Drennan

In the spirit of the Drennan blog, here's some Drennan history James discovered when researching Drennan's.

(My dad found some of the info new to him and of course quite interesting, as it's about the Drennan's, one of his favorite topics.)

(O) Drennan, Skehan, Thornton

The number of synonyms of Thornton revealed by the birth registrations recorded at the beginning of the present century is remarkable. Apart from occasional instances of Tarrant, Thorn, Torrens, etc., being so used, Drennan Dreinan, Drinane, Drinan and also Meenagh and Meenaghan were interchangeable with Thornton in counties Galway and Mayo, where at the present time Thornton is fairly numerous and Drennan, etc., are not. These are translations or pseudo-translations. Drennan is O Draighneain in Irish (draighnean means a blackthorn).

It is usually accepted that the sept of O'Drennan belonged to the Siol Anmchadha group, located in the barony of Longford, Co. Galway, where it now survives as Thornton. At the end of the eighteenth century Drynan was still fairly widely used both in Galway and Mayo. The name has very early associations with Co. Westmeath: the Four Masters record the death of Gillachiarain O Draighnen at Fore in 1163 and from various sources we learn that families of O'Drennan were living in other Leinster counties, particularly Kilkenny, and also in Co. Tipperary.

The United Irishman Dr. William Drennan (1754-1820), the poet who was the first to call Ireland "the Emerald Isle," was the son of a Belfast dissenting minister. His two sons John and William were also poets. Matthew Thornton (1714-1803) was a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence.