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

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Origin of the Name O'Toole

The O'Toole family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Variants of O'Toole include Toal, O'Tohill, Tohill, Toohill, Twohill and Towell. Meaning 'Mighty People', the great Irish sept of O'Toole hails from Leinster where their tenth century King was Tuathal. They originated in Kildare, although they are mostly associated with Wicklow where they built grand castles from which they would set out to attack their neighbours and later the English. Laurance O'Toole was captured by Dermott MacMurrough who killed his grandfather, and when released found his vocation in the monastic settlement at Glendalough. In 1161 he became Archbishop of Dublin. In 1220 he was canonised and is the Patron Saint of Dublin. The variants Tohill and Toohill are found mostly in Counties Cork and Waterford. The form of the name a century ago was Toghill and this is perpetuated in the parish of Deserttogill.