Lonergan Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Lonergan Family History

Lonergan Family History

The family history of the ancient name Lonergan was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The name Lonergan is of Irish origin from the Gaelic O'Longargain sept.

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.

In pre-Norman times the sept inhabited north-east Thomond, around that part of County Tipperary which lies on the east side of Lough Derg. Pressure exerted by the Anglo-Norman Butlers forced them southwards to the country around Cashel and Cahir. The Chief of the Sept resided near Cahir, but the sept was little heard from during the subsequent stormy military and political history of Ireland. Their claim to fame lies in the number of leading ecclesiastics they gave to the Church from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. No less than six of these were Archbishops or Bishops, two of Killaloe and three of Cashel, in the two homelands of the sept. The most distinguished of these was Donell O'Longargan, who was also known as O'Lonergan.The Lonergan 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 Lonergan descendants.