Mulhall — Devotee of Cathal

Mulhall anglicises Ó Maolchathail, built from maol — a word meaning tonsured or devoted, used of someone bound to a person or a saint — and Cathal, itself ‘battle-mighty’. The family belonged to the old Leinster midlands, in Laois and Kilkenny, and stayed numerous there long after most septs had scattered.

A name that means devotion to a man called battle-mighty — Gaelic Ireland rarely separated the two.

Irish form: Ó Maolchathail