Irish surname search
GOOLD
Coming to Dublin some time before 1226 the family moved to Munster, first to Kilmallock and finally to Cork. More than thirty times, men of the name were mayors of Cork between 1442 and 1640. Though mainly associated with the city as men of business, they also became landed proprietors in the county: in 1591 a Goold was among the leading gentry of Kinalea, and earlier in the century the head of the family in the county was so far hibernicized as to be officially described as "captain of his nation" like any Gaelic chief.
Members of these southern families were much to the fore in military and political activities in the seventeenth century. John Goold of Cork was a member of the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics in 1647; three of the family were attainted in 1642 and six after 1691 at least six were officers in Munster regiments of King James 11's Irish arm and one in the Ultonia regiment in the Spanish service was prominent in the next century in support of James's grandson the "Young Pretender". Other notable Cork exiles were Father Thomas Gould (1657-1734), distinguished priest and writer whom Louis XtV specially praised for his mission work; and Father Richard Goold, Professor of Theology in Spain, who about 1630 was postulated for several sees in Ireland by the King of Spain, O'Sullivan Beare and other influential persons but never actually became a bishop.
About the same time Father John Goolde, collaborator of the Four Masters and scribe of the "Lives of the Saints" in 1627, was Guardian of the Franciscan corninunity at Cashel. Dr. James Alipius Goold (1812-1886), Archbishop of Melbourne, was born in Cork.