McNulty Tartan?

[chantal]

Thanks so much everyone! I really appreciate all the help!

[O'Callaghan]

Very few Irish names have their own tartan, and McNulty aparently doesn't, but their are tartans for each county and province of Ireland, as well as for the whole country, and traditionally solid colour kilts were worn in Ireland anyway, rather than tartan, usually either green or saffron.

There are two entirely different tartans for each of the 32 counties, one designed by House of Edgar (Macnaughton Ltd) of Perth, Scotland, and one by Marton Mills of Yorkshire, England. There is also at least one tartan for each of the four provinces, and sometimes two or three variations of these exist, i.e. different colour background and/or different size sett (pattern).

McNulty seems to be from either Co. Cavan or Co. Donegal in the province of Ulster, or from Co. Mayo in Connaught. 6 of the 9 counties of Ulster form Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, but Co. Cavan and Co. Donegal are both in the Republic of Ireland. The Ulster and Connaught tartans both have a number of variants.

However, if you don't know exactly what part of Ireland his family came from, it's probably safer to get one of the various tartans that represent Ireland as a whole. There are about a dozen different ones. Half of these look rather similar to eachother and have similar names, but no doubt differ for copyright reasons, e.g. Irish National, Ireland's National, Irish Heritage, Irish Spirit, etc. Most kilt sources carry at least one of these, but some of them are nicer than others.

Then there are some others that don't resemble any of the above, of which All Ireland Green and St. Patrick's are the most readily available. There is also an Eire tartan and one called Special Saffron, for example, but they are rare, and All Ireland also comes in other background colours besides green, but these are not as common.

You can get plain green and plain saffron kilts from Stillwater Kilts, and you can also get plain green ones from The Frugal Corner. These would be more traditionally Irish, but perhaps tartan looks more like what people expect a kilt to look like.

Some of the companies that make contemporary rather than traditional kilts also offer green or something that might pass for saffron. Amerikilt have what looks like a nice shade of green.

FWIW, I own an Irish National kilt, a Co. Cork one (Macnaughton version), and a plain black one. However, I know for sure that my ancestors came from Co. Cork, as we have traced them back to there (as it happens, that is where the name originates, but there are a lot of Callaghans in Co. Clare and Co. Waterford as well). There is a Callaghan tartan, but it is 'special order' only (i.e. expensive), and I am not keen on the Munster province tartan. I have my eye on a plain green kilt, and perhaps one in All Ireland Green or St. Patrick's tartan.