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The ancient past
MacAuley, MacCauley, MacColl, MacCall
Mentions different septs & locations in Ireland, including the MacAulays of Lewis (a sept of MacLeod):
The MacAulays of Ardincaple in Dumbartonshire are a minor branch of the royal Clan Alpin (of which MacGregor is the most senior). They were in Gaelic Mac Amhalghaidh and this obsolete Irish personal name was also pronounced Auley. Gallowglasses were mercenary soldiers, imported by the Irish clan chiefs, mainly in Ulster but also further afield, to aid in the defence of their clan territories. The first recorded arrival of the Gallowglass was in 1259. Prince Aedh O’Connor of Connaught, son of King Feidhlim married a princess, daughter of Dubhgall MacRory King of the Hebrides. As part of her dowry she brought with her a force of 160 Gallowglasses. They came for the most part from Inse Ghall (The Hebrides) and were Gaelic speaking Scots interbred with Vikings. Because of their Viking blood they earned the name from the words gall (foreign) and óglaigh (a warrior). The Scots themselves were Irish, mainly the Dal Riada from Northern Ireland who had traveled to Western Scotland and Hebrides. A fifteenth century account of them states: “They, the Irish, have one sort of footmen which can be harnessed in mail and basinettes, having every man of them a kind of battle-axe and they be named gallowglasses. These sort of men be those that do not lightly abandon the field, but bear the brunt to the death. These men are commonly wayward by profession than by nature, big of limb, burly of body, well and strongly timbered, chiefly feeding on beef, pork and butter.” They earned their reputation the hard way, and were the biggest reason the chiefs Ui Neill slowed the English advance northward from the Pale several hundred years. Many of them got grants of land from the Irish chiefs and went on to found some of the most respected septs of the Ireland. The best known of there are MacSúibhne (MacSweeney), MacDomhnaill (MacDonnell), MacSíothaigh (MacSheehy), MacDubhgaill (MacDougall), MacCaba (MacCabe) and MacRuari (MacRory). Lesser known Gallowglass families include MacAulay, MacSorley, MacNeill, MacGreal, MacAnGhearr (Short/ Shortt / McGirr), MacAnGallóglaigh (MacGallogly / English), MacClean (MacAlean / MacLean / MacClane), MacAilín (MacCawell / Campbell / MacCampbell / Allen / MacEllin), MacAlister (MacEllistrum / MacAllister / MacAlistrum), MacAlexander, Agnew (O’Gnimh / O’Gnimha / O’Gnive) and MacPhaidín (MacFadden) [the above mentioned Paden, Padon Paddon, Padian, Padien & Peden are variations of MacFadden]. A branch of the Dumbartonshire MacAulays came to the Glens of Antrim with the MacDonnells in the early sixteenth century and these are the ancestors of most of the MacAuleys in Co. Antrim. In the mid-nineteenth century MacAuley was the most common name in the barony of Lower Glenarm and was also very common in Carey.
[Paden, Paddon, Padian, Padien were in Counties Roscommon & Galway in the 19th century.]
The outstanding figure of the name in Irish history is Catherine MacAuley (1787-1841), foundress of the Order of Mercy.
Surname Coll, MacColl, gallowglass family
ulsterancestry.com/irish-names/coll
This Donegal name is from MacColl, Gaelic Mac Colla, the name of a gallowglass family introduced there from Argyllshire in the sicteenth century. Colla was a Gaelic personal name and Colla Uais, a semi-legendary Irish king of the fourth century, is claimed as the great ancestor of the MacDonalds. The MacCalls or MacColls, long settled in Argyllshire, were of the race of Clan Donald but in practice followed the Stewarts of Appin. Although of no connection with the Ulster MacCalls or MacCauls, there has been some intermingling of the two names (see MacCall).
Clan McCall Society of America (this may be defunct)
See also Clan MacLeod where it says that the surname MacCorley is probably a variant of MacAuley.