Maguire - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mag Uidhir
Meaning: “pale / dun-coloured”
Traditional stronghold: Fermanagh
Pronunciation: muh-GWYRE; Irish Mag Uidhir: mag IH-vir
History of the Maguire name
The Maguires were the ruling family of Fermanagh from the 13th century until the Flight of the Earls in 1607, holding the kingship from their seat on Lough Erne and the crannog at Enniskillen. Descended from Uidhir, a lord of the Fir Manach, they built a fleet of boats to control the lough and became one of the most powerful Ulster septs, patrons of poets and church endowments. After the Plantation of Ulster the family scattered, with many emigrating to continental Europe as soldiers, priests and merchants. The name anglicised variously and remains extremely common in Fermanagh, Cavan and Monaghan, and is now widespread throughout Ireland and the diaspora.
Variants: McGuire · MacGuire · Magwire
Famous bearers of the name
- Tom Maguire - Irish republican and last surviving TD elected to the Second Dail
- Sean MacBride - notable Maguire-descended families were prominent in Ulster republican politics
- Leslie Maguire - artist associated with 20th-century Irish design
- Ann Maguire - one of the wrongly convicted Maguire Seven in the 1970s Guildford bombing case
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Flanagan · Cassidy · Lennon · Corrigan · McManus · Devine · Heaney · Keenan