The surname Hanniffy is well known and highly respected in Co Offaly presently, mainly through the skills of one of that clan on the county hurling team. However, such was not the case 100 years ago. The name was not listed among the "Families in King's County", nor was it found on the Special Grand Jury, among the sheriffs or commissioners, or the officers of the King's County Unionist Association.
And while not numerous, the name was still to be found in that county. The rated electors of Ferbane Polling District contained the names Kieran, Patrick, John, and Peter Hanafy, all of Lackaghabeg, and James Hanafy, Cormore and Corbeg.
All this information we found in Offaly One Hundred Years Ago, a 1989 reprint of King's County Chronicle (1890) with a new introduction by John Wright. The above townlands - now rendered Lackagh Beg (An Leacach Beag, "the small stony area") and Cor More (An Currach Mor, "the large marsh") and Cor Beg (An Currach Beag, "the small marsh") - are in the Co Offaly parish of Lemanaghan. This parish name is the anglicised form of Liath Manchain, liath probably indicating "a grey place", while Manchan, a diminutive of manach, "a monk", was the name of a saint. King's County has long since reverted to its original name of Contae Uibh Fhaili, Co Offaly.
Variously spelt, Hanniffy, Hanify, Hanvey, Hanway, and Hannaway, all are anglicised forms of O hAinbhith (ainbioth, "storm"). Irish Personal Names (O Corrain and Maguire) informs that this surname derived from the personal name Ainbtheach: Ainfeach, meaning perhaps, "stormy, tempestuous".
MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland says the principal sept of this name was located on the borders of Armagh and Down. Another was a little south of that. Minor septs were in Meath and west Cork. Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters tells of the slaying of Flann O hAinbhidh, lord of Ui Meith in 1043. Ui Meith covered the area later to be the Co Monaghan barony of Monaghan. In Siamus O hInnse's Miscellaneous Irish Annals (A.D. 1114-1437), we read that John de Coursey led a raid on Machaire Conaill and Cuailgne in Co Louth in 1179, when they carried off 4,000 cows to Cuan Aighneach.
Among those who overtook the raiders, inflicting slaughter on them by the sword and by drowning, was Giolla Padraig O hAinbheith, king of Mughdhorna (later to be rendered Cremorne, a Co Monaghan barony) and Ui Meith. The late 14th century Topographical Poems lists O hAinbhith as lord of Ui Sheaghain (in Co Meath), and O hAinbheith as lord of Fir Bile. "O hAinbheith d'fhine na n-arm, ri Fear mBile na mbancharn." Fir Bile was anglicised Farbill to name a barony of Co Westmeath.
A fiant of 1602 lists a large number of pardoned persons, mainly from Co Offaly, and in their midst were Manus and William O'Hanfy of Clonmor. There are three townlands named Clonmore in that county, and we think it might be that in the parish of Seirkieran. The census of 1659 lists John Hanvey, gent, among the tituladoes of Dublin's Wood Quay Ward.
Current telephone directories south of the Border list eight Hanifys - half of whom are in Longford; 32 Hanniffys in that part of the 09 area that straddles the river Shannon from east Galway into Co Offaly; five Hanveys and 25 Hanways, all in the 01 area, and 12 Hannaways, mainly in the 04 area stretching from Co Wicklow north to Co Monaghan. The phone book of Northern Ireland lists 64 Hanveys and 132 Hannaways.
The drift to Dublin city ensures that one will find persons of practically every surname there. The 1836 Dublin Directory lists James Hanvey, printer and stereotype founder, in East Aran Street, and in 1850 John Hanvey was at 4 Flag Alley.
The recently deceased Alfie Hannaway, born 1922, was a Belfast republican, who, subsequent to his release from four years' incarceration in the 1940s, dedicated the remainder of his life to republican ideals and particularly to the promotion of the Irish language. Though Hannaway has the appearance of being a thoroughly English surname with which O hAinbhith was being equated, it is nowhere to be found in Basil Cottle's Penguin Dictionary of Surnames.