Irish Family Names S-T
O'SHAUGHNESSY
NAME ON MAP: O'SEACHNASAIGH MODERN COUNTY: Galway MEANING: `descendant of Seachnasach'. (The name possibly derived from seachnach `elusive'.) He was a descendant of King Daithi, the last pagan king of Ireland.
O'SHALLEY, SHELLY
NAME ON MAP: O'SEALBHAIGH MODERN COUNTY: Cork MEANING: from sealbhach `having possessions'. The sept boasted five Bishops of Cork and one of Waterford in the early middle ages.
MacSHARRY, MacSHERRY
NAME ON MAP: MacSEIRIDH (in Armagh), MACSEFFRAIGH (in Cork) MODERN IRISH NAME: Mac or O'Searraigh MODERN COUNTIES: Armagh, Cork MEANING: the modern name appears to derive from searrach `foal', but most modern MacSha(e)rrys descend from the O'Seiridh or MacSeiridh sept in ancient Oriel (south-east Ulster); this is the name shown on the map. Giolla Pádraig Mac Seiridh was King of Dal Buinne in 1130. The Cork name means `son of Geoffrey' (as does the unrelated name MacShera). He was of the Hodnet Anglo-Norman family. (Hodnet in Shropshire meant `pleasant valley' in WELSH.) See the entries for Courtmacsherry and O'Foley.
O'SHEA, O'SHEE
NAME ON MAP: O'SÉAGHDHA MODERN COUNTY: Kerry MEANING: `descendant of Séaghdha'. (The name meant `fine, fortunate'.)
O'SULLIVAN
NAME ON MAP: O'SUILEABHAIN MODERN COUNTIES: Kerry, Cork MEANING: `descendant of Súileabhán'. (The name probably derived from súil `eye', dubh `black' and the diminutive suffix án.) The sept claimed descent from the legendary Eoghan (Owen) Mór, father of King Olioll Olum of Munster. The sept was forced west from Tipperary to Cork before 1300, becoming prominent by this date and very powerful after 1400.
MacSWEENEY
NAME ON MAP: MacSUIBHNE MODERN COUNTY: Donegal MEANING: `son of Suibhne'. (The name meant `pleasant'.) The Annals of 1267 record a Murrough MacSweeney who was the grandson of Suibhne O'Neill, a chieftain in Argyle, Scotland. He had been the first of the galloglasses to be brought across to Ireland. His descendants naturalized and three septs were established in Donegal by the 14th century, moving south to Cork after 1500. See the entry for MacDonnell.
O'TOOLE
NAME ON MAP: O'TUATHAIL MODERN COUNTY: Wicklow MEANING: `descendant of Tuathal'. (The name contained elements meaning `tribe' and `rule'.) In 1171 Lorcán O'Tuathail (Laurence O'Toole), Archbishop of Dublin, strongly resisted the Anglo-Norman invaders; indeed his sept was particularly successful in its opposition, aided in large part by the mountain terrain which it inhabited.
TYRELL
NAME ON MAP: TIRELL MODERN IRISH NAME: Tirial MODERN COUNTY: Westmeath MEANING: an Anglo-Norman name which possibly meant `stubborn', deriving from OLD FRENCH tirel `one that pulls against the reins'. The family settled in Ireland soon after 1170. Hugh Tirrell was Seneschal of Ulster in 1224.