Hi Rick,
All I am sure of is that my Paddens and Munnelys were from near Belmullet since I have a reference for their marriage and a baptismal reference for their son from the Belmullet Catholic Church.
If you look at a map of the Belmullet area, you will see that the town of Belmullet is actually at the narrowest point of the isthmus connecting the "mullet" to the mainland. Attycunnane is on the north mainland side of the isthmus, and Mt Jubilee is SE of that toward Geesala and Doohoma. I found all three of my surnames (Padden, Munnelly or Monnelly, and Heraghty) in the Griffiths in the townland of Carrowmore which is at the western end of Carrowmore Lake (also close to Belmullet).
So yes, I believe there are definitely connections.
I hired an Irish researcher a few years ago and one of the things that he sent me was a list of all the Belmullet Church marriages and baptisms (from the records that had survived) for people named Munnelly or Monnelly.
The document is sort of rambling, but I can send it to you separately if you send me your email address. There are a few Paddens listed.
So far, the two most valuable things I have found to do are collecting family pedigrees from other people with similar surnames from that area, and y-DNA testing of straight-line male Munnelly descendants.
I started the y-DNA testing aspect about six years ago with my brother's y-DNA. I am now the volunteer project administrator of the Munley/Manley Surname Project at
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Munley/There is not a "Padden" surname project, but there is a Paden/Peden project that seems like a good place to start. Spelling variations are so common. See
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/peden/I also know that there are several families of Paddens and Munnellys from the Belmullet area who settled in and around Archbald, Pennsylvania near Scranton. This is in Lackawanna County, but Lackawanna used to be part of Luzerne County.
I hope this helps. I am very interested in your families, and would like to stay in touch with you,
Best regards,
Marianne Manley Granoff
Albuquerque, NM
granoff@zianet.com