More Laois & Offaly Surnames

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D - F
Deevey

Well known on account of the famous Fenian John Devoy (1842-1928); the O'Devoys or O'Deeveys were one of the Seven Septs of Leix, the chief men of which were transplanted to Co. Kerry in 1607. The name has always been associated with Leix and adjoining midland counties. The Gaelic form of the name is Ó Duibh which became the well known Leix name Deevy or Devoy. This is supported by an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters (1071) where the lord of Creamhthainn (i.e. Maryborough) is called Ó Duibh.

Delany is a surname never seen today with the prefix O which probably belongs to it. It is O Dubhshlainte in Irish, Delaney being a phonetic rendering of this - the A of Delaney was formerly pronounced broad. An earlier anglicized form was O'Dulany e.g. Felix O'Dulany, Bishop of Ossory from 1178 to 1202, who built St. Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny. Dubh means black and slainte is topographical - Slaney in English. If it refers to the river Slaney it suggests that this sept originally possessed a wider territory than that usually assigned to it, namely Coilluachtarach (now Upperwoods) at the foot of Slieve Bloom near the source of the rivers Nore and Barrow in Co. Leix. At the present time the name is chiefly associated with Counties Leix and Kilkenny and in 1659, when Petty's census was made, it appears as a principal Irish name in four baronies of Queen's County (now Leix) and in five of Co. Kilkenny. It is sometimes abbreviated to Delane in Co. Mayo, and this was the form used by Dennis Delane (d. 1750), the celebrated Dublin and London actor. Dillane, however, is not a synonym of Delany, but the anglicized form of O'Duilleain, a Co. Limerick surname, sometimes disguised as Dillin. Dean Patrick Delany (1684-1768), the friend of Dean Swift, was a Leix man. His wife, the famous Mary Delany (1700-1788), was also prominent in the Swift circle. Michael Roland ("Ronny") Delaney, champion athlete who brought honours to Ireland in the 1956 Olympic Games, is a Dubliner.

Formed from the Norman place-name Ev(e)reux. d'Evereux became Devereux. Devery, Deverill and Deevey are given as synonyms used in Co. Offaly and Duvick around Mullingar. Devereux is mainly found in Co. Wexford. coming from France to England in the eleventh century , a hundred years later the chief men of the family took part in Strongbow's invasion of Ireland and became the most powerful of the Norman settlers in Co Wexford. As early as 1229 John d'Evreux obtained extensive grants of lands in the Decies (Co. Waterford). In the 15th century an Alexander Deverous, Chief Sergeant of Co. Wexford, assumed a prominent part in the government of that part of Ireland which was under the control of Henry VI of England; from then on references to leading Devereux are numerous. In 1520 Alexander Devereux was Abbot of Dunbrody and in 1589 Richard Devereux was Archdeacon of Ferns. In 1599 John Devereux was knighted by the Viceroy Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. In 1689 Col. James Devereux was M.P. for Enniscorthy. His son, Rev. Francis Devereux, was Superior of the College des Lombards in Paris; another of the branch which emigrated to France was Robert Devereux, a well known advocate of Catholic Emancipation. Though harassed by their neighbours the Kavanaghs, especially in the sixteenth century, and for the most part resisting inducements to forsake the Catholic faith, they managed to retain fairly extensive estates in Co. Wexford until relatively recent times.

It is possible that some Drews are of Gaelic-Irish origin. There was a minor Thomond sept of Ó Druadh or Ó Draw which survives (in Co. Kerry) as Drea. In the Thomond country Drew is usually of English stock: the descendants of Capt. Drew, who settled in Co. Waterford in 1598, were living in the present century at Drewscourt, Co. Limerick, and a will of 1781 puts them at Drewslodge in that county. The family of Drewsboro (at Tuamgraney, Co. Clare) are said to be of similar origin. Drought is quite distinct. In Co. Westmeath Drew and Drough are recorded as synonyms. The latter appears in the Fiants as O' Droughie as well as O'Drought and belonged primarily to Offaly and Westmeath - Ó Drochtaigh in Irish, a minor Gaelic sept of which little is known. The Annals relate that David Drew (Triu in the Gaelic original) was killed in action in Co. Sligo in 1249. Druy appeared in the Ormond Deeds in 1244 and Dru in 1302. Hugh Dru and Thomas Dru were convicted of cattle stealing in Westmeath and Kildare in 1295-7. The Annals record Drews among the "Galls" fighting in Connacht in 1249 and 1307. Another origin for Drought is suggested Droner, a Huguenot name. Another similar surname in Irish is Ó Droichid. This rare name was foundin , Co. Limerick, in 1587. Then anglicized as O'Drehitt, it has since become Bridgeman by semi-translation (droichead means a bridge). Dublin-born John Drew (1825-1862) was a leading actor in America, as was his son John Drew (1853-1927), his daughter Louisa, a noted actress, was the mother of John, Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, all famous on the American stage and screen. Of the Co. Limerick family, though living in Belfast and Dublin, were Rev. Dr. Thomas Drew, (1800-1870) the Orange leader, and his son, Sir Thomas Drew (1838-1910), the noted architect..

The most usual modern form of the name Ó Duibhginn is Deegan. Duigan and Deighan.Also found in Leix and Offaly where the name is most numerous today. It was also numerous in 1659 in Petty's "census" and a century earlier in the Fiants where it appeared as O'Doygan and O'Diggan. Petty's enumerators wrote it down as Duigen. The Deegans should be considered as belonging to the barony of Clandonagh (Co. Leix). The most remarkable of the name was that of Cloncouse, in the parish of Kyle, who were keepers of the Bell of St. Molua. Their lands, amounted to 2,000 acres, and were granted to the notorious Sir Charles Coote (Earl of Mountrath) in 1667. First coming to Ireland in the Elizabeth the 1st the Cootes settled in Co. Leix and became one of the most influential of the Anglo-Irish families. The town of Cootehill in Co. Cavan is named after them. James Robertson Duigan (1882-1951), the pioneer Australian airman, whose flight in a plane he built himself in 1910 is commemorated by a monument at Lancefield, Victoria, came of a Co. Kilkenny family.

A true Gaelic-Irish surname, which has also been anglicized Delahunt and Dulanty, is Ó Dulchaointigh in Irish. O'Dolleghenty, O'Dulleghyntie are old forms in English as well as other similar variants, under which people of the name appear often in the Ormond Deeds from 1441 onwards, as well as in the Tudor Fiants and other mediaeval and early modern Irish records. In the "Census" of 1659 the spellings are Dultaliunty and Dullchanty, the first was one of the principal names in the barony of Crannagil, Co. Kilkenny, and the second in the barony of Ballybritt, Co. Offaly. In the 1670s there were 27 families of the name included in the Hearth Money Rolls of County Tipperary, and twenty years later three officers of the name are found in a regiment of James 11's Irish army. The sept was always closely associated with that part of the country and was of the same stock as the famous O'Carrolls of Ely O'Carroll. A branch migrated to Co. Kerry in the sixteenth century but is seldom found there today, the Ely O'Carroll country is still their principal habitat. Best known of them in Ireland is probably John Whelan Dulanty, (d. 1955) who was 18 years Irish High Commissioner (later ambassador) in London. In America, as Delahunty, it recalls great feats in the game of baseball. Delahunty has taken the form Dulhunty in Australia.

In Irish Egan is MacAodhagain (from the christian name Aodh, anglice Hugh), and the surname is really MacEgan, though the prefix Mac is rarely used in modern times except by the family which claims to be head of the sept. The MacEgans were hereditary lawyers: beginning as a brehon family among the Ui Maine (Hy Many) septs, they eventually dispersed. They settled chiefly in Ormond, I.e. the wide territory comprising all or part of the counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny and Offaly, where they continued to follow their traditional calling and acted as brehons to the chiefs. The most important of these was MacEgan, chief brehon to O'Connor Faly. An early example of the form Hegan is to be seen in the signature (Owen Hegaine) of Owen Mac Egan in a letter he wrote in 1602, which is quoted in Pacata Hibernia. For pedigree and notes on MacEgan see Tribes and Customs of Hy Many. Owen Mac Egan (1570-1603), bishop-designate of Ross, was a prominent supporter of Tyrone in the Elizabethan wars and was killed in battle: other illustrious churchmen were Most Rev. Boetius Egan (1734-1798), Archbishop of Tuam, who, however, was opposed to the Rising of '98: Most Rev. Cornelius Egan (1780-1856), Bishop of Kerry, and Most Rev. Michael Egan (1761-1814), Bishop of Philadelphia. Two Pierce Egans (1772-1849 and 1814-1880), were popular novelists in their day. John Egan (1750-1810), patriot member of Parliament, was notorious also for his propensity to duelling. In our own day "the MacEgan", as he styled himself, was an artist noted for his striking portraits of contemporary Irish national leaders. When the prefixes Mac and O fell into disuse during the period of Gaelic submergence, in some places the C was retained and became K, resulting in Keegan, and this, in turn, gave rise to the corrupt Gaelic form O Caogain now often used in Connacht as the Gaelic equivalent of Keegan. The Keegans are found to-day chiefly in two areas: in Leinster - in Counties Dublin and Wicklow - and in connacht - in Counties Roscommon and Leitrim, i.e. in places fairly remote from the homeland of the MacEgan sept where the form Egan is always used. The poet John Keegan (1809-1849) , is always used. The poet John Keegan (1809-1849) was born in Co. Leix.

This surname is practically the same in both its Irish and Anglicized forms, being in the former O Flannagain, which is probably derived from the adjective flann meaning reddish or ruddy. It belongs to Connacht both by origin and location (i.e present distribution of population). Flanagan, with of course O'Flanagan, for this is one of those names with which the prefix is frequently retained, is numbered among the hundred commonest surnames in Ireland and has the sixth-ninth place on that list. The greatest number of these are found in Co. Roscommon and in the counties of the western seaboard - Mayo, Galway and Clare. They sprang from one Flanagan, who was of the same stock as the royal O'Connors and his line held the hereditary post of steward to the Kings of Connacht. These, who were seated between Mantua and Elphin, represent the main O'Flanagan sept. There were also minor septs of the same name in other parts of the country which were still represented in the seventeenth century; of Toorah in north-west Fermanagh and again of the barony of Ballybrit in Offaly. Some descendants of these are still to be found in both these areas. Donough O'Flanagan (d. 1308), Bishop of Elphin, was famous abroad as well as at home for his hospitality and devotion. Other notable Irishmen of the name were Roderick Flanagan (1828-1861), founder of the Sydney Chronicle: Thomas Flanagan (1814-1865), author of the History of the Church in England; and James Roderick Flanagan (1814-1900), voluminous author on Irish subjects. Theophilus O'Flanagan (1760-1818), was a leading figure in the early Gaelic revival movement.

Surnames: B, C | G, H | I, J, K | L, M | O, P, S

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