O'Driscoll Coat of Arms, Family Crest and O'Driscoll Family History

O'Driscoll Family History

The ancient origin of the name O'Driscoll was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The names Driscoll and O'Dricoll are derived from the Gaelic O'Drisceoil sept name, whose original form was O'hEidersceoil.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

The O'Driscolls hail from County Cork in Ireland. At first they were concentrated in south Kerry but pressure by the O'Sullivans drove them eastwards and they settled around Baltimore in southwest Cork. There they remained, though pressure by the O'Mahonys and O'Donovans further reduced the extent of their territory. In 1460 the Chief of the sept founded the Franciscan monastery there. The territorial importance of the O'Driscolls waned in the seventeenth century, but many of their leading men were prominent in the army of James II in Ireland.The O'Driscoll family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including O'Driscoll descendants.