Barry in Ireland is chiefly the name of the de Barri family, Cambro-Norman knights named from Barry Island on the Glamorgan coast of Wales, who crossed to Ireland in 1169 and became one of the great lordly families of County Cork. In Irish the name is de Barra. Browse every Barry design in our Barry Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Barry is an Anglo-Norman name that arrived with the first wave of the invasion and took root in Cork, where the family gave its name to the baronies of Barrymore and Barryroe. The senior line became Viscounts Buttevant and Earls of Barrymore. A small number of Barry families in West Cork and Limerick descend instead from two Gaelic families, Ó Báire and Ó Beargha, whose names were also anglicized as Barry.
What Does the Barry Name Mean, and What Is It in Irish?
The Norman form was de Barri, "of Barry". The family came from Barry Island, a few miles south-west of Cardiff, where they had settled as part of the Norman conquest of south Wales before the Irish expedition. Gerald of Wales, the most famous member of the family, was born at Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire, the son of William de Barri and Angharad, a granddaughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth. That mix of Norman and Welsh blood is why historians call these first invaders Cambro-Normans.
In Irish the surname is de Barra, and a member of the family is Barrach; the plural Barraigh sits inside the Irish forms of Barrymore (Barraigh Mhóra) and Barryroe (Barraigh Rua). Castlebar in County Mayo is Caisleán an Bharraigh, "Barry's castle", recorded in the Annals of Connacht by 1412. The usual spellings are Barry and de Barry.
Two much smaller Gaelic families were also anglicized as Barry. Ó Báire, from the personal name Báire, was a family of Corca Laoighdhe who held Muntervary, the Sheep's Head peninsula in West Cork. Ó Beargha were lords of Iveross in the barony of Kenry, County Limerick, and Woulfe counts many of the Barrys of east Limerick as their descendants rather than Norman ones.
Where Did the Barry Family Establish Themselves in Ireland?
Robert de Barri landed at Bannow in County Wexford in May 1169 with the first Cambro-Norman force. In 1179 Robert FitzStephen gave his nephew Philip de Barri, Gerald's brother, three Cork cantreds: Uí Liatháin, Muscraighe-trí-máighe and Cinel Aodha, which became the baronies of Barrymore, Orrery and Kinelea. King John confirmed the lands to Philip's son William in 1207. Barrymore, in east Cork, is still named after the family.
From that base the Barrys spread across the county. Barryscourt Castle near Carrigtwohill, a restored tower house, was one of their principal seats, and Buttevant in north Cork gave the head of the family his title. Place-names such as Kilbarry and Rathbarry mark their presence, and a separate Barry family was established in County Wexford, the county that later produced Commodore John Barry.
How Did the Barrys Become Part of Gaelic Munster?
Like the other great Norman families of the south, the Barrys took on the Irish language and Irish ways of lordship. The heads of their branches were known by Irish titles: An Barrach Mór, the Great Barry; Barrach Ruadh, the Red Barry, whose lands became the barony of Ibane and Barryroe in west Cork; Barrach Óg, the Young Barry; Barrach Maol, the Bald Barry; and Barrach Láidir, the Strong Barry. One branch went further and adopted a Gaelic patronymic surname, Mac Ádaim.
The lords of Barrymore spent the late Middle Ages as allies, rivals and neighbors of the Gaelic dynasties of the province. The McCarthy family of Desmond and Muskerry, whose territory bordered the Barry heartland, provides essential context for understanding the political world in which the Barrys operated.
Who Were the Viscounts Buttevant and Earls of Barrymore?
The head of the Barry Mór line was created Viscount Buttevant in 1541. David Barry, the sixth viscount, was made Earl of Barrymore in 1627 with heavy financial backing from his father-in-law, Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. He was a Protestant, raised forces against the insurgents of 1641, and died in September 1642 of wounds received at the battle of Liscarroll. His descendants held the earldom until the death of Henry Barry, the eighth earl, in 1823, when the titles became extinct.
Other Barry branches, Catholic and tied to the old order, suffered heavily in the wars and confiscations of the seventeenth century, and many ended the period as tenant farmers rather than landowners. The name itself stayed rooted in Cork. The Fitzgerald family, another great Norman-Irish dynasty of Munster, followed a similar arc of medieval power and seventeenth-century loss.
Where Is the Barry Name Found Today?
In 1890 Barry was the 72nd most common surname in Ireland, and nearly 80 percent of Barry births that year were in Munster. The Great Famine and the emigration that followed carried the name to Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia, and the Irish-American Barry community is large. For most families today the trail leads back to a parish in Cork, with smaller numbers in Limerick and Wexford.
How Can You Research Barry Ancestors?
The concentration of the name in Cork makes it tractable to trace once the parish of origin is established. Start with these sources:
- IrishGenealogy.ie: civil birth, marriage and death records from 1864 (non-Catholic marriages from 1845), plus church records for parts of Cork.
- National Archives of Ireland census: the 1901 and 1911 returns, searchable by name and townland.
- Griffith's Valuation: the 1840s and 1850s property survey that places Barry households in specific Cork townlands.
- National Library of Ireland parish registers: Catholic baptisms and marriages, most Cork parishes starting in the early nineteenth century.
- logainm.ie: the Placenames Database of Ireland, for Irish forms and historical spellings of Barrymore, Barryroe and the townlands in your records.
- Cork City and County Archives: estate papers and local records for the Barry heartland.
Notable People Named Barry
Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–c. 1223), son of William de Barri, visited Ireland in 1183 with his brother Philip and again in 1185 with Prince John, and wrote the Topographia Hibernica and the Expugnatio Hibernica, the fullest account of the Norman arrival (DIB).
Commodore John Barry (1745–1803), born at Tacumshane, County Wexford, captured the British tender Edward with the Continental brig Lexington in 1776 and received Commission Number One in the United States Navy from George Washington. He is remembered as the father of the American Navy (DIB).
Kevin Barry (1902–1920), a Dublin medical student whose parents came from County Carlow, was captured after an IRA attack on a British ration party in Church Street and executed at Mountjoy Prison on 1 November 1920, aged 18 (DIB).
Tom Barry (1897–1980), born at Rosscarbery, County Cork, led the West Cork flying column at the Kilmichael ambush in November 1920 and at Crossbarry in March 1921, and wrote Guerilla Days in Ireland (DIB).
Frequently Asked Questions About the Barry Name
Is Barry an Irish name?
Yes. It arrived with the Cambro-Norman invasion of 1169, and after more than eight centuries in Cork it is one of the most Irish of Munster surnames. In Irish it is de Barra.
Where does the Barry name come from originally?
From Barry Island, near Cardiff in south Wales. The de Barri family held land there and in Pembrokeshire before Robert and Philip de Barri joined the invasion of Ireland.
Which Irish county is the Barry family from?
County Cork. The baronies of Barrymore in east Cork and Ibane and Barryroe in west Cork are named after the family, and most Irish Barrys today still trace to Cork.
Are Barry and de Barry the same name?
Yes. De Barry is the older Norman form, kept by a few families; the "de" dropped away for most bearers.
Is Castlebar named after the Barrys?
Yes. Castlebar in County Mayo is Caisleán an Bharraigh, "Barry's castle", named for a de Barry castle on the site before the Burkes took over the district.
Are all Irish Barrys of Norman descent?
Most are. A minority in West Cork descend from the Gaelic Ó Báire of Muntervary, and many east Limerick Barrys come from the Gaelic Ó Beargha of Kenry.
For a Cork keepsake to go with the family history, our Barry family gifts collection gathers the woven blanket, garden flags, mugs and T-shirts carrying the Barry name and crest.