Lenehan surname history

Lenehan or Linehan is the anglicised version of the Irish O Leanachain, possibly from leanach, meaning "sorrowful". It appears to have arisen separately in two localities, in Co. Roscommon in the west, and in the south in the Limerick/Tipperary region. Bearers of the surname are found in both areas today, but it is most common in the south.

Although born in Waterford, Maurice Lenihan (1811-1895) is closely associated with his adopted city of Limerick. A campaigning nationalist journalist, he was editor and proprietor of the Limerick Reporter for more than 40 yearsand is now best remembered as the author of Limerick: Its History and Antiquities (1860).

The most prominent contemporaries of the name are Brian Lenihan (1924-1992) and his younger sister Mrs Mary O'Rourke, of the Roscommon family, who both served in a variety of ministerial positions in the Irish government from the 1970s through to the 1990s.