The Ó Maolalaidhs (Lally, Mullally) were, with the Ó Nechtains (Naughton), one of the two leading septs of Máenmaige in western Uí Maine. There is some evidence to suggest that they were not of the Uí Maine dynasty, but an indigenous people conquered by the latter in the 7th or 8th century.
Life
A son of Melaghlin Ó Maolalaidh, Seán was to be the last Chief of the Name to live in the family's original homeland. Sometime after his election as chief in 1419, and by 1445, he, his clan and followers were expelled from the area by the Mac Hubert Burkes (Annals of Connacht - 1436.10 Seonacc son of Hugacc Burke died.)
Seán led the family to Tuam, where he leased eighteen townlands from Baron Athenry. One of the townlands was Tullaghnadalaigh (Tullynadaly), some four miles outside the town and thirty miles from Máenmaige.
Seán died in 1480, having been chief for sixty-one years, and was buried at Kilbannin. Tullynadaly was to remain the seat of the senior line of the family until their seizure in the 1690s. Many Mulallys and Lallys are still found in the Tuam area.
Diarmaid Ó Maolalaidh, d. 1596, claimed erroneously by William Hawkins, Ulster King of Arms[citation needed] to be the father of Issac. It was instead claimed in 1902[2][3][4] that Seán mac Melaghlin had a son Thomas, Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, who had a son William, Protestant Archbishop of Tuam, who was the father of
Thomas Lally, Sr., of Tuam, fl. 1817, son of James Lally of Milltown
References
History of O'Mullally and Lally clans ..., by D.P. O'Mullally, Chicago, 1941.
^Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 340, 353 and 354. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
^Journal. Robarts - University of Toronto. Galway.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)