THE MCGOVERNS

 Sons and Daughters of Summer

   By James E. McGovern

The McGoverns go back to the legendary Conn of the Hundred Battles who is said to have ruled all of the northern part of Ireland in the year 2 A.D.

The BOOK OF MAGAURAN tells of twenty-nine Kings in the McGovern ancestry up from Mahloibh to Eochaidh. 

Conn and his people probably go back to the sons of Mil the Milesians from Indo­Europe, during which time the Celts, superior in iron over bronze, sacked Rome, 390 years before Christ appeared on the scene. 

The Milesians were first located in Scythia in Central Asia, north of the Black Sea. (A form of Gaelic is still spoken in the mountains of Armenia.) 

From Scythia, they migrated to Egypt where they were at the time that the Pharaoh and his people were drowned in the Red Sea. Driven from Egypt because they had taken part with Moses, they went to Crete where they lived for a time, and then back to Scythia. After wandering through Europe for many generations, they arrived in Spain. They stayed there for some time and a last came to Ireland with a fleet of thirty ships (Joyce says) under the command of the eight sons of Miletus, and anchored south of the river Slaney. There was a big fight with the people already there, (the Nemedians) of course, but to make a long story short, after landing a second time at Kenmare Bay… they prevailed and stayed to rule and make Ireland their permanent home. 

The Parthalonians, Nemedians, Firbolgs and Tuatha De Dannann who preceded the Milesians into Ireland were all from the Scythia area and very probably all had a common ancestor, fundamentally, Greek, which in the BOOK OF MAGAURAN they lay claim. 

The McGoverns got their name phonetically (sound) from an ancestral chieftain named Samhradhain, which means, "summer" in Gaelic. Prefix the Mag or Mac or Mc (which means son of) and you get Mag Santhradain. Forget the S and take the G in Mag and you get Gauran. The earliest McGoverns were called Magauran. (son of Gauran) and some think that when the Roman "V" took the place of "U”, on gravestones, the named changed to Govern or McGovern. 

As we said the Mc or Ma sands for "son of' and therefore you get "Sons (and Daughters) of Summer. Some authorities also think the surnames Somers, Summers and Saurin come from the same source.

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