O'Connell Family Crest, Coat of Arms & O'Connell Name Origin

Get Free Updates about Family Crests, New Information, Stories, Special Offers and more with our Occasional Newsletter Updates

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *

Last Name

Origin of the Name O'Connell

The O'Connell family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The Connells and O'Connells are a Kerry sept whose genealogy is traced back to Eremonian Aengus Tuirmeach who was High King of Ireland about 180 B.C. The powerful O'Donoghues pushed them towards the Atlantic coast in the eleventh century where they became hereditary castellans of Ballycarbery under the MacCarthy Mor Chiefs. At the time of the Cromwellian regime the head of the sept was transplanted to County Clare where a branch has remained ever since. The barony of Magunihy is still the homeland of the leading family, whose representative is Sir Morgan O'Connell. Friar John O'Connell composed the histroical poem 'Tuireadh na hÉireann'. Daniel Count O'Connell, 1743-1833, was 'the last colonel of the Irish brigade'. Perhaps the most famous of the sept was Daniel O'Connell, 1775-1847, who was known as 'The Liberator', and who spearheaded the campaign for Catholic emancipation in Ireland in 1829. His monument is to be found at the ancestral home at Derrynane in County Kerry.