Where We Come From, vol. 2
There is some evidence that a treating of Mac Con Uladh (son of the hound of Ulster) gives MacAnully, MacNully, MacAnaul, MacCullow etc., but not MacCullough as a modern or early anglicised form. The Irish form of MacCullough is Mac Colla (sometimes Mac Collach) derived from Colla, a personal name in use in MacDonnell and MacSweeney families. Woulfe’s opinion cannot be accepted here. There is no doubt that the Irish form of MacCullough is either Mac Cú Uladh or Mac Con Uladh. The reason for the alternative forms is that in later times Cú Uladh was regarded as one word and so cú did not change in the genitive. From the later form came the pronunciation which gave the anglicisation MacCullough.
The name MacCulloch is also that of an important Scottish family. This name is traditionally derived from the Scots-Gaelic word culach, a boar, and in this connection it is interesting to note that in Co. Sligo, within living memory, Boar and Bower were in use as synonyms of MacCullagh. These MacCulloughs can be of two origins. MacCulloch is and was common in the province of Galloway, whence stemmed so many of the Ulster settlers. Its origins, however, are totally obscure, and although it has been suggested that it derives from the Scots Gaelic Mac Cullaich, it is possible that it too derives from Mac Cú Uladh and represents previous Irish settlers in Galloway. This theory is reinforced by the fact that the MacCulloughs of Ireland and the MacCollochs of Scotland claim similar coats of arms.
It was in Galloway that the softened form MacCully arose, though it is also found in Tyrone as a variant of the Ulster name MacCullough or MacCullagh. (Cully as a native Ulster name can derive from MacCullough, especially in Tyrone, or from O’Cully, Gaelic Ó Colla, a name from counties Armagh and Antrim.) Also in Wigtownshire, many of the Kellys and MacKellys changed their name to MacCulloch.
Yet another connection of MacCulloughs, those of Oban in Argyllshire, belonged to Clan Dougall and were originally called MacLulich. This name, in Gaelic Mac Lulaich, meant ’son of Lulach’ (an obsolete personal name derived from the Old Gaelic “lu” and “laogh”, meaning “little calf”). The progenitor of this family was MacCulloch Lulach, the son of Gillacomgan, Mormaer of Moray. MacCulloch Lulach became King of Scots when (notwithstanding Shakespeare’s account) he succeeded MacBeth. Within a matter of months, however, he too was killed and was succeeded by Malcolm Canmore, circa 1157.
James MacCulloch of Wigtownshire was one of the fifty Scottish undertakers of the Ulster Plantation and in 1610 he was granted 1000 acres in Glenties in Donegal. Though he lost his grant four years later, he and his tenants remained.
