Fogarty

Fogarty is a surname of Irish origin. The name Fogarty in Ireland is derived from the native Irish Ó Fogartaigh sept who ruled Éile Uí Fhogartaigh, now located in County Tipperary where the name is still common. The barony of Eliogarty that still exists was named after Éile Uí Fhogartaigh.

According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the O'Fogartys were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCais or Dalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.^[4]

This name, with variant spellings (O) Fogerty, Foggarty, Fogaty, Gogarty and Go(g)erty, is an Anglicised form of the old Irish "Ó Fogartaigh". The Irish prefix "Ó" indicates "male descendant of", plus the personal byname "Fogartach" meaning "banished" or "exiled". The Fogartys are of the ancient population group, Dál gCais, otherwise known as the Dalcassians, who inhabited County Clare with adjacent parts of counties Limerick and Tipperary. Eliogarty, the name of a barony in Co. Tipperary, locates the sept and indicates their importance. The majority of present-day namebearers are found in County Tipperary, and Malachy O' Fogarty, of the University of Paris, who flourished in 1700, was born at Castle Fogarty in that county. Another notable namebearer was Archbishop Fogarty (1858–1955), who for fifty-one years was Bishop of Killaloe.

A Coat of Arms granted to the family depicts two gold lions rampant on a blue shield supporting a gold sheaf of corn, the latter denoting plenty and the Harvest of One's Hopes. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of O' Fogarty, King of Ely, County Tipperary, which was dated 1072, "The Annals of Ulster", during the reign of High King of Ireland, "with opposition", 1022–1166.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people with the surname include: