There is a good chance we are descended from the Brennans of Idough. Eleven hundred years ago, one of our ancestors was the King of the Vikings in Ireland.
For the next 800 years, the Brennans were the most prominent clan in northern Kilkenny, an extended family of hundreds of thousands of kinsmen who farmed, lived in the traditional Irish ways and kept a series of invaders at bay.
It took the English 500 years to wrest control of northern Kilkenny from the Brennans.
When they finally did, they declared that the Brennans had held onto the land for so long “manu forte” - by a strong hand.
Now, as we approach the 21st Century, Brennans are scattered to all over the world, descendants of those who fled the famine, penal laws and repression in their native land.
The coat of arms for the Brennan family of Kilkenny consists of ‘two lions rampant combatant, supporting a garb or a chief three swords, two in saltire points upwards and one in fess point to the lexter pommels and hilts of the second’.
The crest is ‘an arm grasping a sword all proper’, there is no motto.
History
O'Braonain, most commonly anglicized throughout history as O'Brenan, O'Brennan, Brenan and Brennan, and sometimes as O'Brenon and Brenon, is literally translated from the Irish as "(male) descendant of Braonan." Braonan is a diminutive of Braon, which has several meanings and which in this context most likely signifies sorrow. The anglicized form Brennan is by far the most common one in use today.
The surname 0 Braonain came into being in four unrelated and independent places in Ireland:
(1) the Brennans who are of Idough in northern County Kilkenny who most people bearing the name today are descended from.
(2) the Brennans of Siol Armchadha who were seated in the barony of Longford in the southeast of County Galway; they were of the same race as the 0'Maddens and were still numerous at the close of the sixteenth century
(3) the Brennans of Crevagh, County Westmeath, who were both numerous and powerful.
(4) the Brennans of Dunkerron in County Kerry who were followers of O'Sullivan More.
The anglicized forms are also sometimes derived, although incorrectly, from MacBranain, which is more properly anglicized MacBrannan and Brannan and which is found in Counties Roscommon, Sligo and Mayo. The chief of this name was chief of Corca Achlann in Roscommon.
Lastly, the anglicized form is also derived, again incorrectly, from O'Branain; prominent members of this name were erenaghs or lay lords of the church of Derry and of Derryvuhen, County Fermanagh.
The most numerous and probably the most famous family of the name is that of Idough, County Kilkenny.
The surname now a thousand years old.
Send me some details about your family or information about where you live. I am always eager to find out more about the family name so get in touch if you know any Brennan facts.
