In 373 AD the Erinviene's, together with other Scottish clans, fought against the
Romans. King Eugenius died, and the Erinviene's and the rest of the
Albion Scots fled to Scandinavia. For many years the Scots tried to retake their land. In 404 AD Fergus was
made King, Fergus II led the return to Scotland and, along with
the Erinviene's and other Clans, they drove the Romans out of Scotland
Malcolm II had no male heir when he was assassinated in 1034.
Prince Duncan ascended the throne. Little is known historically
concerning Duncan's reign. He was king for only six years and in that time he
sallied into northern England on several occasions. In an age when kings proved
themselves in battle, Duncan was not a good king. Named as Karl Hundason, but
probably Duncan, the Orkneyinga Saga mentions his failed attempt to take
Caithness from Thorfinn. Duncan also failed in his attempt to take Durham in
1039, and he was defeated in his campaign
against the Norsemen in 1040. During this time MacBeth formed an alliance with
their cousin the Earl of Orkney, and together they defeated and killed Duncan
when he was returning from his defeat from the Norsemen in 1040. MacBeth then
assumed the throne. It is around Duncan's murder that Shakespeare's play Macbeth is based.
In 1045 Erinus was
killed by MacBeth's forces while attempting to exact revenge for the murder of his
son. 
Alexander III
outlived his heirs and after his death the succession was cast
into dispute. Thirteen claimants then declared
their right to the throne, all having some relation to the line of Irvine. The
claimant with the most standing was John Balliol, who was the great great great grandson of David
I. His most serious contender was Robert the Bruce, the great great great great grandson of
David I. Edward 'Longshanks' of
England then chose Balliol to be
King of Scotland, who had to promise subservience to London. 
Sir Alexander Irvine,
Third Liard of Drum, who was the grandson of William de Irwyn,
accompanied the Earl of Mar in the French wars and was one of the chief
commanders of the King's army at the battle of Harlaw, A.D. 1411, which was
fought only 20 miles from Drum. He was a
valiant champion. Alexander lead the forces of Aberdeenshire with his cousin
the Earl of Mar to meet the invaders from the Hebrides. During the battle
Alexander met the ferocious Chief of the MacLeans of Duart in Mull,
known as 'Red Hector of the Battles'. After 'noble and notable single combat' the
two of them lay dead upon the field, killed by mortal blows struck upon each
other. Legend has it that all Irvine adult males died in the battle of
Harlaw. This battle marked the last challenge by the Lords of the
Isles to royal authority.
The Irvines were known as
troublesome neighbours. The Irvines had a long running feud with their
neighbours the Keiths. In 1402 the Irvines slaughtered in invading Keith warband
at the battle of Drumoak. Robert Irvine married Elizabeth Keith, thus ending the
long running feud. Robert is believed to have exchanged swords with on son of
Red Hector in a gesture of friendship between their families. It is believed
that Robert build St Ninian's chantry in St. Nicholas Church in Aberdeen. 
Variations of the Irvine Name
 |
|
Irvines of 'The Castle Irvine' NECARNE IN WARTIME During the second world war, Necarne was used by the RAF and the Americans as a military hospital. By 1941, America had declared war on Germany and the castle was requisitioned by the United States Navy. It originally had 200 beds but was soon enlarged to a 500 bed institution and released to the American Army. It was here, at Necarne, that the 28th Station Hospital was set up. Americans recuperated while they built up their strength getting ready to fight on the beaches of Normandy. The hopitality and kindness of the locals in nearby Irvinestown was greatly appreciated. One local farmer even allowed the 'Yanks' to use his field as a baseball pitch! Syd Irving, (Flight Engineer RAF 422 Squadron) remembers vividly his stay at the castle after surviving a horrific Sunderland crash at Trory just outside Enniskillen on 20th February 1944. He woke up in the American hospital suffering from internal injuries and injuries to his legs. Syd also had a twisted spine. The rich
American food helped recovery and was a pleasant change from the
mundane rationing being experienced beforehand. WAAF ladies made
regular visits to Syd and fellow crew survivors but it was soon
realised that the sweet talking American personnel were the main
attraction! A mortuary, which held at least ten stone slabs, was also built at Necarne. Sadly, too many RAF young men, who were involved in flying fatalities, were brought here for their final resting place. A lone stone slab still stands today at the side of the castle as a reminder of the part played by Necarne in the Battle of the Atlantic. (Necarne Castle and the Ulster Lakeland Equestrian
Park, Breege McCusker, 1995, pg. 20-21.) |
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
Necarne Castle (Castle Irvine) , Irvinestown
James McCabe Irvine Sr.
Seen here, standing on the bridge of a German submarine, one of two Commander Irvine forced to surrender.
Commander Irvine also sunk the German Sub that was providing the weather report for what became the Battle of The Bulge. For this action Commander Irvine received the Navy Cross with Combat V
THE IRVINES, IRVINS, IRVINGS, ERVINES, ERWINS OF THE OLD COUNTRY AND THE NEW.
I place the Irvines, etc., of the old country, first, in order to prove the immutable law of heraldry. The germ of life in man is like the seed of the thistle, that may be borne thousands of miles and fall into rich loam, and it will come up a thistle, as all of its fathers were. It may be warped by strong winds, or increased in size by the rich nourishment of its new home, but it will still bear the unmistakable marks of its ancestors, and wounds, if one handle it too roughly. The same courage and strength of mind that the ancestors of the Irvines of the old country displayed on many a battlefield have been repeated by their descendants in. this new land. The same ability in literature, statesmanship, and theology, that characterized many an Irvine of the old country, has distinguished the Irvines of America.The training and easy living of many generations of pure blooded men make aristocrats. The ease that wealth and careful training of many generations of aristocrats give, enervates and depletes them. They diminish in size and strength, and lose, in a measure, their hardihood and capacity to endure, but never lose the distinctive characteristics of their race.Read the long list of honors won by the Irvines of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and then follow their descendants, from 1729 when they first landed in Pennsylvania, down to the present time, and be convinced that the law of heraldry in man is as immutable as the law that governs the animal and vegetable worlds. Is not the blood in man as strong to paint its likeness, from generation to generation, as the sap that colors the rose on its tree, with unchanging fidelity, from year to year and from age to age, in all climates and in every land? County Antrim, Ireland, has furnished five Presidents to the United States:
1st--
Andrew Jackson, whose father was born at Ballahill, near Carrickfergus Castle (now a fortress), County Antrim, Ireland, and emigrated to America and settled in Tennessee, near Fort Bledsoe, near where Gallatin now stands. Andrew Jackson was born there, and became President of the United States. He is related to the Irvines as follows: Sarah Jackson, sister to President Andrew Jackson’s grandfather; married Frances Craig; the daughter of Sarah Jackson and Francis Craig, Anne by name, married Alexander Irvine, son of Robert Irvine and Elizabeth Wylie, his wife. The son of Anne Craig and Alexander Irvine married ----- Gault, whose family were of the nobility, and lived at Glenoe, Ireland, where his three sons, William, Christopher, and Andrew, were born. Alexander Irvine with his wife and three sons, emigrated to Bedford county, Virginia, where, shortly after his removal, the and his wife died on the same day, and were buried in one grave. The Virginia Irvines reared Andrew, who was a lad When his parents died, and the Pennsylvania Irvines reared Christopher and William. All three of the sons of — Gault and Alexander Irvine were in the war of the American Revolution.· 2nd -- President Benjamin Harrison's grandfather, four times removed, Benjamin by name, came to Pennsylvania, 1642, lived at Ballamena, County Antrim, Ireland. John Scott Harrison married Elizabeth Irwin.·
3rd-- President Theodore Roosevelt is descended from the great house of Drum, Aberdeen, North Britain (now Scotland). (Pedigree in full elsewhere.)·
4th-- The ancestors of Andrew Johnston lived at Ballamena, County Antrim, Ireland.·
5th-- The ancestors of President Garfield lived at Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland.·
6th-- President McKinley’s ancestors lived at Dervock, County Antrim, Ireland.
There is no district in all of Ireland so rich in armorial bearings as the neighborhood of Lame. The churchyards of Carncastle, Glynn, and Raloo abound with them. The churchyard of Raloo is over-grown with long grass and weeds, so as to be almost inaccessible. But one may pull aside obstructions and remove lichens from the tall gray tombstones; trace the arms carved upon them, and read the names of the Craigs, McDowells, Crawfords, Boyds, and others. In the churchyard of Raloo, Margaret McDowell lies buried. She was the wife of Ephraim McDowell, and daughter of Robert Irvine.There is an old book, more than six hundred years old (I was told), that I found at Fair Hill, near Larne. It had belonged to successive sextons for hundreds of years, from the dates it contained, the last one being 1775, and giving a description of the flag adopted by the American Colonies. It is written in longhand, and has pen-pictures of the Coats of Arms of the Carlisles, Earls of Kilmarnock, McDowells, Irvines, Johnstons, Crawfords, and Blairs, and many others not connected with this history. In the beginning of the book this appears, written in a clerkly hand:
"Nobilitatis virtus non stemma" (virtue, not pedigree, is the mark of nobility).
Says this same old chronicle: "A son, who was named James, was born to Christopher Irvine, shortly after he fell at Flodden Field. He had two sons, Robert and John, who fled to Ireland in time of the English persecution, and settled at Glenoe. John afterwards removed to Cushandall and became a Presbyterian minister. John Irvine had two sons, one named Abraham, the other Robert, who went to America, and Robert Irvine Sr., had sons who went to America.Robert Irvine built a house, in 1585, of red limestone, roofed in by slate. It stands just outside of the village of Glenoe. Passing down the one long street of that village, bordered on each side by tall stone houses, once the property of the Irvines and McDowells, one is struck by the good repair in which they remain, after with-standing the storms of centuries. The blacksmith-shop of Ephraim McDowell looks as if he had laid his hammer down but yesterday, and gone with his brothers-in-law, Alexander Irvine (not his brother-in-law then, as Ephraim was a mere lad, as was Alexander Irvine also), to Londonderry to fight for "The Faith" behind the weak walk, in time of the famous siege. Ephraim was fifty years old when he came to America.I followed the narrow, rocky street until I came to the mills, once belonging to the Irvines, Wylies, and McDowells. The mill-wheels are still now, and moss and rust-covered, and the mills are open to the night-birds, and afford homes for tramps, who sometimes seek lodging in that picturesque spot.The Ballyvallog furnished the water power that turned these wheels of the many mills, so sadly silent now. It is a narrow stream and runs across a beautiful brae, falling seventy-five feet into a well-shaped opening in solid rock, into a pool that no plum-met has ever fathomed. From this pool the water leaps over an immense stone that crosses the space at the bottom of the opening of this well, formed by nature, and just opposite the waterfall. The village of Glenoe is the most silent place I ever saw. If any business is carried on there, I couldn’t discern it. It seems but a monument of the long ago.
McCabe
|
Motto: "Aut Vincere Aut
Mori" |
|
Translation: "Either
Conquer Or Die" |
|
Arms: Vert a fess wavy
between three salmon naiant argent. |
|
Crest: A demi-griffin
segreant. |
|
Source: Edward MacLysaght, Irish Families, Dublin, p.
212. |
The
Gaelic surname which was anglicized McCabe is MacCaba.
Caba is the Irish world for cap, hood, helmet. The name thus means "the
son of the helmeted one." The MacCabes came from the western isles
of Scotland about the year 1350 as gallowglasses to the O'Reillys and the
O'Rourkes, the principal septs of Breffny. They became themselves a recognized
Breffny sept, their chief being "Constable of the two Breffnys".
Modern statistics show that they are still much more numerous in the Breffny
area than anywhere else.
Ancient annalists trace the descent of the family to
Colla da Croich, the famous founder of the Kingdom of Oriel from whom many
Ulster families take their origin. Oriel territory took in modern Counties
Monaghan, Armagh and part of Louth, and it is in Monaghan and Cavan that today
we find the McCabe family numerically strongest.
As one might gather from the family
motto, "either conquer or die" the military profession was
the field where the McCabes made their greatest mark. Historically they were
gallowglasses (from gall = foreigner and oglach = soldier: a
mercenary or retainer of an Irish chief or an armed Irish foot soldier) in the armies
of the O'Reillys, the O'Rourkes and the MacMahons. This accounts for the fact
that we find so many of the name in Cavan as well as in their original home in
Monaghan.
As landed proprietors they were as much associated with Co.
Monaghan as with Co. Cavan; however the principal families of MacCabe lost
their estates in the Catholic debacle after the battle of Aughrim in 1691. It
is only to be expected therefore that the material fortunes of the McCabes
followed those of the O'Reillys and other noble families to whom they were
attached by alliance or kinship. And like these ancient clans the McCabes lost
everything in the confiscation that followed the defeat of the Stuarts and the
military enforcement of the iniquitous penal laws in Ireland.
William Putnam McCabe (1776-1821) was one of the most
romantic figures among the United Irishmen. Earlier in the eighteenth century
Cathaoir MacCabe (d. 1740), himself a Cavan bard, is best remembered as the
life long friend of Turlogh O'Carolan (1670-1738), whose death is commemorated
in a fine elegy in Irish (Carolan had previously written an elegy on MacCabe
having been hoaxed by him into believing he was dead).
After the decline of the ancient Gaelic order there was no
longer scope on Irish soil for military prowess, but we find the McCabes
becoming prominent in other fields. Among these we may note: Cathaoir McCabe
who died in 1740, and was a famous bard and lifelong friend of Carolan,
"the last of the bards;" William McCabe (1776-1821), one of the most
romantic figures among the United Irishmen; His Eminence Cardinal McCabe
(1816-1885) who succeeded Cardinal Cullen as Archbishop of Dublin.
In more recent times Edward Cardinal MacCabe
(1816-1885) and Bernard MacCabe (1801-1891), the author, may be mentioned.
Outside Ireland the best known man of the name was Charles Caldwell MacCabe
(1836-1906), grandson of a Co. Tyrone man, and American Protestant bishop,
known as "chaplain MacCabe" of the Civil War. Source: Edward MacLysaght, Irish
Families, Dublin, p. 51.
Email: McCabe Companies
