O'Donoghue surname history

(O')Donoghue, with its variants Donohue, Donahoe, Donohoe, etc. comes from the Irish O Donnchadha, which derives from the popular personal name Donncha, from donn, meaning "brown". The surname would thus mean literally "descendant of the brown-haired (or brown-complexioned) man". The popularity of the personal name meant that the surname arose independently in a number of places, including Galway/Roscommon, Cork, Tipperary and Cavan. It is especially numerous in Co. Tipperary and in south-west Co. Cork. Generally, the anglicised versions vary only slightly, with "Donohoe" more common in Galway and Cavan; one exception is in Co. Kilkenny, where the name was anglicised as "Dunphy".

Historically speaking, the most important of these families were the O'Donoghue of Desmond, or south Munster. These were part of the Eoghanacht peoples, dominant throughout the south of the country until the rise of the Dal gCais under Brian Boru, and shared their ancestry with the O'Mahonys. Like the O'Mahonys, the Desmond O'Donoghues saw their power greatly diminished by the steady rise of the MacCarthys. By the fourteenth century, they had been completely displaced from their original homeland in west Cork, and settled in south-west Kerry. Here they split into two major groupings, the O'Donoghue Mor, based around Lough Leine near Killarney, and O'Donoghue of the Glen, based in Glenflesk.

O'Donoghue Mor shared the fate of the majority of the old Gaelic aristocracy, dispossession and poverty. Their property, centred around Ross Castle, was confiscated under Elizabeth I, and was eventually granted to Sir Valentine Browne, whose family were later Earls of Kenmare and Viscounts Castlerosse.

O'Donoghue of the Glen managed to retain both the family property and the unbroken succession to the title through all the vicissitudes of the last four centuries. According to legend, the family were reputed to have given their allegiance to the fairies; on May 1st, the head of the family could supposedly be seen floating across the lakes of Killarney with his ghostly servants. The current bearer of the title O Donoghue of the Glens is Geoffrey O Donoghue, recognised as Chief of his Name by the Chief Herald of Ireland.

The arms illustrated are those of O'Donoghue of the Glens. The family motto means "Never unprepared"

Juan O'Donoju (1751-1821), the last Spanish ruler of Mexico, was descendant of an O'Donoghue emigrant to Spain; Daniel O'Donoghue of the Glens (1833-89), was a Member of Parliament for Tipperary and a prominent nationalist. John O'Donoghue (1900-1964), was a novelist who wrote movingly and simply about his experience of rural Ireland.. In the U.S., a number of bearers of the name became well known: Peter Donahue was one of the founders of San Francisco, making his fortune from the early development of the city; Patrick Donohoe was the founder and editor of the famous newspaper The Boston Pilot; the a family of Newburgh, New York produced three of the fastest ice-skaters in the world..