Cain
Cain is the maiden name of one of our maternal great-grandmothers, Alice Cain (1888-1962) who married Edward Charles Rogers in 1908. The sequence of surnames in the three generations between us goes Cain-Rogers-Dwyer-Dwyer.
The surname Cain is an anglicised version of a surname deriving from the Ó Catháin sept.1 This sept, part of Clan Connor, was important in Ulster from around the 12th century up to the Ulster Plantation in the early 17th century.
By the beginning of the 12th century the Ó Catháin sept dominated what is now the baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght and Coleraine (then known as Firnacreeve or Creeve) in northern County Derry. The Ó Catháins were mentioned a number of times in the Irish Annals in the 12th century, an indicator of their importance at that time:
- 1138 – Raghnall, son of Imhar Ua Cathain, lord of the Craebh [Creeve], Cianachta [Keenaght], and Fir-Li, fell through treachery and guile, by Ui-Eoghain of the Valley.
1156 – Aedh, son of Ruaidhri Ua Canannain, lord of Conel-Conaill, was slain by Ua Cathain and Feara-na-Craeibhe, by treachery. - 1157 – [Muirchertach] sent forth a marauding host over Adhairceach [in Offaly], into Sil-Anmchada. This host was defeated, and many of them were slain, together with Ua Cathain of Craeibh.
- 1167 – [Ruaidhri] Ua Conchobhair divided the territory into two parts, i.e. gave that part of Tir-Eoghain north of the Mountain, i.e. Callainn, to Niall Ua Lochlainn, for two hostages, i.e. Ua Cathain of Craebh and Macan-Ghaill Ua Brain…
- 1171 – A great predatory force was led by Maghnus Mac Duinnsleibhe Ua hEochadha and the Ulidians into Cuil-an-tuais-ceirt [County Antrim]; and they plundered Cuil-rathain [Coleraine] and other churches. A small party of the Cinel-Eoghain, under Conchobhair Ua Cathain, overtook them; and battle was fought between them, in which the Ulidians were defeated, with the loss of one-and-twenty chieftains and sons of chieftains, with many others; and Maghnus himself was wounded, but he escaped from the conflict on that occasion.2
The seat of the Ó Catháins was at Dungiven. There in 1100 they founded an abbey for Augustinian canons which was destroyed soon after and lay in ruins until it was later restored by the Bishop of Armagh.3
The Ó Catháins experienced a bloody feud within the sept in the early 16th century with two claimants to leadership of the sept. Late in that century the Ó Catháins participated in the rebellion led by Hugh O’Neill. After Hugh’s defeat at Kinsale in 1601 the English continuously attacked Ó Catháin lands, destroying their major strongholds and causing famine by destroying their crops and stealing their cattle. The Ó Catháins were eventually dispossessed of their lands by the Ulster Plantation in the first half of the 17th century. In the rebellion of 1641, again led by the O’Neills in Ulster, the Ó Catháins fought a last battle with an English settler force between Dungiven and Limavady but were defeated and scattered.
Our first known Cain ancestors were not born until the end of the 18th century, and were living in County Monaghan.
1 Variants of the surname include O’Cahan, Caine, Kane, Keane, Kayne and O’Kane
2 O’Donovan, John, trans. (1856), Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, Vol.II, pp. 1059, 1119-20, 1127, 1165 and1183.
3 http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/D/Dungiven-Kenaught-Derry.php