What's in a name?....

"A lot of Malarkey".....

The name Mullarky is an ancient Irish name, originally probably "Maillerci" or "Follower of St. Erc" (see below).

The spelling "Mullarky" is also very old. In the late 1800's, the Catholic Church standardized the spelling of Irish family names, and the current standardized spelling is "Mullarkey." The spelling "Malarkey", as in "That's a lot of Malarkey..." is an Anglicization. In the US there are a whole range of spellings including Malarki, Malarky, Malarkey, Mularky, Mullarki, and so on. In Ireland today there is only the one "standard" spelling: "Mullarkey." I checked the phone book (only one book for all of Ireland). There were, in 1990, only thirty-three listings for "Mullarkey". There are hundred of listings in the US, but the spelling varies widely.

About "a lot of Malarkey":

One story, told to me by my father in the early '50s:

The Mullarky clan in County Clare in Ireland were wealthy land owners with typical serf-tenants of the era (mid 1800's). They paid their tenants in "Estate Script" which was paper money that could be spent locally. When the Great Potato Famine hit, the Mullarkys just kept issuing this script even though it rapidly became worthless due to the falling fortunes of the clan. Eventually the script was "just a lot of Mullarky," said with the same scorn as "Confederate Money" in the USA during the Civil War. Something worthless...ridiculous...too silly to be considered. The phrase was carried to the US by the flood of Irish immigrants during the famine. After the famine eased in Ireland, the phrase died out fairly quickly, except in the US.

Two more stories from Greg Malarkey from Oregon:

Both of these stories are based in New York.

One is the story of a fish seller. The story goes that this fellow would display on salted ice, the nice fresh fish, and when the lady of the house made a purchase, he would bag up a rotten old fish from the underside of the fish cart. Upon reaching her home she would open the package only to discover that evening's dinner was not fit to eat. And thus was born "a bunch of Malarkey"

The second story involved a cop walking a beat in Old New York. He apparently was assigned to a rural area, where, frankly not much of anything happened. So this fellow started to file false reports indicating that he had done this or that. Over time the tales of his exploits were exposed as false. Thus leading to the saying, "a bunch of Malarkey".

Mary Mullarkey from Colorado sent the following: 

The story I have been told is that a Mullarkey was a leader of one of the many attempts to overthrow the English monarchy. He was a powerful orator and pamphleteer. To denigrate him, the English would refer to his writings and speeches as "that's a lot of Mullarkey." 

In fact, there is some historical basis for this version. Edmund Mullarkey was one of the leaders of the O'Neill-O'Cahan conspiracy in 1615. Edmund was the provincial of the Irish Franciscans.

My source is "More Irish Families" by Edward MacLysaght (1960). That book gives the same origin of the name Mullarkey as your web site, meaning, the followers of St. Erc. Earc and Erc are two different spellings in that book. The Mullarkeys are described as a Tirconnell family that migrated from Donegal to the Connacht province.

According to “Irish Saints”, by Robert Reilly, St. Erc was a contemporary of St Patrick and was converted to Christianity by St. Patrick. St. Erc became a bishop and was the ruling prelate of a district that included Trallee in County Kerry. After St. Brendan was born in Trallee in 484, St. Erc came to the crib of the newborn child and claimed Brendan as a foster son. Brendan studied under Bishop Erc. Erc was knowledgeable about astronomy, so he must have shared this knowledge with Brendan. Brendan became known as Brendan the Navigator. One of the last acts of the dying Bishop Erc's life was to ordain Brendan as a priest. That would have been in about 514.

I think it is interesting to note that the Mullarkey name dates back to the 5th century. It is the "l'ark" part of the name Mullarkey. 

 

The phrase, "A lot of Malarkey," while little known today outside of North America, was very common in the 1930s and 40s in the US. If you use the phrase in Ireland today, you'll probably just get a blank look. It would be sort of like saying, "A lot of Kelly," or, "A lot of Smith." I have been told recently, though, that the phrase is being used again in Great Britain and Europe with its traditional meaning.

Kate O'Ceallaigh (from Dublin, I believe) sent this:

...I just wanted to correct you on a comment on your website saying that if someone said “a lot of Mullarkey” in Ireland they would not know what you are talking about.  That is wrong.  The phrase is very common and especially used in jokes about this Mullarkey family.  Another common term used is “Don’t give me that Mullarkey” meaning “stop talking rubbish!”  Most Irish folk will know what this means. ...

So, my information about the phrase may well be too regional or just plain outdated!

If anyone has yet another "bunch of Malarkey" story, I'd love to hear from you... Send email to: pat@nwce.com.

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