`Lea" (also spelt "leigh", "ley") where it is the second element of English place-names, and the surnames derived from them, means "wood/clearing" or "pasture".
The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames gives Cowley as deriving from a place "cow pasture" or "charcoal wood/clearing", or "wood/clearing in a recess". Interesting that the first element "cow" indicating "recess" has a similarity to the Irish cuil, "corner/nook". The bearers of this English toponymic were among the "Ten Tribes of Kilkenny", but Cowley was also used as an anglicised form of the Irish Mac Amhalghaidh. However, it was more frequently rendered Mac Awly/MacAuley/ Magauley/Gawley and Cawley.
Amhalgaidh, from whence this surname, is a very old name, common especially in Munster and borne by one of the early kings of that province. It also named an early king of Connacht, whose name is preserved in the Co Mayo barony name of Tirawley, Tir Amhalghaidh.
"There are two distinct septs of this name, viz Mac Amhalghaidh of Offaly and Westmeath, and the more numerous Mac Amhlaoibh, a branch of the McGuires which as Mag Amhlaoibh gives the form Gawley in Connacht. The latter must not be confused with MacAuliffe," (Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ireland).
Amhlaoibh is a borrowing from Olaf which came to Ireland with the Vikings, and is still a favourite name in all Scandinavian countries. There are separate Mac Auliffe septs in Munster and Co Fermanagh.
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters records the death of Amhalghaidh, chief of Calraighe, of an unknown disease in the year 1045, and the same source relates the killing of Flann, son of Mac Amhalghaidh, chief of Calry, in 1178.
Mac Amhalghaidh under its various anglicised forms, appears c.20 times between the years 1550 and 1602 in The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (15211603), in Cork, Tipperary, Offaly, Longford and Roscommon, but most especially in Westmeath.
Three of the name are among the pardoned of 1602 - Hobard, Garot and Farall, with their address given as Ballelochole. This is Ballyloughloe listed in these fiants as "Ballyloghlo in m'Gawle's country called Calry".
Sean O Dubhagain, in his section of Topographical Poems, names Mac Amhalghaidh as chief of Calry. In 1372 a great epidemic swept through Ireland, and struck down Amhlaoidh, son of Amhlaoidh Mac Amhalghadha, chieftain of Calraighe, but he made a successful recovery.
Analecta Hibernica No. 26 contains an article by Gearoid Mac Niocaill, which refers to a late 16th century dispute between members of the McAuly family. This concerned "fieldes of Twoballynegeye" (now Twyford) and other lands in the Co Westmeath parish of Ballyloughloe. On one side was Honory, daughter of Auly Og, son of Auly Duff, son of Auly Maol, son of Auly Mor McAuly. This latter must have lived around 1460.
The 1659 Census of Ireland lists Mortagh and Neall og Mc Aully, gents as tituladoes in Glendune, in the Co Antrim, barony of Glenarm, with Macawley numbered among the principal Irish names in the Co Fermanagh parishes of Templecarne, Kilmawley and Enniskillen, and in the Co Sligo barony of Tirerrill. Maj McAwly was a Co Antrim commissioner for the 1661 Poll-Money Ordnance. These were of the other sept of the Mac Amhlaoidh.
In a letter of September 4th, 1837, John O'Donovan wrote: "But the people never call the parish Ballyloughloe, but Calree, which was the ancient name of McAwley's country in Wesmeath". This was Calraighe an Chalaidh, an area coextensive with Ballyloughloe.
In his The Placenames of Westmeath, Rev Paul Walsh gives Baile Locha Lautha as the original Irish, and in a footnote to O'Donovan's letter, he refers to the ancient tale of the hostel of Da Choga.
When the hostel was destroyed by the Connacht people, Luath, the wife of Da Choga, escaped to this spot, "and a burst of gore brake from her heart, so that from her Loch Luath is named". The lake had been drained, O'Donovan informs us, "and is now just dried up".
The largest M'Auley holding in the country listed in the 1876 Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards was the 354 acres at Ballymena, Co Antrim. The remaining 10 holdings in Antrim, Donegal, Down, Derry, Tyrone and Leitrim were in single and double digits.
Telephone directories south of the Border list Cawley 267 times, 126 of which are in the 09 area; McAuley is listed 212 times, strongly in the 01 and 04 areas; there are 15 McCawleys, and eight Gawleys. Beidh la eile ag muintir Cowley.