illustrious scholars, with a fourth, compiled THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS.  They completed this massive manuscript of 11,000 quarto pages, covering 4,500 years of legend and history, in 1636 A.D.

Outside of Ireland perhaps the best known representatives of the family were Most Reverend James Vincent Cleary, first Archbishop of Kingston, Ontario, and Father H.W. Cleary, prominent Catholic Editor in New Zealand.  In the United States Major McCleary fell in the battle of Bunker Hill, and his cousin Colonel McCleary in the battle of Bennington.  Captain James McCleary commanded the New York militia in 1775 — “one of the bravest officers America can boast of.”