This is an Anglicized form of the Olde Gaelic name "O'Muircheartaigh". The Gaelic prefix "O" indicates "male descendant of", plus the personal\byname "muircheartach" meaning "navigator". This sept originally closely associated with the O'Donoghues and the O'Mahonys, belonged to county Kerry. Their territory lay on both sides of Castlemaine Harbour where they held great sway prior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion of 1170. Henry Augustus Moriarty (1815 - 1906) was (true to his name) a renowned navigator who was highly acclaimed for his success in the recovery of broken Atlantic cable in mid-ocean in 1866. David Moriarty (1814 - 1877), educated at Boulogne-sur-Mer and Maynooth, became Bishop of Kerry in 1856. A Coat of Arms granted to the Moriarty family depicts a black eagle displayed on a silver shield. On the crest is an armoured arm embowed holding a sword fessways entwined with a serpent, all proper. In heraldry, an eagle displayed is representative of speed and wisdom. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of O'Moriarty, a chief of the name (County Kerry), which was dated 1210 - He married the daughter of a leading Anglo-Norman Fitzgerald, during the reign of King Cathal "Craobhdhearg", i.e. "Red Hand", High King of Ireland,1198 - 1224.

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