Hally family genealogy
THE O'h-Ailche family ("ailce:" Irish, manners, behaviour), anglicised Halley [1] and Hally, is a branch of the O'Kennedys of Ormond, descendants of Cormac Cas. Tuatha-Fearalt, a district in the county of Tipperary (the exact situation of which cannot now be ascertained), was the lordship of the family, whom O'Heerin mentions in the following lines:
"Tuatha-Fearalt, of the fair-woods,
Is the lordship of O'Ailche;
A plain of fair fortresses, and a spreading tribe;
The land resembling Teltown of rivulets."
From the topographical description here given, it would appear to have been that portion of Hy-Fogharty, in Tipperary, lying between Lyttletown, in that county, and Urlingford, in Kilkenny. Tuatha-Fearalt signifies "the country of hardy men;" from tuatha, "a district," or "country," and Feara-alt, "hardy men," or "men of sinew." Or, it may signify "the possession of Fearalt" who may have been some remarkable progenitor of the family under notice. Few, if any, of the name are to be met with at this day, either in Kilkenny or Tipperary.