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MacGee


MacGee is an Ulster name which is more usually written Magee (cf. MacGuire - Maguire; MacGuinness - Magennis, etc.). In Irish it is Mac Aodha, I.e son of Aodh or Hugh, the Mac, as is often the case when the prefix is followed by a vowel, becoming Mag. It has been stated that our Ulster MacGees are of Scottish extraction, having come to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the early seventeenth century. There certainly is a numerous Scottish family so called, who are akin to the MacDonnells and claim descent from Colla Uais and so an Irish origin. There are Gaelic Irish MacGees also. They belong to the country on the borders of Counties Donegal and Tyrone. The name is more usually associated with Co. Antrim because the large isthmus on the east of Lough Larne is called Island Magee and this territory was at one time in the possession of the Magees. In early mediaeval times a MacGee was chief of a sept in Co. Westmeath but these were dispersed after the Anglo-Norman invasion. The early history of the MacGees is thus rather obscure, but people of the name were prominent in various phases of Irish life in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Most of these were northern Protestants, among whom were Most Rev. William Magee (1766-1831), Arch bishop of Dublin and mathematician, his grandson William Connor Magee (1821-1891), strong opponent of Gladstone;s Irish policy, rector of Enniskillen, Dean of Cork and finally Archbishop of York. Martha Magee (c. 1755-1846), was the founder of Magee University College at Derry; two John Magees (1750-1809 and 1780-1814), father and son made history by their fearless journalism in their paper The Dublin Evening Post. Two others (Catholics) the brothers Thomas D'Arcy MacGee (1825-1868), and James E. MacGee (1830-1880) were associated with the Young Ireland movement and wrote many patriotic works: both went to America and the former was shot by one of the Fenians whose activities he had denounced. Three prominent American citizens whose names illustrate various spellings thereof, viz. William John McGee (1853-1912), geologist, Charles McClung McGhee (1828-1907), financier, and Christopher Lyman Magee (1848-1901), politician and philanthropist, were all of Irish extraction.