It's thought that Edmund Stack may have originally come from the foot of the Stack Mountains, settling at the Hill in Gortdromasillihy, Newtownsandes (renamed Moyvane in 1939), where the land was better. The Hill was the name given to the property owned by Edmund and his descendants, mainly in order to distinguish it from the properties of at least two other Stack families in the townland of Gortdromasillihy.
In case you might be wondering, the well-known jockey, Tommy Stack, from Moyvane, who rode "Red Rum" to victory in the 1977 Aintree Grand National, is NOT, unfortunately, one of Edmund's descendants.
The Stack surname is common throughout Ireland, especially in Munster where the strongest concentration is in north Kerry. It's a Norman name and originally had a 'de' prefix - 'de Stac', 'de Stak', etc. The Norman Stacks settled in the Abbeydorney / Kilflynn area, building a residence nearby in Crotta in 1320 and giving the name Stackstown to Kilflynn. The mountains between Tralee and Lyrecrompane became the Stack Mountains, and the whole area was named Pobal Stack (Stacks' Country). One member of the clan, Maurice Stack, born in 1499, became bishop of Kerry and carried out major improvements to Ardfert Cathedral where he's buried. By the 16th century, the Stacks were adversaries of the English, and fought on the Irish side at Kinsale in 1601.
Note from Helen: Although neither my husband nor I are descended from Edmund Stack above, Edmund's son Tom married my great-grandaunt Ellie Shanahan. In the course of my research into the Shanahans I was given a lot of valuable information on the Stack family, hence its inclusion on the website.
