Conneely Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Conneely Family History

Conneely Family History

The family history of the ancient name Conneely was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. Meaning 'valiant', variants of the name Conneely include Connolly, Conley and McConley. These two last variants of the name are found in the Oriel Counties and to a lesser extent in Munster. These names are descended from two Gaelic septs. They were O'Conghaile of Connacht and Monaghan and O'Coingheaiaigh of Munster.

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 sept associated with County Monaghan was one of the four tribes of Tara, later being forced out of their territory after the Anglo-Norman invasion. The Munster families were well established in Cork but found they were subject to the power of the O'Donovans. In modern times these names are most numerous in Counties Galway, Monaghan and Cork. The Conneely 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 Conneely descendants.