Up to the middle of the 20th century some better-off Catholics - ag sodar in dhiaidh na nuasal - required their servants to address a male youth of the family as "master". An adult male was titled Mr, a term, like Mrs, that indicated gender, though unlike Mrs, did not indicate the marital status.
Some females were understandably unhappy with this loaded title, and created the inelegant term Ms, which indicated their gender only. (But why not simply use their first names?) Gentleman, Esquire and Mr once indicated a man's status, such titles being conferred but not assumed.
Patrick Hurly was one who was not content to await conferring by the English monarch, and in 1701 it was reported that he had assumed the title of an Earl, "by the same authority he did that of an esquire, he called himself Earl of MountCallen from an eminent mount or natural citidel, hanging over and covering his father's house in. . Clare". His father had come from Co Cork "with a notable stock and retinue; they that took the paines to make the computation of the former. . .that he had two cows and a horse".
Hurly claimed that a title was essential abroad, as genealogy and birth were indispensable qualifications there, for "they are scrupulous how they conferr honours on strangers, how ever gorgeous in apparel and liberal soever of their treasure". During the investigation of Hurly's faked robbery of 1699, a document revealed: "Patrick Hurly Esqr alias Adams alias Earle of Mount-Callen, alias Murrhilly is, by his father, of a peasantly obscure family of the Murrhillys knowne, if any where, in Carbery in the County of Cork."
A letter of June 1st 1703 stated that Hurly was in custody in England and that Mr Joy, a fellow-conspirator, is to lose his ears here in a pillory tomorrow morning.
Edward Mac Lysaght's Irish Families says that Hurley is used as the anglicised form of two distinct Gaelic patronymics. The Thomond sept of O hUirthile descends from one Uirthile who was the race of Blod, son of Cas, the progenitor of the Dalcassians. "Some Clare Hurleys have acquired the name Commane by the process of erroneous translation, caman being the Irish word for a hurley stick".
The second sept belonging to Co Cork and derived from O Muirthile. These were located in the neighbourhood of Kilbritain in east Carbery.
The 14 Hurley entries in the phone book of Northern Ireland may bear the English surname ("wood/clearing in the Hurn"). Of the 979 telephone entries south of the Border, 513 are in the largely Co Cork 02 area, with 146 in the 06 area to the west. The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1522-1603) lists this name with and without the "O" - over forty times between 1566 and 1602.
They were at Glanbaraghane, Cloghlieghe, Hacketstown, Templebranid, Cloghkeatinge, Knocklongie, Kilmallock, Cornelogstowne, Lickidwne, Garran Ikanty, Agnillinane, Inishkine, Cloghran, Bealnacarrige. The Ormond Deeds inform that at a hearing in the Liberty Court of Tipperary in 1553 Elicia Nihurrelly was accused of receiving two stolen silver crosses. A Census of Ireland 1659 lists this surname among the principal Irish names in Carbery East, in the cantred of Kilbrittain, in the Co Clare barony of Moyfarta, and in the Co Limerick baronies of Small County and Cornello.
Hurleys were Tituladoes in the Co Cork parish of Rathclarin, in the Co Clare parish of Moynagh, and in Elton & Brittas, Co Limerick.
"Kilmallock was represented in the parliaments of 1585 and 1689 by an O' Hurley of Knocklong Castle, and Sir Maurice O' Hurley of the same family was prominent in the activities of the Confederate Catholics in 1646".
As a result Maurice and his mother, Dame Lettice Hurley, were transplanted from their home at Kilduff, Co Limerick, to Connacht where he received some 3,500 acres. Others of the name from counties Limerick and Tipperary were also transplanted, receiving lesser holdings.
Ballynacarriga Castle, in the Co Cork parish of Ballymoney, is a fine four-storey castle which probably predates the date 1585 given in a window-recess on the top floor. This was built by Randal Hurley, whose wife, Catherine Cullinane, may be the C.C carved in the window-recess.
Carvings and decorations in these windows are an unusual feature in this castle, the top floor of which was used as a church up to 1815. Ballynacarriga derives from Beal na Carraige, "the mouth/opening of the rock".
Owners of Land of One Acre and Up- wards (1876) shows Hurley holdings in the counties Clare, Cork, Derry, and Kerry. The largest were in Co Kerry - the 2,559 acres, Bridge House, Tralee and 9,675 acres, Fenit House, Spa, Tralee.