[1] Tradition states the McGraths are of Dál gCais ancestry, stemming from Cormac Cas, King of the Province of Munster in the 3rd century AD.

[3] According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the MacGraths were one of the chiefly families of the Dal gCais or Dalcassians who were a tribe of the Erainn who were the second wave of Celts to settle in Ireland between about 500 and 100 BC.

[4] As the native Irish language was replaced by English, so the spelling of the family name Mac Craith was transformed.

However other variants exist, including Magrath, McGraw, Macrae, Mcilrath, MacCrae, McCreagh, MacGraith, Megrath, MacReagh, MacCraw, McCreath, MacGrae, Makrayth, McKray.

[9] This link may have drawn the Mac Craith Clan north to Ulster to settle the lands around Lough Derg in Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal.

The Mac Craith Clan established a buffer zone through their control of the Termon (Church) lands around the holy islands of Lough Derg.

This McGrath, the progenitor of the Clan Mac Craith, was related to the O’Briens of Thomond and served them as poets.

[11] Termonmagrath (in Gaelic: Tearmann Mac Craith) exists in the Barony of Tirhugh in southern Donegal.

The territory incorporates the modern town of Pettigo and the ancient pilgrimage island and lake of Lough Derg.

[12] The Clan McGrath were the hereditary Coarbs of the famous pilgrimage island known as St. Patrick's Purgatory on Lough Derg.

They were also protectors of the Augustinian monastic settlement on Saint's Island, Lough Derg and provided many Prior's of the pilgrimage site in the medieval period.

The Clan McGrath controlled the routes to the pilgrimage islands and the revenues gained from pilgrims making their way from across Europe.

Although kinsman and foster brother of the Gaelic Lord and Chieftain Shane O'Neill, Miler was himself a master in the game of politics and alliances.

Miler brought 200 armed men from his ancestral home at Termonmagrath, consisting mainly of his McGrath kinsmen.

Miler patrolled his lands in Tipperary, carrying a sword and wearing armour, a sign perhaps of the dangers in which a man such as he found himself.

Prior to his death he commissioned his tomb stone which today bears an effigy in the robes of a Catholic bishop.

[14] [14][15] Late 17th and early 18th century The Civil Survey of 1654 AD for Co. Tipperary effectively groups together three main clusters of McGraths.

Members of the Thomond branch of the McGraths migrated to the Cahir area of Tipperary in the late 16th century and established a bardic school.

The McGraths and O’Briens were invited to occupy the slopes of the Knockmealdown and Commeragh Mountains respectively to protect the Fitzgerald territory from incursion from the North.

Bookending the gathering programme, on Day 1 the programme reflected the development of early Ireland and the impact of 19th century immigration on Irish society with guided tours of the Irish National Heritage Centre in Wexford, the Dunbrody Famine Ship and the JFK Homestead.

On Day 3, under beautiful sunshine the McGrath gathering visited Dromana House, arriving by bus and tightly squeezing through the arch of Dromana Gate, a lovely bridge based on the Pavilion in Brighton, England, the gathering was treated to a personal tour of the house and grounds.

The gathering then moved to Lismore to visit this beautiful town and the St. Carthage’s Cathedral which houses the famous carved McGrath Tomb.

Mary de le Paor famously told Philip McGrath before she married him “Her fathers stables would be more befitting a lady”.

From Curraghmore it was to Waterford City and walking tour to take in the sites and sounds of Ireland’s oldest town before returning to the Park Hotel, Dungarvan for the closing event, a gala dinner hosted by Clan Taoiseach Scott McGraw and accompanied by a piper to stir the spirit and fill the gathering with pride.

In 1622, the death of Archbishop Miler McGrath saw him interred in a tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick at the Rock of Cashel.