More Laois & Offaly Surnames

Surnames: D, E, F | G, H | I, J, K | L, M | O, P, S

B - C
Bannon

The name Bannon is widely scattered throughout the four provinces of Ireland, with more in Co. Tipperary and Co. Cavan. A distinct medieval sept of Ó Banáin was seated at Léim Uí Bhanáin (Leap Castle), in the barony of Clonlisk, the southern end of Co. Offaly close to Roscrea in Co. Tipperary. In 1659 Bannon is recorded as numerous in Clonlisk and in Lower Ormond, Co. Tipperary, where Petty's census enumerators (erroneously) equated Bannon with Bane. It may be noted that Matheson records Banane as well as the obvious Bane or Bawn as synonymous with White in several parts of the country. Bane is simply the Irish word bin, white. The Hearth Money Rolls of around the same date confirm the prevalence of the name Bannon in Co. Tipperary. The census enumerators also found many O'Banans in Co. Fermanagh. The pedigree of Muintir Bhanáin is among the Fermanagh pedigrees which occupy nearly 100 pages of Analecta. Hibernica No. 3. Of this sept, were Maelpatrick O'Banan, Bishop of Connor from 1152 to 1172, and Gelasius O'Banan, Abbot of Clones, who was Bishop of Clogher from 1316 to 1319. The Book of Lecan places Ó Banáin at Baile Ui Bhanáin, (Ballybannon), in the parish of Partry, on the western side of Lough Mask. In 1585 the Composition of Connacht found an O'Bannaghan posessed an estate at Rathmullen, Co. Sligo and in 1659 O' Bennaghan appears as one of the principal names in the barony of Tirerrill, Co. Sligo. This is possibly not a variant of Bannon but (Ó Beannacháin in mediaeval Irish manuscripts). Banim is believed to be a corrupt form of Bannon. It is made famous by the brothers Michael Banim (1796-1865) and John Banim (1798-1842), novelists who born in Kilkenny and were presumably of the above sept. De Burgh's Landowners of Ireland (1878) includes the large and valuable estate of Bannon of Broughill Castle, near Kilcormac, Co. Offaly.

Behan is the usual spelling of the anglicized form of Ó Beacháin an older form of which is Ó Beacáin; Beahan, Beaghan and even Bean are variants. In Co. Kerry the Munster tendency to emphasize the last syllable has made it Behane there, (pronounced Behaan). It is only during the last two centuries that representatives of this Leinster sept settled in Kerry, though one of them is found at the mouth of the Shannon, that is Hugh O'Beaghan, who was Bishop of lniscathy in 1188, before that small see was united to Limerick. Another notable ecclesiastic, the Franciscan Donat or Daniel Beaghan, also called O'Behechan (d.1541) was Bishop of Kildare at the beginning of the troubles which arose from the attempt to impose the Reformation on Ireland. His diocese was near the homeland of the O'Behans, which covered a considerable area of the country lying at the juncture of Counties Kildare, Offaly and Leix. The O'Behans were notable principally as a literary family, two of whom were thought worthy of mention in the Annals of Loc the Four Masters etc. as "eminent historians," viz. Conor O'Behan (d.1376) and Donal O'Behan (d. 1411). Brendan Behan was a very successful playwright of today. Very few present day representatives of this sept have resumed the prefix O which properly goes with the name.

The form Mergin (O'Merriggyn in the sixteenth century Chancery Rolls) used by some families in Leinster, is a more correct anglicization of the Gaelic O hAimherigin than the usual Bergin. Vergin would be phonetically more accurate than either, which are equally near to the Irish in sound, both B and M when aspirated become V. By the end of the fifteenth century the B form had become generally accepted in English and Latin, as the records relating to the diocese of Ossory prove. O'Bergyn is given as the English form as early as 1314, in the official report in Latin of a court case in Waterford. The sept has been placed in the barony of Geashill, Co. Offaly: it has always been associated with the Leix-Offaly area over which they spread from their original Geashill territory. Both now and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Leix had been their principal homeland. They were sometimes called MacBergin in English: Father Thady MacBergin several times prior of Lorrha on the border of Co. Offaly, is an example of this. The most noteworthy of the many ecclesiastics of the name was the Cistercian abbot Luke Bergin, one of the many Catholic martyrs under the Cromwellian regime, was hung in 1655. Professor Osborn Bergin (I 872-1950) of University College, Dublin, and later of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, was a Celtic scholar of the first rank. There is one case recorded of a family of Bergins in Co. Offaly assuming the non-Gaelic and aristocratic sounding surname of Burgoype.

The first to come to Ireland was Robert de Bermingham of the Castle of Bermingham in Warwickshire, who accompanied Strongbow in the momentous AngloNorman invasion. By the year 1230 they were firmly established at Tethmoy in Offaly. In 1235 Piers de Bermingham took part with de Burgo in the conquest of Connacht, where the family acquired a great territory chiefly in the barony of Dunmore, Co. Galway, (Bermingham's country). This was also termed MacOrish's or MacHorish's country, the Gaelic patronymic MacOrish (now Corish) was adopted by the Berminghams of Connacht who like the Burkes, became hibernicised.

The eponym here is Piers de Bermingham, Feoras being the Irish equivalent of Piers. This was also used by the Berminghams-of Co. Kildare where Castle Carbury, or the Castle of Mac Fheorais, was their principal seat. They were very prominent in the fourteenth century. John de Bermingham was the victor at the famous battle of Faughert, (1318) where Edward Bruce was defeated; and Richard de Bermingham (from whom the Bermingham Tower in Dublin Castle is named) won the decisive victory of Athenry " in 1316. Later the Berminghams were to become Barons of Athenry. In the next century they are found coupled with the O'Connors when the parliament held at Drogheda in 1478 took protective steps "for the chastisement of the Berminghams." Even this indirect association with the O'Connors is ironical since in 1305 Sir Piers de Bermingham caused a large party of O'Connors who were his guests to be treacherously murdered - himself and his family were later similarly treated by the Verdons and the Gernons. The O'Connors were the principal sufferers by the defeat of Athenry. In 1584 Margaret Bermingham (Dame Bell) died in prison as a result of her efforts on behalf of persecuted priests.

The name Bracken was more numerous in the seventeenth century than it is today; it appears in the "census" of 1659 among the commoner Irish names in four baronies, three in Co. Offaly and the fourth, barony of Offaly, in Co. Kildare; and all the references in the Fiants of the previous century in which the name O'Brackane or variants occur relate to the same part of the country, where families of the name are still mainly found. In Irish the name is Ó Breacáin and is derived from the word breac, speckled. Benedict O'Breacan was Bishop of Achonry from 1286 to 1312. Thomas Bracken (I 843-1898), of Clones, emigrated from Ireland to Australia as a boy and after some years there became a prominent public figure in New Zealand as member of parliament and poet. The career of Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, (1901-1958) is said to have begun when at the age of 15 he ran away from school at the Jesuit College of Mungret, Co. Limerick; it ended as a financial magnate and cabinet minister in the British government.

In 1603 Henry, Hugh and Thomas Bambrick were among a number of Irishmen of Co. Leix obtaining "pardons". In 1641 and the three following years four soldiers of the name are in the Irish army lists preserved in the Ormond Manuscripts. In 1659 two men called Bambrick are listed in the "census" of that date as tituladoes in Co. Leix. and as these have the same Christian names (Henry and John) as two of the said soldiers it is not improbable that these soldiers are also Leix Bambricks. Two centuries later we find sixteen householders in Griffith's Valuation for that county (eleven of these in the barony of Slievemargy) and in Co. Kilkenny; three more are in the Tithe Applotment Books of the 1820's. They were located in the part of Leix which is close to counties Kilkenny and Kildare. Notwithstanding the fact that they were still fairly numerous a century ago the name is very rare now in Co. Leix and the other midland counties, but it is quite well represented in the city of Dublin.

Bogue and Bowe are anglicized forms of the Gaelic Ó Buadhaigh, probably derived from the adjective buadhach, victorious. Bogue is usual in Co. Cork and Bowe in the midland counties. The sept was located in the Corca Laoidhe country (south-west Cork). The "census" of 1659 shows the extent to which the name was both numerous and scattered in the seventeenth century. In the returns of the principal Irish names, in addition to Buoige and O'Buoige in the part of Co. Cork, the "census" of 1659 gives: Buo, Co. Waterford (barony of Upperthird); Boe and O'Boe, Co. Kilkenny (baronies of Galmoy, Gowran and Crannagh) and Co. Wexford; Bowe and O'Bowe, Co. Leix. In the Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls of around the same date 40 families of Bowe are included in various parts of the county. In the Chancery Rolls for 1547 we find Thady Boee recorded as a cleric in the diocese of Limerick. In none of the records consulted does Co. Fermanagh appear, though nineteenth century birth registration returns indicate that Bogue is mainly found in that county; and the same authority shows that the principal location of Bowe is Co. Kilkenny. There were many other variants of the name in English besides those mentioned, e.g. Donough O'Bough, a Co. Cork witness in 1621; a Dermot O'Bowige, a Donough O'Boughaie and a Walter O'Boo show the variety of spelling used in the Fiants recording the names of men who received Elizabethan pardons. Ó Buadhaigh has also been anglicized Boyce, a surname fairly common in north-west Ulster (Donegal and Derry). Boyce, also an English name of Norman origin, is derived from bois, a wood, some of todays Irish Boyces are descended from English settlers: they appear as such at least as far back as the fourteenth century, when they were to be found both in Co. Meath and in Co. Limerick (at first under the name de Boys) down to the time of the Cromwellian settlement when Joyn Boyce, an "adventurer" obtained 360 acres in the barony of Iffa and Offa, Co. Tipperary, and Henry Boyse, a London tallow-chandler, and a large subscriber for lands. There is a Boystown in Co. Meath; and Boys of Gallgath, mentioned in the Meath muster of 1586 as one of the chief men of the barony of Deece, was also of Anglo-Norman stock. The Boyces of Donegal and Derry are for the most part of Gaelic-Irish origin. It is noteworthy, that Buie and Bwee, which are normally phonetic spellings of the adjective buidhe (yellow) are used in Donegal as synonyms of Boyce. Boy was the usual equivalent in sixteenth century English of buidhe as an epithet or agnomen, e.g. Sorley Boy. The use of Boy as an adjectival surname, comparable to Glass (glas) Reagh (riabhach) etc. has been noted in Counties Tipperary and Clare. A possible cause of confusion also lies in the fact that in the seventeenth century Boy was sometimes used as an abbreviated form of MacEvoy. Rev. Dr. John Boyce (1810-1864), the priest who made his name as a novelist in America, was born in Co. Donegal, as was his nephew Jerome Boyce, a poet of some merit. Another poet, Samuel Boyce (1708-1747) was a Dublin man. Sir Rupert Boyce (1863-1911), whose work in connexion with tropical medicine was noteworthy, was born in London of Irish parentage

These two anglicized forms of the Irish surname Ó Breasail are now about equal in number: found mainly in Waterford and Offaly, but are not confined to those counties. A century ago they were located in Counties Tipperary, Kilkenny, Limerick and Kerry, but more recent statistics indicate that the name has become rare outside of Co. Waterford. The name O'Brasil occurs there as early as 1308; the old name of Lysaghtstown in Co. Cork near the Co. Waterford border was Baile uí Bhreasail and O Bressyl occurs in Co. Cork in 1285. Sixteenth and seventeenth century records are rich in references to the name. The prefix O, now obsolete with Brazil, is retained in the Tudor Fiants, as early as 1537, when Brassell occurs among the commoners of Kilkenny, and in 1551, when Mahowne Brassill, a kern, was convicted at Clonmel of having stolen cattle, it is omitted. In the "census" of 1659 Brassell is returned as a principal Irish name in the Co. Waterford barony of Upperthird: as such it occurs ten times in the Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls of 1665-1667 in various spellings also without the O. Other seventeenth century men of interest were John Brassell of Ballycargin, Co. Wexford, who was High Constable of the barony of Gorey in 1608, and Denis Brazil, of Ballyduff in the same county, attainted as a Jacobite after the failure of that cause. West Offaly was one of the homelands of the Brazils. He was probably a MacBrassill, a name which occurs in the Elizabethan Fiants in Co. Galway and is that of a small but distinct sept almost if not quite extinct. The sept of Ó Breasail has no connexion with the Clann Bhreasail, which was the tribe name of the Uí Bhreasail of Oriel.

The name Bray in Ireland is of dual origin: either de Bri (or de Bre) i.e. of a place called Bray - not usually Bray, Co. Wicklow; or alternatively Ó Breaghdha, a Munster sept mentioned by O'Heerin in the Topographical Poem. O'Donovan in his notes to that work states that this family is now unknown; but the name Bray occurs continually in mediaeval and early modern Munster records and- it appears to be a reasonable supposition that it is there sometimes, properly O'Bray. From the year 1207 onwards families called Bray are closely associated with Clonmel and several of them were sovereigns of the town from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries; in the seventeenth century the John Bray who was outlawed as a Jacobite in 1691 was an alderman of that town; a generation earlier there were eight families recorded in the Co. Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls; while Thomas Bray, Archbishop of Cashel from 1792 to 1810, was a notable churchman at then; The existence of Bray families in Co. Cork is attested by the frequent occurrence of the name in the Cork and Ross marriage licence bonds from 1697. It rarely appeared with the prefix O: there is a county Tipperary Obrey in a 1295 Justiciary Roll and an O'Brahye is mentioned in a Co. Waterford Fiant of 1601. It cannot be laid down that O'Bray is exclusively Munster and de Bray Leinster, because find an occasional de Bray in Co. Tipperary while a fifteenth century O'Bray is mentioned in an ecclesiastical case in 1433 and another in a Meath pardon of 1542. Brays are now fairly numerous in Offaly. Bree is a synonym of Bray, i.e. of de Bray: it does not appear as O'Bree. De Bray and de Bree belong mainly to Co. Dublin and the neighbouring counties of Meath and Louth.

Brereton is often regarded as a Cromwellian name in Ireland. There were families of that name from Brereton in Cheshire established in Ireland almost a century before the Cromwellian Settlement. The most notable of these were in Co. Down and Co. Leix. They were located at Lecale, in Co. Down, before 1550, and a Ralph Brereton was sheriff of Co. Down in 1591. The founder of the fortunes of this family in Ireland was the Sir William Brereton whose vigorous action enabled Lord Deputy Skeffington to crush the rebellion of "Silken Thomas" in 1535; four years later as Lord High Marshal he opposed Con O'Neill. His son and two of his nephews held high office and received large grants of land. Traditionally the Breretons of Co. Leix came from England at the time of the attempted plantation of Leix and Offaly under Philip and Mary; the Loughteeog property was acquired by Sir William's grandson Edward in 1563. Grants there are recorded at dates from 1563 to 1594. His youngest son John Brereton was constable of the castle of Wexford and as seneschal of Co. Wexford he was granted land there under Edward VI. The connection with Wexford doesn't seem to have lasted long: the "census" of 1659 includes a number of tituladoes called Brereton in Co. Leix and elsewhere, though none in Co. Wexford, nor does the Civil Survey of Co. Wexford contain the name among English Protestant or Irish Papist proprietors. The principal Leix properties were Loughteeog and Shanemullen, and families who owned them retained their influential position until recent times. The Loughteeog family were principal gentry of Co. Leix in 1600: one was M.P. for Ballinakill in 1613; and Father Edmund Hogan, editor of the MS. known as the "Description of Ireland in 1598", states that the Shanemullen family were in Co. Carlow when he wrote in 1878. They are not listed in Co. Carlow in de Burgh's Landowners of that date, though that work includes them as fairly extensive landlords in Co. Tipperary. Other families from the Queen's Co. settlers remained staunch Catholics throughout the penal times. The Fiants indicate that the Breretons of the sixteenth century, many o received pardons, like their Gaelic neighbours, were not by any means all devoted to the English interest; and in the vital text of 1689-90 John Brereton of Loughteeog was found on the Jacobite side and was outlawed for "high treason" by William of Orange.

Owing to the prominence of Alderman Robert Briscoe T.D., Lord Mayor of Dublin twice in recent years. Briscoe is on record in this country since the sixteenth century when in 1588 a Briscoe married a Kearney heiress and built the castle of Sragh near Tullamore: the Briscoes of Riverdale, Killucan, are their descendants. John Briscoe of Sragh (Scraghe) was transplanted as a Papist in 1656. Briscoes were found in Co. Offaly in 1855: Griffith's Valuation records eleven families of the name mainly in the baronies of Ballybritt, Ballycowan and Garrycastle. In the next two centuries references to men of the Briscoe name in different parts of the country are frequent: the "census" of 1659 records two tituladoes in Co. Dublin, one of whom, Gabriel Briscoe, we know from another source was an official of the court of Chancery. Thomas Briscoe, Cromwellian "adventurer" of £100, obtained 540 acres in the barony of Clanwilliam Co. Tipperary; a few years later they are found as small householders in Kilbeggan town. Seven of the name are in the lists of eighteenth century marriage licence bonds in Co. Cork. There was William Briscoe of Sligo who was outlawed for his adherance to the cause of James II in 1690, and another place in which they appear in that time is Co. Waterford.

The name Ó Bróithe was phonetically anglicized O'Brohy later became Brophy. It belongs to the counties of Leix and Kilkenny. According to the "census" of 1659 Brophy was one of the principal names in five baronies of Leix and in five of Co. Kilkenny: In Clandonagh barony it is found in the Co. Leix place-name Ballybrophy. Originally situated in the barony of Galmoy, Co. Kilkenny, Anglo-Norman pressure drove many of the sept westwards into Upper Ossory. Daniel Brophy of Castlecomer, mayor of Ballarat three times, was a well-known public figure in Australia in the 1870's. Hugh Brophy, a leading Dublin Fenian, was transported on the last of the convict ships and went to Melbourne after he was released from Freementle prison.

The Irish surname O'Buachalla (derived from the Gaelic work Buachal a boy) is usually anglicized Buckley. Buckley is of course a common English name, but it is safe to say that few Irish-looking forms Boughla and Buhilly are used in one are of Co. Offaly. It is not, however, numerous in that part of Ireland now, though it was in mediaeval times; and in 1659 it appears in Petty's census as an Irish principal name in the barony of Ballycowan as Bohelly. A family of Buckley or Buhilly resident at Lemanaghan, Co. Offaly, claimed to be descendants of the cowherd of St. Manahan or Manchan and hereditary bearers of his shrine, the custodians of which were the O'Moonys of Doon, Co. Offaly. As Bouhilly it was numerous at the same date in Iffa and Offa, i.e. the southwestern corner of Co. Tipperary. The variant spellings of Bohelly and Bucaile both occur in the returns of Irish Jacobites outlawed after the defeat of James II. William Buckley (1768-1793), who was guillotined for his prominent part in the royalist counter-revolution, was born at Clonmel and apparently his real name was Buckley. The famous family of Bulkely in France was, however, according to O'Callaghan, of English origin. Today the name Buckley is chiefly found in Counties Cork and Kerry: eighty per cent of the large number of births recorded for the name (it has a place in the hundred commonest Irish surnames) are in Munster. The American botanist, Samuel Buckley (1809-1883), was possibly of Irish origin, though he was a Wesleyan. The last Governor-General of the Irish Free State was Donal O Buachalla.

It is suggested that this name is a variant of the surname Bullfinch, now extant in America but obsolete in England. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it has been continuously in Co. Offaly from where William Bulfin (1862-1910), came, who was born and died at Birr. Best known for his Rambles in Eirinn, he spent most of his life as a journalist in Argentina where he lost no opportunity, of furthering the cause of Ireland.

Brugha (sometimes de Brugha) is used as the Irish equivalent of three surnames - Bury, Burgess and Burrows while Ó Brugha (or Ó Brughadha) is the Irish original of the name now anglicized Broe and Brew, and also perhaps Broy, which, occurs in mediaeval records as de Broy (i.e. of Broy, a place in Oxfordshire). Written by Elizabethan officials as O'Broe, O'Broghe, O'Broo etc., it often occurs in sixteenth century records relating to Cos. Leix and Kilkenny. In the same area Brew is found as a Norman surname - de Berewa and de Broth as early as 1190; this is the de Brugha which is akin to the surname de Burgh and its English derivative Burrough or Burrowes. Brew is also a Manx surname, originally MacVriw which is cognate with the Irish MacBrehon. Burgess is of different origin: it is self-explanatory, meaning simply a citizen. An early spelling of this was Burys; but it is improbable that this was modernised as Bury. The Bury family, which settled in Co. Limerick in 1666, consider that the origin of the name is locative and is taken from the Chateau de Bury in Normandy. Many place-names in England incorporate this word e.g. Bury St. Edmund's. Burys of Norman descent came to Ireland with the Prestons: the name de Bury is found in records of the fourteenth century relating to Drogheda. Sir Simon de Bury appeared in Co. Wicklow as early as 1234. There were Burys in Co. Wicklow in the late eighteenth century: two of the 23 prerogative wills listed by Vicars under the name of Bury are for Co Wicklow - the majority of these testators were of Dublin and Cork. In England Bury and Berry are synonymous Matheson reports Berry as chiefly found in Counties Antrim, Mayo and Offaly.

In Offaly it is a form of Beaty. This is the anglicization of Ó Beara, the name of a small Offaly sept akin to the O'Dempseys and O'Connors of that region. The name Burgess was quite common in mediaeval Ireland, almost always in connection with municipal or parliamentary affairs. The records of the city of Dublin contain many references Burgess as members of trade guilds, churchwardens etc. Broy occurs in Co. Kildare as early as 1297 when Geoffrey Broy was outlawed as a robber. Of the Burys the best known was Professor John Bagenal Bury (I 861-1927) who came from a branch of the Co, Limerick family which settled in Co. Monaghan. Peter Burrows (1753-1841) was an anti-Union M.P. and barrister who defended Robert Emmet at his trial. Cathal Brugha (1874-1922), the courageous republican leader killed in the civil war, was of a Dublin family of Burgess.

The MacCashins were hereditary physicians in Upper Ossory. Many MacCashins were 1640 Irish Papist proprietors in Co. Leix As early as 1304 the name occurs in Co. Kildare and in 1331 in north Tipperary, which adjoins Co. Leix. The Hearth Money Rolls of 1666 indicates that it was common in Co. Tipperary. The Hearth Money Rolls for Co. Leix are not extant, but Petty's "census" of around the same time found Cashins numerous there. Most notable of the physicians was Conly Cashin who wrote a medical tract in Latin in 1667. It is stated that the Cassans of Sheffield House (Capoley) were properly de Cassagne, a family having left France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, went to Flanders from where they came to Ireland, their ancestor was an officer in the army of William of Orange. At the end of the eighteenth century there was a notable firm of shipowners in Waterford, Cashin, Wyse and Quan. This family of Cashin came from the parish of Kilshane in Co. Tipperary. Placenames of interest in this connexion are Ballycasheen, near Killarney, and Ballycashin in Co. Waterford. Ballycasheen, in Co. Clare near Corofin, is nearer to Connacht than to South Munster. This is not very far away from the Sodhan country with its sept of ÓCasáin. It is suggested that bishop John O'Cassin, who resigned the see of Killala in 1490, belonged to this sept.

This name is spelt in many different ways, the most usual being MacAuley, MacCauley, Cawley, Macaulay, MacGawley and Magawley. There are two main Irish septs of MacAuley etc. Entirely different in origin and location. One is MacAmhalghaidh, i.e., son of Auley, an old Irish personal name now obsolete. This sept was at one time of considerable importance, being lords of a wide territory in the west of Co. Westmeath and north of Offaly: in the Elizabethan Fiants this is called "McGawley's Country", the centre of which was Ballyloughnoe in Co. Westmeath. The Four Masters describe them as Chiefs of Calry. They are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, their surname being taken from his descendant Auley, who flourished in the thirteenth century. Their pedigree is recorded in the Office of Arms, Dublin Castle, in great detail; the Chief of the Name a century ago was Count Magawley Cerati, son of the Prime Minister of the Empress Maria Louisa. Up till that time they preserved a close connexion with their homeland in Co. Westmeath. The other sept was called in Irish Mac Amhlaoibh. They are a branch of the MacGuires and belong to Co. Fermanagh, where they have given their name to the barony of Clanawley. It should be noted that Mac Amhlaoibh is also the name of a quite distinct Munster sept, the anglicized form there being MacAuliffe (q.v.). The same Gaelic form is used by the Scottish clan of Macaulay. Many of the Irish born Macauleys and MacAuleys, particularly those living in the countries adjacent to Belfast, are descendants of Scottish settlers in Ulster. The outstanding figure of the name in Irish history is Catherine MacAuley (1787-1841), foundress of the Order of Mercy.

Today there are a number of families called Swords in Dublin.The name has, Usually no connexion with the Co. Dublin village of Swords. It derives from two distinct Gaelic-Irish surnames which belong to the counties of Offaly and Leix: in Offaly it is numerous today, as it is in the neigbouring county of Kildare, as is Clavin. Clavin is Ó Claimhín in Irish, was sometimes anglicized Swords by mistake assuming that the root word is claidheamh (a sword). The other derivation is from Ó Suaird, which in a Fiant of 1562 is anglicized O'Sword. Two others of around the same time have O'Swerte: The three relate to the Leix-Offaly area. Since 1016, maybe before the era of fixed hereditary surnames, Ó Suairt is mentioned by the Four Masters as the name of the then successor of St. Brigid, the Abbess of Kildare. The names Swords, Swoordes and Sourdes all appear in the Ulster inquisition of the first half of the seventeenth century. These two names also relate to their midland homeland; they are evidently known in Co. Mayo, for list of synonyms by local registrars includes Claveen and Swords at Ballinrobe. In the fourteenth century, the surname de Swerdes (derived from the village) was recorded in many places in Ireland; and in the Ulster inquisitions of the first half of the seventeenth century Swords, Swoordes and Sourdes is found in Co. Down.

Although the surnames Conry and Conroy are, properly speaking, quite distinct, they are dealt with together here because in modern times they have become almost interchangeable. To illustrate this we may refer to the list of synonyms issued by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the year 1901. At that comparatively recent date births in families usually called Conroy were also registered as Conary, Conrahy, Conree, Cunree, Cory, King and also Munconry and Conry; the synonyms for Conry were Connery, Mulconry and Conroy. All that can be doe to elucidate the resultant confusion is to give a brief account of the background of the several Gaelic surnames which have assumed the various anglicized forms given above. The most important of these is O Maolconaire, I.e. descendant of the follower of Conaire, from which O'Mulconry and its abbreviation, Conry, naturally derive, though, as we have seen, Conroy is also used by modern descendants of this sept. However, it should be stated that in the homeland of the O Maolconaire sept, whose patrimony was the parish of Clooncraff in the neighbourhood of Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, they are usually called Conry not Conroy. The O'Mulcronrys were hereditary poets and chroniclers of the Kings of Connacht, and many such are recorded in the "Annals of Connacht", the "annals of the Four Masters" etc., the most notable of whom were Fearfasa O'Mulconry, who was himself one of the Four Masters (whose work was completed 1636), and Maurice O'Mulcrony whose copy of the "Book of Fenagh", made in 1517, is an exceptionally beautiful manuscript. Most Rev. Florence Conry (1561-1629), Archbishop of Tuam, was also of this sept. His name is so spelt in the Franciscan records, but in some other contemporary documents he appears as Conroy, and also as O'Maolconaire. this most distinguished Franciscan was associated with the foundation of the Irish College at Louvain, and wrote many important works including a theological treatise in Irish. He was chaplain in the Spanish Armada and to Hugh O'Donnell at his death. Charles O'Mulconry (son of John O'Mulconry,. who fought in the Cromwellian war and lost his estate in Co. Roscommon) was an ardent Jacobite and was killed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Another John O'Mulconry, the famous Gaelic poet and chronicler, whose family had settled at Ardkyle in Co. Clare, was of this sept. He presided over a school of poets at Ardkyle from about 1440 to 1470. Hardiman's inclusion of the Mulconrys among the Dalcassian septs is an error. Other Gaelic surnames which are anglicized Conry and Conroy in connacht are O Conraoi of Ui Maine or Hy Many, I.e. the territory known as O'Kelly's Country in east Galway and south Roscommon, and Mac Conraoi of Moycullen, called by the Four Masters Lord of Delvin of the Two Lakes (viz. Lough Corrib and Lough Lurgan - an old name for the Bay of Galway). The "Books of Survey and Distribution", and other seventeenth century records, show that MacConrys or MacConroys were there at that period. Padraic O'Conaire (1883-1928), one of the best known of all the modern writers in Irish, was a Galway man - his statue is to be seen in Eyre Square in Galway City. He spelt his name O Conaire, though this form is usually found in Munster and anglicized Connery, and is quite distinct from the Galway sept just mentioned. O'Connery is included in Smith's History of County Waterford among the principal inhabitants of the county at the end of the sixteenth century. A further explanation is the use of the surname King as a synonym for MacConraio, and even for O Conraoi and also for Mac Fhearadhaigh. This arose from the similarity in sound of these Mac names and Mac an Righ: the latter means son of the king, and so became King in English by a process of mistranslation very common in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In fact nearly all the MacConroys of Moycullen use the name King, and in the nineteenth century they called their ancestral seat of Ballymaconry Kingstown. King, of course, is a common English name, and it is also the anglicized form of the Gaelic surname O Cionga or O Cingeadh (first anglicized O'Kinga), a family which in mediaeval times were seated on the Island of Inismor in Lough Ree, and were influential in Co. Westmeath up to the end of the sixteenth century. Statistics of the modern distribution of population indicate that Conrys are found in considerable numbers in Leix and Offaly, as well as in Connacht. This might well be expected because, in addition to the septs referred to above, there was also a not unimportant sept called O Conratha, alias MacConratha, of the same stock as the MacCoughlans of Offaly. Their arms are quite different from those of O'Mulcrony.

Cuolahan or Coolahan is a surname about which there has been confusion, not only because it now does duty in English both for Mac Uallacháin and Ó Cú1acháin but also because it has been mistaken for MacCoughlan. This mistake arose because the homeland for many centuries of the sept of Mac Uatiacháin has been the parish of Lusmagh in the barony of Garrycastle, Co. Offaly, and the MacCoughlans occupied the remainder of that barony. In the case of Mac names beginning with a vowel, Mac Uallacháin, tends to become Ó Cullacháin in speech and sometimes to be so written . In the seventeenth century the MacColleghans were extensive landholders in east Galway. At the end of the century they were still in Co. Offaly - thence came Lt. Daniel Cuolaghan of James 11's army - and they are there today, though nowhere in large numbers. The O'Cuolahans are of different stock, being of the Hy Fiachrach group and located around Carra, Co. Mayo. Diarmid Ó Cú1acháin (b. 1221), professor of history and scribe of the mass-books of Knock and Aghagower, was the most distinguished member of this sept. The forms Coolihan and Coolican are modern variants.

The Irish forename Corcoran is derived from the Gaelic word Corcair, now used to denote purple but formerly meaning ruddy. The sept called MacCorcoran was of some importance in the Ely O'Carroll county: they were still people of substance in Offaly and Tipperary and Cork To-day. The O'Corcorans belonged to Fermanagh and produced a number of ecclesiastics from the eleventh to the fifteenth century whose field of activity was around Lough Erne. One of these was Bishop of Clogher in 1373. The name is rare there now: probably there was a westward migration as it is found in counties Mayo and Sligo. From the latter came Brigadier General Michael Corcoran (1827-1863), who recruited an Irish Legion in the United States in 1861. Edmund O'Corcoran, "the hero of Limerick" (I.e. the siege of 1691), was the subject of one of O'Carolan's well-known poems.

This name is O Corragain in Irish. The sept belongs primarily to Fermanagh being of the same stock as the Maguires. Corrigans - the prefix O is seldom used - are still in that part of Ulster, but the name to-day is very scattered, being found in most counties, except in Munster. This was already the case in the sixteenth century when it appears in localities as far apart as Offaly, Roscommon, Meath and Monaghan. In the 1659 census Corrigan and O'Corrigan are among the more numerous Irish names in Offaly, Longford and Fermanagh. The majority of the references to it in the Four Masters are to abbots and other ecclesiastics in Co. Fermanagh. The place called Ballycorrigan is near Nenagh in Co. Tipperary, indicating that a leading family of Corrigan was seated there not later than the middle of the seventeenth century. The Most Rev. Michael Augustine Corrigan (1839-1902), archbishop of New York, came from a Meath family, while Sir Dominic John Corrigan (1802-1880), the eminent physician, was a Dublin man. Carrigan is a variant of Corrigan.

Surnames: D, E, F | G, H | I, J, K | L, M | O, P, S

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