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Rice, (O'Mulcreevy)
The name Rice in Ireland is of two very different origins. The Rices of Oriel, now found chiefly in Louth and Armagh - Counties comprised in that area - are Gaelic, being called O Maolcraoibhe in Irish. The anglicizing of this surname as Rice is curious: the word craobh from which the name is derived means a branch. In Co. Down in O'Donovan's time families of the name were known both as Mulcreevy and Rice, not, he adds, as might be expected Bushe. In Muster a few families originally O Maolcraoibhe became mor naturally Creagh in English, tough of course most of the Munster Creaghs are of quite different descent (q.v.). The Rices of Munster are Welsh in origin, Rhys being their name in Wales. Though never numerous, from the fourteenth century onwards they were influential in Counties Limerick and Kerry; many appear in town life as provosts, mayors and sheriffs of Limerick, Cork and Waterford and as landed proprietors in Counties Limerick and Kerry, where they settled near Dingle. Sir Stephen Rice was among the prominent Jacobites who suffered for their adhesion to the cause of James II. In Co. Limerick the best known family were the Spring-Rices of Foynes, who have provided several prominent members of the British diplomatic service: the first Lord Monteagle. Thomas Spring-Rice (1780-1866), M.P> for Limerick and Chancellor of the Exchequer, was one of these. The national record of the Rices in Co. Kerry in the seventeenth century can be judged by the fact that no less than twenty of them lost their lands as a result of the Cromwellian forfeitures. Of this family were James Louis Count Rice (b. c. 1730) soldier in the Austrian army and close friend to the Emperor Joseph II and also renowned as a duellist. Some of the exiled Rices of Kerry settled in France where they became successful bankers. The most distinguished Irish Rice in modern times in Ireland was Edmund Ignatius Rice (1762-1844), founder of the Christian Brothers.
The name Rice has also associations with the city of Galway. The pilot traditionally believed to have accompanied Christopher Columbus on his voyage of discovery and even to have sailed to America on his own, was Rece de Galvey alias Penrise.