How the son of immigrants from Mayo and County Down found success in America but never forgot his Irish roots. ℘℘℘ Each year when he returns to Ireland, Bill Flynn takes time to stand at the graveside of his grandparents in Loughinisland in County Down, just over the border from the Irish Republic. It is a beautiful part of Ireland, with the Mourne mountains sweeping … [Read more...] about The Early Years
Irish roots
Kennedy,
O’Kennedy, Ó Cinnéide
The Irish Kennedys are descended from Dunchaun, the brother of the mighty King Brian Born. The name comes from his father Ceann Eidig, meaning "helmet head." Appropriately, the arms of the Kennedys have three helmets.
From the 11th-15th centuries they were Lords of Ormond. The Kennedys dealt with the various conquests and confiscations better than many other Gaelic families. … [Read more...] about Kennedy,
O’Kennedy, Ó Cinnéide
Carroll, O’Carroll, MacCarroll,
MacCarvill, MacCearbhaill
The O'Carrolls go back to the third century King Oilioll Olum of Munster. Their name derives from Cearbhaill, who was the Brian Boru in 1014 at the battle of Clontarf.
Cearbhaill means warlike champion and the O'Carrolls have lived up to the name. Carvill and MacCarvill are anglicized versions of Carroll and are mostly to be found in Ulster.
The O'Carrolls' senior septs were … [Read more...] about Carroll, O’Carroll, MacCarroll,
MacCarvill, MacCearbhaill
Irish Roots:
The History of the Tobins
Tobin is not an indigenous Irish name, but the family can be regarded as having become completely hibernicized. Its Irish form, Toibín, is a gaelicized version of the Norman 'St. Aubyn.' Another interpretation is that the name was first called de St. Aubyn and the original bearers were from Aubyn, in Brittany, France.
According to the renowned Irish historian and genealogist, … [Read more...] about Irish Roots:
The History of the Tobins
Ali’s Irish Roots
While Muhammad Ali's biographer, Thomas Hauser, established some years ago that Ali's great-grandfather was Abe Grady from County Clare, the Heritage Centre in Corofin, County Clare, has now established that Grady was an Ennis man. Born in the 1840s, Grady settled in Kentucky and married an African-American woman. Their son also married an African-American woman and the … [Read more...] about Ali’s Irish Roots