In this article, we look at Irish Surnames – their origins and evolution. See if you can find the Irish surnames in your family tree in one of the sections below.

Have You Heard of The Irish Patriot called Michael Collins?

Last week, we spoke about the “Start of an Irish Spring” – how the ancient Celtic festival of “Imbolc”/Saint Brigid’s day celebrates the start of spring here in Ireland. For the the rest of this letter we’ll have a look at one ancient Irish tribe that gave us a number of Irish surnames – and…

An Irish Placename Travels Abroad to the City of Baltimore.

If you were to pull out a map of your area this moment and have a look, how many places would you spot named after Irish villages, towns and counties? As you may have noticed, anywhere that the Irish – and other nationalities settled in numbers – they also brought along the names of their…

Saint Nicholas of Kilkenny

Do you remember being a child in the run up to Christmas? For most of us it was a wondrous time – and maybe you are still lucky to see that wonder in the eyes of your own children or grandchildren? In our house, among the very many preparations for Christmas, there was a focus…

Irish Hounds and Irish Surnames

When we look at Irish surnames today, it’s easy to get confused when we see names that appear to have several different spellings, some look very English or Scottish – how could they be Irish you ask – while other names appear to randomly have an “O” or “Mac” in front of them. Before We…