From MacLysaght
"MacAULIFFE.
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The name MacAuliffe is almost peculiar to Co. Cork and is scarcely found outside Munster. The MacAuliffes are a branch of the MacCarthys and their chief resided at Castle MacAuliffe near Newmarket, Co. Cork. Their territory in that part of the country is described in a grant of land to a stranger in 1612 as “ Clan Auliffe”. It should be noted however that the term Clan Auliffe normally refers to a branch of the O’Farrells of Co. Longford and has no connexion with the sept of MacAulifte. The last recognized Chief of the Name, Michael MacAuliffe, was according to Dalton a colonel in the Spanish army and died in Spain in 1720; O’Donovan however ascribes that position to a minor official at Kenmare Iii 1840. In Irish the name is Mac Amhlaoibh, i.e., son of Auliffe (a’nglice Humphrey). The same Gaelic name is also anglicized MacAuley, which is an entirely different sept (q.v. infra). The famous French physician Joseph Oliffe (1808—1869) was actually born in Cork, his ancestral name being MacAuliffe.".

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"MacAWLEY, Cauley, Magawley.
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This name is spelt in many different ways, the most usual being MacAuley, Mac­Cauley, Cawley, Macaulay, MacGawley and 1\Iagawley. There are two main Irish septs of MacAuley etc. entirely different in origin and location. One is Mac Amhalghi­aidh, 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. Westrneath and north of Offaly: in the Elizabethan Fiants this is called “ Mac­Gawley’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 MacAulifie (q.v. p. 50 supra). 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 counties 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."

                                                                    From MacLysaght

"BARRETT, MacPadine, (MacEvilly, Staunton).
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The surname Barrett came to Ireland with the Anglo-Norman invaders at the end of the twelfth century and, in due course, became hibernicized, though not to the extent that some others such as Fitzgerald and Burke did, inasmuch as Barrett is still a common name in England.
Though they came to Ireland at the same period, the ancestors of the Irish Barretts were of two quite distinct families whose names were at first different and who settled in widely separated parts of the country. The surname Barrett to-day is most numerous in Co. Cork and in the Mayo-Galway area, in fact approximately where their forefathers established themselves more than seven centuries ago. The former were Barratt (in Irish Baróid) ; the latter Barrett (in Irish Bairéid). O’Don­ovan states that both lines were Welsh ; Woulfe, who writing sixty years later usually accepts O’Donovan’s opinions, disagrees and regards Baróid as of Norman origin (from the Norman French name Baraud), and Bairéid as Anglo-Saxon.
The Munster Barretts, though numerically stronger than those of Connacht, were of less importance in the mediaeval or Gaelic period; nevertheless they were influential enough to give their name to an extensive territory, viz. Barrett’s Country, i.e. approximately the present barony of Barretts in Co. Cork. They did not, however, become entirely gaelicized like their Connacht namesakes. Those Barretts who early acquired a large part of north Mayo were lords of Tirawley and founded there a sept on the Irish model. The chief of this sept was known as Mac-Wattin—it is spelt MacVaittin by O’Donovan in his translation of the Four Masters, and it so appears in the Annals at various dates in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the sixteenth, however, the “ Composition Book of Connacht” (1585) which includes the names of many Mayo Barretts, as do the Fiants of approximately the same date, describes the then Chief of the Name as Richard Barrett, alias Mae­Padine; and it is interesting to note that the surname MacPadden is found in Mayo to-day, while MacWattin is unknown. It must also be remembered that the name MacPadine was adopted by certain families of the Stauntons, another of the Anglo-Norman invaders. Some of these again adopted as their Gaelic surname Mac an Mhileadha (anglice MacEvilly), so that confusion may easily arise, especially as there is an Ulster name MacPhaidin (MacFadden, MacFadyen, etc.), and this is also found in Gaelic Scotland.
The Munster Barretts, in spite of their somewhat dishonourable treatment by Sir John Perrott and later by John St . Leger, managed to retain the bulk of their property until 1691 when the Williamite confiscation deprived Col. John Barrett, the head of the family at that time, of,12,000 acres. This Col. Barrett had raised a regiment of infantry for King James’s army in Ireland, and subsequently was killed in the French service at the battle of Landen in 1693.
In the eighteenth century Richard Barrett (c. 1740—1810), “ the Poet of Erris “, was also a prominent United Irishman, and George Barrett (d. 1784) was a celebrated landscape painter. Rev. John Barrett (1753—1821), of Dublin University, was a noted Hebrew scholar. In the nineteenth century Michael Barrett, the Fenian, condemned for the attempt to blow up Clerkenwell prison, was executed in i868—the last public execution in England. Laurence Barrett (1838—1891), a leading American actor, was the son of an Irish emigrant, but the other Barrett family of American actors were of English extraction."

                                                                    From MacLysaght

"BARRY.
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Though not peculiar to Ireland, Barry is one of the names introduced into the country following the Anglo-Norman invasion—like Burke, Roche, Fitzgerald, etc.—which can now be regarded as essentially Irish. As early as 1179 Philip de Barn obtained extensive grants of land in Co. Cork (in the baronies of Barrymore, Orrery and Kinelea). Philip’s posterity prospered and multiplied, and the several branches of the family formed septs somewhat in the Irish fashion, the chief of which were the important Barry Mór, Barry Og, Barry Roe, while minor branches became Barry Maol (bald) and Barry Láidir (strong). The Barrys of Rathcorinac, Co. Cork, adopted the surname MacAdam, taken from one Adam Barry—Adam being a common Christian name in Anglo-Norman families. The baronies of l3arrymore and Barryroe were so named from the two most important of these septs. The former is very large and the latter very small, due to the fact that by Elizabethan times when the boundaries of the baronies became stabilized, the area of the Barryroe lordship had been very much reduced.
The name, since the twelfth century, has always been principally associated with Co. Cork, and modern statistics indicate that quite fifty per cent of the Barrys in Ireland belong to that county, the majority of the remainder being also from the province of Munster. In this connexion it should be stated that there is a Gaelic sur­name 0 Beargha belonging to a sept which, at one time, were lords of a territory in the barony of Kenny, Co. Limerick. Except in cases where a pedigree is preserved, or a family tradition exists, it is not possible to be certain of the origin of the Barrys in Co. Limerick and north Cork, but it is probable that even there many, if not most A them, are of Norman stock—though, of course, continued intermarriage with their Gaelic neighbours has made them indistinguishable from the older race.
One of the leading descendants of Philip de Barn became Baron Barry in 1490, and his family was advanced in the peerage as Viscount Buttevant in 1535 and Earl of Barrymore in 1627. The Four Masters record that in 1507, Barry Roe, ac­companied by the chief men of his people, went from Cork on a pilgrimage to Spain and that all were lost at sea on the return journey.
Among the many distinguished Irishmen of the name are two soldiers of the 1641 war: David Barry, Earl of Barrymore (1605—1642), and Gerald Barry who was also an author of note; the former was killed in that w r and the latter outlawed and exiled to Spain. There was a Capt. Barry in the Irish Brigade in France who would have been arrested for his anti-revolutionary sympathies at the time of the French Revolution but for the fact that the letter he had written, expressing these views, was in the Irish language and there was no one among his captors who could translate it. Kevin Barry (1902—1920) may also be included in this category for he was an active member of the I.R.A. in the Irish War of Independence and was hanged for his part in it.
In the field of literature “ Lo” (probably James) Barry (b. c. 1591) is regarded as the first Irish dramatist; John Mimer Barry (1768—1822), Sir Samuel Barry (1696—1776) and Sir David Barry (1780—1835), all physicians, wrote widely on medical subjects ; while James Greene Barry (1841—1931) did valuable work as a historian in his native Co. Limerick. In art James Barry (1741—1806) was a celebrated painter, and Sir Charles Barry (1795—1860) was the architect of the London Houses of Parliament. Spranger Barry (1719—1777), himself a fine actor, built theatres in Dublin and Cork. The most renowned of all Irish Barrys did not, like most of the foregoing, come from Co. Cork: he was John Barry (1745—1803), who was born in Co. Wexford and is known as the “ father of the American navy “. He is one of the few individuals who have been commemorated by the issue of an Irish postage stamp. Another who made a name in America was also born far from Co. Cork— Belfast-born Patrick Barry (1816—1890), leading horticultural authority in the U.S.A.
Gerald de Barn, or Barry (c. 1145—c. 1220), better known as Giraldus Cambrensis, though famous for his commentary on twelfth century Ireland, was, of course, him­self Welsh not Irish."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"O’BEIRNE.
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Though the pronunciation of this name is very similar to O’Byrne there is no connexion between the two septs. O’Beirne belongs almost exclusively to Connacht. One branch, allied to the MacDermots and the other leading Roscommon families, in the thirteenth century displaced the O’Monahans as chiefs of a territory called Tir Briuin na Sinna between Elphin and Jamestown on the Co. Roscommon side of the Shannon, and they appear as such in the “Composition Book of Connacht” (1585) ; and in 1850 there was still an O’Beirne of Dangan-I-Beirn in that territory. The other branch possessed territory in the adjoining county of Mayo, north of Ballinrobe. At the present time O’Beirnes are chiefly found in Counties Roscommon and Leitrim.
While no O’Beirne has left a lasting mark on the history of Ireland several dis­tinguished themselves in the service of France in the eighteenth century. The sept has produced one or two interesting characters who may be mentioned here. Thomas Lewis O’Beirne (1748—1823), though reared a Catholic (his brother was a Parish Priest in Co. l\leath), became Protestant Bishop of Meath in 1789; and Henry 0, Beirne (b. 1851), an Irish emigrant, was well known in America on account of his writings about the Texas Indians, among whom he settled permanently."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"BLAKE, Caddell, (Blowick).
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The Blakes are one of the “Tribes of Galway “. They descend from Richard Caddeli, also called Blake, who was Sheriff of Connacht in 1303. It was not until the seventeenth century that the name Blake finally supplanted Caddeil: for three hundred years they appear in the records of the city as “ Caddell alias Blake” or “Blake alias Caddell “, Blake being originally an epithet—le blac, i.e. black. The name, of course, is also well-known in England.* Apart from their activities in the city government and in the ecclesiastical wardenship of Galway, the most distinguished member of this family was Sir Richard Blake who was chairman or speaker of the Assembly of Confederate Catholics at Kilkenny in 1647, Francis Blake being also on the Supreme Council. William Rufus Blake (1805—1863), the popular American actor, was of Galway parentage. The man who killed Red Hugh O’Donnell by poison is said to have been one James Blake. William Hume Blake (1809—1870), an emigrant from Ireland, became the head of the Canadian judiciary and his son, Edward Blake (1833—1912), was a leading statesman in Canada. Martin Joseph Blake (1853—1931) should also be mentioned on account of his extensive genealogical researches, partly published in Blake Family Records.
The Blakes were among the most extensive landowners in Connacht in the six­teenth century and this was equally true in the nineteenth their principal estates were at Ardfry, Balglunin, Kiltullagh, Menlo and Renvyle, all in Co. Galway.
A branch of the Galway Blakes settled in Co. Kildare where they gave their name to Blakestown in that county. It should be added that there are sonie scattered families of Blake in the west of Ireland who are of Gaelic origin, for 0 Blathmhaic, anglice Blowick, is known to have become Blake in certain places in Co. Mayo, being an example of the un­fortunate tendency of rare Irish surnames to become merged in common ones of a somewhat similar sound.

*It has been stated that William Blake (1757-1827), the English poet, was in fact the son of an Irish emigrant called O’Neill. This statement has not so far bc-en definitely proved it can be neither accepted nor dismissed without further research."

                                                                      From MacLysaght
"BODKIN.
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This un-Irish sounding name is intimately connected with Galway, the Bodkins being one of the fourteen “Tribes” of that city. They are, in fact, an offshoot of the Fitzgeralds, being descended from Maurice Fitzgerald, the ancestor of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare. Richard, Maurice’s grandson, acquired extensive lands in east Galway in 1242. The name Bodkin is said to have originated from an incident in the career of Richard’s son, Thomas Fitzgerald—the tradition being that in the course of a famous single combat he gained the victory by means of using a short spear called a baudekin, whence the expression buaidh baudekin, from which the surname was formed. Be that as it may, there is no doubt as to the authenticity of their descent from the Fitzgeralds.
It was in the fourteenth century that the Bodkins, then called Boudakyn and later Bodekin, established themselves in the city of Galway, and from that time until the Cromwellian upheaval and the subniergence of prominent Catholic families, they were one of the more important of the “Tribes “. There were several mediaeval bishops of the name and a number of officers in King James II’s army in Ireland. Walter and Dominick Bodkin were members of the Supreme Council of the Con­federation of Kilkenny in 1647. One of them at the siege of Galway in 1652 refused to sign the articles of surrender. Forty years later Col. John Bodkin was a prominent Jacobite leader. Francis Bodkin was a notorious pirate captain: in 1673 his crew were captured but he escaped."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"O’BOLAND, Bolan.
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The older form of this name---—O’Bolan—is almost obsolete, though it is oc­casionally found without the prefix 0. The usual modern form—Boland—--never has the 0, though entitled to it, the Gaelic original being 0 Beolláin. The addition of the D at the end of the name is an anglicized affectation comparable to changing
-ahan into -ham, as in the case of Markham for Markahan. This final D does not once appear in the Elizabethan Fiants though the name in four different forms occurs nine times in those records, principally in Co. Sligo.
There are at least two distinct septs of the name, one of the Ui Fiachrach line, seated at Doonaltan, (barony of Tireragh, Co. Sligo) ; the other being Dalcassian, of Thomond. The former may be distinct from that of Drumchiff, also in Co. Sligo, where O’Bolans were erenaghs of the church of St. Columban. The Thomond sept is des­cended from Mahon, brother of Brian Boru : for this we have the authority of An Leabhar Muimhneach,” but MacFirbis traces them to another Mahon, less closely related to the great Brian. Present day representatives of these septs are chiefly found in north Cominacht and in east Glare where the picturesque fishing village of Mountshannon on Lough Derg perpetuates the homeland of the sept in its Gaelic name Baile ui Beoláin (or Bailybolan). In the seventeenth century it was also numer­ous in Offaly. References to the name 0 Beolláin occur occasionally in the Annals in early mediaeval times, but since the Anglo-Norman invasion they have not been prominent in the political or cultural history of the country. To-day Boland is a house­hold word in the milling industry of Dublin, and is also prominent in the person of Frederick Boland, formerly Ambassador to Great Britain and later Ireland’s permanent representative in the United Nations Organization."

                                                                     From MacLysaght
"O’BOYLAN, Boyland.
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The O’Boylan sept of Oriel, which sprang originally from time same stock as the O’Flanagans of Fermanagh, were in early mediaeval times located in a widespread territory stretching from Fermanagh to Louthm. Later they were reduced by the MacMahons, but still retained the greater part of the barony of Dartry in Co. Mon­aghan. O’Dugan in his fourteenth century “Topographical Poem” praises them for their horsemanship and comments on their blue eyes, calling them “the bold Kings of Dartry “. They are still more numerous mu the Monaghan-Cavan-Meath arca than elsewhere. In Irish the name is U Baoighealláin which is etymologicallv akin to U Baoighihh, anglice Boyle (q.v. infra). The prefix 0 is seldom if ever used with Boylan in modern times, but the alternative form Boyhand is sometimes found. The name does not appear prominently in Irish political or military history. Teresa Boylan (b. i868) was a poetess of some note. At the present day Monsignor Patrick Boylan, the distinguished Hebrew scholar and orientalist, was recently President of the Royal Irish Academy."

                                                                     From MacLysaght
"O’BOYLE.
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Boyle is 0 Baoighill in modern Irish, time derivation of which is possibly from the old Irish word baigell, i.e. having profitable pledges : modern scholars reject the derivation baoitlt-gea!i. It is thus of course a true native Irish surname and the O’]3oyles were a strong sept in Co. Donegal with a regularly initiated chieftain seated at Cloghineely: they shared with the O’Donnells and the O’Doughertys the leadership of the north-west. Ballyweel, near Donegal town, is a phonetic render­ing of Baile ui Bhaoighihl (i.e. the home of the O’Boyles). These O’Boyles were noted for their ruddy complexion. Nevertheless the best-known Boyles connected with Ireland were men of English race. When Richard Boyle landed in Ireland in 1588 as a young man without influence few could have anticipated that lie would become what has been termed the “ first colonial millionaire “. He acquired the extensive property of the executed Sir Walter Raleigh in Co. Waterford. This formed the nucleus of the vast estates lie was to bequeath to his numerous family on his death in 1643, by which time lie was Earl of Cork and had held high government office. ‘flue best known of his sons (born in Ireland) were Roger Boyle (1621—1679) Earl f Orrery, and Robert Boyle (1627—1691), chemist and experimental physicist. It is worthy of note that of 15 Boyles in the Dictionary of National Biography 14 belong to this Anglo-Irish family. Some Gaelic-Irish Boyles or O’Boyles have also distinguished themselves, notably William Boyle (1853—1922) Abbey Theatre dramatist, John Boyle (d. 1832) time well-known wit, and Richard Boyle (1822—1908) the railway engineer whose heroism during the Indian Mutiny won renown. The nanie is common (being included in the fifty most numerous in Ireland), particularly in the Ulster counties of Donegal, Tyrone and Armagh (it takes third place in the first named). It is only in comparatively recent times that the discarded prefix 0 has been at all widely restored."

                                                                     From MacLysaght
"MACBRADY.
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In Irish the name Brady is Mac Bradaigh so that it should correctly be MacBrady in the anglicized form ; the prefix Mac, however, has seldom if ever been used in modern times. The MacBradys were a powerful sept belonging to Breffny, their chief holding sway over a territory lying a few miles east of Cavan town. The Four Masters record many illustrious chiefs of the name there. The historian Abbé Mac­Geoghegan says that the MacBradys are a branch of the O’Carrolls of Calry, Co. Leitrim, a statement which has been often repeated, but modern authorities have refuted this. In any case they have always been pre-eminently associated with Co. Cavan; and it is in Co. Cavan and adjacent areas that the Bradys are mostly found to-day. They are indeed very numerous in Ireland with an estimated population of nearly io,ooo persons so called.

A number of families of Brady are also to be found in the district around the village of Tuamgraney, Co. Clarc. These are in fact not truly Bradys at all but O’Gradys, of the same family as O’Grady of Kilballyowen, Co. Limerick: from the time of Henry VIII onwards these O’Gradys identified themselves with the English cause for that reason, perhaps, they adopted the form Brady instead of Grady. The first Protestant Bishop of Meath, for example, was Hugh Brady, a Clareman, son of Donough O’Gradv. The Limerick branch, on the other hand, having been Brady for a generation or two, reverted to the correct form O’Grady.

All the Bradys who have distinguished themselves in the cultural and political history of Ireland were from Co. Cavan. The most notable of these are Fiachra MacBrady (fi. 1710) and Rev. Philip MacBrady (d. 1719), both Gaelic poets, the latter of whom became a Protestant clergyman and was very popular with the people of Co. Cavan, perhaps because he satirized his colleagues. In this category we may also place Phelim Brady (fl. 1710), usually referred to as "bold Phehim Brady the bard of Armagh". Thomas Brady (1752—1827), a farmer’s son from Cootehill, Co. Cavan, became a Field Marshal in the Austrian service; another who was prominent in military service outside Ireland was Michael Brady : he was executed for his part in the service of the “ Young Pretender " in 1745. In the ecclesiastical sphere Gilbert MacBrady was Bishop of Ardagh from 1396 to 1400; and three MacBradys were bishops of Kilmore in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: in i58o John MacBrady was succeeded in the same see by Richard Brady a distinguished Franciscan. Andrew Macbrady in 1454 was the first bishop of Kilmore to provide a cathedral church for the diocese. Hugh Brady, Protestant Bishop of Meath, has already been mentioned. Apart from the Gaelic poets the most important literary man of the name was William Maziere Brady (1825—1894), author of Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland and Ireland."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"O’FLANAGAN.
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This surname is practically the same in both its Irish and anglicized forms, being in the former O’Flannagáin, 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 sixty-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 spring from one Flanagan, who was of the same stock as the royal O’Connors and whose line held the hereditary post of steward to the Kings of Connacht. These, who were seated between Mantua and Elphin, represent the main Q’Flanagan sept. There were also minor septs of the same name in other parts of the country which were still re­presented iii 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 those areas.

Donough O’Flanagan (d. 1308), Bishop of Elpliin, 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—I8I8) was a leading figure in the early Gaelic revival movement."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"O’FLANNERY.
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The name O’Flannery—or rather Flannery for the prefix "O" has been almost entirely discarded—is identified with two different areas. One sept of O'Flannabhra was of the Ui Fiachrach, located at Killala, Co. Mayo; the other, of the Ui Fidh­gheinte, was one of the principal families of the barony of Connelloe, Co. Limerick. It is approximately in these districts that the Flannerys of the present day are to be found, though they may be said now to belong to North Tipperary rather than to Co. Limerick.

John O’Flannery was Bishop of Derry from 1401—1415; Thomas Flannery (1840 —1916), also of the north Connacht sept, was a pioneer in the Gaelic revival movement. The Rev. (Dean) William Flannery (1830—1902), known as a Canadian poet and author, was born in Co. Tipperary and also died there."

                                                                    From MacLysaght
"O’FLYNN, O’Lynn.
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The surname O’Flynn is derived from the Gaelic personal name Flann; the adjective flann denotes a dull red colour and means ruddy when applied to persons. O’Floinn is the form of the surname in Irish. It is one of those which arose independently in several parts of the country and, as might be expected, is widely distributed. It ranks forty-first in the list of most numerous surnames in Ireland with an estimated total of thirteen thousand persons. These are found chiefly in two main areas—Cork amid Waterford in the south, and on the borders of Connacht and Ulster in the adjacent counties of Roscommon, Leitrim and Cavan. Two of the O’Flynn septs originated in Co. Cork. Of these O’Flynn of Ardagh Castle (between Skibbereen and Baltimore) was a branch of the Corca Laidhe; and the O’Flynns of Muskerry were lords of Muskerrylinn (Muscraidhe Ui Fhloinn), i.e. the country between Ballyvourney and Blarney. They were pushed thence by the MacCarthys and moved to a more easterly location. The most important of the Connacht septs of the name was O’Flynn of Kiltullagh and Kilkeevin, in Co. Roscommon. In the same county O’Flynns were erenaghs of the Church of St. Dachonna near Boyle. The head of this family had the peculiar privilege of mounting the same steed as the royal O’Connor. Further west at Errew on the shore of Lough Conn was another erenagh family of O’Flynn. Another sept of O’Floinn was at one time famous in Ulster. They possessed a territory in southern Antrim between Lough Neagh and the sea and were the senior branch of Clanna Rury of Ulidia, tracing their descent back to Colla Uais, King of Ireland in the fourth century. The F of O’Floinn was aspirated in modern Ulster Irish, with the result that the name became O’Loinn and the anglicized form O’Lynn in the north.

Numerous though they are and were, few O’Flynns have found a place in the pages of Irish history. Fiacha O’Flynn (also called MacFlynn), Archbishop of Tuam, was the emissary of the Irish Church to England in 1255. Among the Irish in France, however, they have been prominent both as ecclesiastics and as officers of the Irish Brigade. In modern times Rev. Jeremiah O’Flynn (1788—1831) was a Franciscan friar whose interesting and stormy career relates chiefly to the early church in Australia and later in the U.S.A. Edmund James Flynn (b. 1847) was Premier of Quebec and William James Flynn (1867—1928) was a famous American detective.
Of the O’Lynns the most noteworthy was Father Donough O’Lynn, O.P., who was martyred in i6o8 at the age of 90. “Father O’Flynn” of the ever popular song, was a fictitious character. The northern form of the name is also popularized in a well known Irish song. “Brian O ‘Lynn.”"
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