Terence Francis MacCarthy
Terence Francis MacCarthy (born 21 January 1957), formerly self-styled Tadhg V, The MacCarthy Mór, Prince of Desmond and Lord of Kerslawny, is a genealogist, historian, and writer, best known for being a pretender to the Irish chiefly title of MacCarthy Mór. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a resident of Morocco. His last name is sometimes published as McCarthy. In 1992, having presented falsified documentation regarding his ancestry for official perusal, MacCarthy gained Chief of the Name recognition as the MacCarthy Mór. He worked to organise an affiliation of clan associations in Ireland and North America, building on heritage tourism. He also became active in the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry (ICOC), in which position he promoted an order known as the Niadh Nask. His claims were challenged in 1999 by The Sunday Times, which had conducted an investigation of his ancestry and found that his father was an ordinary working man in Belfast. Later that year, recognition of MacCarthy was withdrawn and he resigned the title; in 2003 the government discontinued the practice of granting courtesy honours to claimed chiefs of the name of Irish families. MacCarthy Mór On 28 January 1992, the Irish Genealogical Office conferred