The Tully Name

Primary county: Roscommon GalwayLeitrim

History and Origins

The Ó Maoltuile family — better known in anglicised form as Tully — were one of the most distinguished hereditary learned families in medieval Connacht. Their principal distinction was their role as hereditary physicians to the Ó Conchobhair (O'Connor) kings, the ruling dynasty of Connacht and, for a period in the twelfth century, High Kings of Ireland. The hereditary medical families of Gaelic Ireland were among the most highly educated and most carefully genealogically documented in Irish society.

Hereditary Physicians of Connacht

In Gaelic Ireland, certain families held hereditary rights to specific professional roles — poets, historians, lawyers, and physicians — attached to the royal and noble dynasties. The Ó Maoltuile were the designated physicians of the O'Connor kings, a position of considerable prestige and economic security. They maintained their own medical schools, transmitted ancient medical texts, and received land grants in return for their services. Their principal territory was in the Clonmacnoise region of Roscommon, along the Shannon, close to the great monastic city that was one of Ireland's principal centres of learning.

The Irish Medical Tradition

Medieval Irish medicine drew on a blend of Classical sources — the works of Galen, Hippocrates, and the Arabic medical tradition — combined with indigenous Irish herbal knowledge. The hereditary physician families maintained manuscript libraries of medical texts, many of which survived to be copied into the great vellum books of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Royal Irish Academy holds manuscripts associated with the hereditary medical families of Connacht, which provide a remarkable window into the learned culture of Gaelic Ireland. The Tully family's medical heritage gave them a social standing that transcended the disruptions of the Norman conquest.

Famine and Emigration

Roscommon was among the worst-affected counties in the Great Famine of 1845–1852. The county lost nearly a quarter of its population to death and emigration in the Famine decade alone, and continued haemorrhaging population for decades afterward. Tully families emigrated to the United States, Australia, and Britain. New York and the northeast received the largest Tully emigrant community, and the name is well-attested in New York city directories and immigration records from the 1840s–1880s.

The Diaspora

The Tully diaspora is concentrated in the United States, with communities in Britain and Australia. American Tullys are found most densely in New York, Massachusetts, and the Midwest — particularly Illinois and Wisconsin, which drew significant numbers of Connacht emigrants through the mid-nineteenth century. The name is also present in Australia, particularly in New South Wales, which received Roscommon emigrants through the assisted emigration schemes of the 1840s–1860s.

In American politics, Jim Tully (1886–1947) — the writer and boxing trainer of Irish-American descent from Ohio — brought the Tully name to prominence in Depression-era American literature. In Irish public life, Mark Tully (born 1935), the distinguished BBC journalist and long-time Delhi correspondent, is of Anglo-Irish descent. In Ireland, the Tully name has been associated with politics across several generations, particularly in the Connacht region.

Notable Tully Families

• Jim Tully (1886–1947) — American writer, journalist, and Hollywood screenwriter of Irish descent from Ohio. His autobiography 'Beggars of Life' (1924) brought him national recognition as a chronicler of working-class American life.
• Mark Tully (born 1935) — Legendary BBC journalist and former India correspondent, one of the most distinguished British broadcasters of the late twentieth century.
• Liam Tully — Irish journalist and political commentator, associated with Connacht Tribune, representing the continuation of the Tully name in Connacht public life.
• James Tully (1915–1992) — Irish politician, Teachta Dála and government minister, born in County Meath, who served across multiple government administrations in the 1960s–1980s.