by historian Peter Berresford Ellis, who was given access to the files at the Genealogical Office in Dublin and who was “devastated” by the inadequacy of the pedigree evidence therein contained, an ultimatum demanding he produce the evidence lacking for his claim to the chiefship was transmitted to McCarthy in Tangier by the “Atlanta Group” on 2 October. On 9 October 1999, after making no substantive answer to the “Atlanta Group,” and thus losing the support of the Niadh Nask, MacCarthy abdicated the title. Barry Trant-McCarthy, a resident of England, applied for recognition under the title, but the Genealogical Office never made a decision on the matter. In 2003 the government discontinued the practice of granting courtesy recognition to Chiefs of the Name. See also Sliocht Cormaic of Dunguile, sept of the MacCarthy dynasty into whose pedigree Terence MacCarthy inserted himself Sources McCarthy, Pete (2004) The Road to McCarthy: Around the World in Search of Ireland. London; New York: Fourth Estate; . Murphy, Sean J (2004) Twilight of the Chiefs: The Mac Carthy Mór Hoax. Bethesda, Maryland: Academica Press; . References External links Clan MacCarthy Society's MacCarthy Mór page The MacCarthy Mór Hoax Response of Peter Berresford Ellis to Sean J. Murphy’s article on the MacCarthy Mór issue in History Ireland 1957 births Living people Heraldists Writers from Belfast Impostor pretenders 21st-century writers from Northern Ireland