Project Goals
The primary objective of the study was to resolve the TRADITIONALLY claimed descent of many of these families from the Ui NEILL dynasty of Ulster through an early 9th or 10th Century ancestor named CATHAIN ("The Warrior"), claimed eponymous of the O'CAHAN "Warrior Clan of Ulster". I believe this project goal has at least tentatively been met by the recently published reports of the Irish Surname Study, Trinity College, Dublin, Dept. of Genetics, as well as by my own and other Y-DNA project findings.
A further unanticipated goal of this project will be to investigate any historical reasons why, how and when a Dalcassian family, such as mine appears to be at this time (see below), might have become "The Warrior Clan of Ulster" and become tacked onto the ancient UiNeill pedigree! It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds!
A third goal, derived from the above new goal, is the identification and proper placement on a pedigree, if possible, of the individual known to us as "CATHAIN". The name simply means "Warrior" and, even in times prior to the adoption of hereditary surnames, it would not seem logical to name a child "Warrior", which would normally be a nickname earned during the course of his lifetime.