As the riding of elephants, camels or ostriches was not a mode of transport in Ireland in times gone by, nor indeed in current times, and for obvious reasons, it is surprising that it was thought necessary to include each in the word eachmharcaigh (each, horse and marcach, rider). The first name Eachmharcach was a favourite among the Mac Brennans of north Connacht but it also occurred in other families. From this first name derived the surname Mac Eachmharcaigh (modern Mac Eafartaigh), anglicised (Mac) Cafferky and (Mac) Cafferty. The former is more usual in Co Mayo, the latter in Cos Donegal and Derry, and it has, betimes, been shortened to Caffery.
This surname is not to be found in Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters, and (Mac) Cafferky or (Mac) Cafferety is scarce in most of our sources. For the eight Caffreys listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) there was but one each of these spellings. These were Michael McCafferty, Carricknahoma, with 22 Co Donegal acres, and Joseph Cafferky, Clifden, with 60 Co Galway acres. Needless to say, any of the Caffreys might have been a Mac Eachmharcaigh, though in fact (Mac) Caffrey is a totally separate surname. We have located neither surname - in any spelling - in the Book of Survey of Distribution for either Co Galway, Mayo or Roscommon.
Captain John MacCafferky distinguished himself in the ill-fated attempt to seize British arms stored in Chester Castle, near Liverpool in 1867. "Attempting to escape to Ireland after the raid aborted, he was arrested at Dublin harbour on February 23rd, 1867. He was tried in April, found guilty of treason-felony and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment" (A Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by Joseph Deniffe, 1906).
This Irish-American officer, who had taken the side of the South in the American Civil War, had crossed the Atlantic to take part in the projected rising in Ireland. "He was a thorough type of a guerrilla leader. With his well-proportioned and strongly knit frame, and handsome resolute-looking bronzed face, you could imagine him just the man for any dashing and daring enterprise" (The Life Story of an Old Rebel by John Denvir, 1910). Was this the same Captain John McCafferty who, with Patrick Tynan and John Walsh, had betimes led the Invincibles?
(Mac) Caffrey in the Anglicised form of Mac Gafraidh, which derives from the personal name Gafraidh or Gothraidh, "a borrowing through the Old-Norman of the OldGerman Godafrid (guda = god, and frithu = `peace')" (Irish Personal Names: O Corrain and Maguire). "They descend from Gafraigh, a son of Donn Carrach, the first Maguire King of Fermanagh. Their headquarters in Maguire times was Ballymacaffrey, near Fivemiletown" (The Fermanagh Story by Peadar Livingstone).
The McCaffreys began the 1641 Rising in Fermanagh by burning Lisnarick. Here we also learn that in 1629 the following McCaffreys were on the Blennerhassett estate at Magheraculmoney: Teig, Neil, Teige, Padraig Og, Philip, Loughlin, Patrick Duff, Neil, Patrick Modder, and Dermot. This family gave their name to Ballymacaffrey and Rossmacaffrry, both in the parish of Aghalurcher, and Legmacaffry in the parish of Galloon. These respectively mean Mac Caffreys' `town' (baile); `wood/headland' (ros), and `hollow' (lag). (Mac) Caffery is listed in the "census" of 1659 as being among the principal Irish names in the Co Leitrim barony of Carrigallen, and in the Co Fermanagh parishes of Clownish, Aghaveigh and Devonish, and in the parishes of Templecarne, Kilmawley and in the town of Enniskillen.
Variously spelling it Caffrie, Caffre, Caffrey, and Caffry, The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns lists 15 of the name among the pardoned between 1549 and 1603. The earliest listed were Donogh, Edmond, Ferall, Gyllgrome, and Thomas M'Caffrey, all at Oldcastle, Co Meath. Pardoned in 1592, together with Maguire, knight, chief of his nation, was Phelym M'Caffra, chief of his nation.
Telephone directories south of the Border list 26 Cafferkys, 44 Caffertys, and 149 McCaffertys, all of which are predominantly in the 07 and 09 areas - mainly Connacht and Co Donegal. North of the Border there are 100 Mac Caffertys, 21 McCafferys and 210 McCaffreys.