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Rh Two forms are admissible in the vocative case; facility of pronunciation is the best guide, e.g.. Come here, O’Brien. , O’Leary. , MacSweeney.

Surnames occurring in Ireland to-day are of three classes: (1) Surnames of Gaelic origin. These in almost every instance have the prefix or  for a male, and  or  for a female. (2) Surnames of old foreign origin. The majority of these have no prefix. (3) Surnames of late foreign origin. Only a few of these have acquired a distinct form, pronounced in an Irish way.

When the surname is preceded by any ot the words, the surname is in the genitive case, and is aspirated after or , but not after  or : e.g., , John McDonnell; , Mary O’Connell; , Dermot O’Connell; , Nora McDonnell.

When the whole name is in the genitive case, the words after (gen. of  or ) and  (gen. of ) are aspirated;  and  do not change in genitive., James O’Brien’s book; , Brian McDonnell’s cow.

and aspirate when they really mean “son” and “grandson” respectively.