Welcome To Shanahan Clan
Variants: O' Shanahan, Shannon, Shanaghan, Shannahan.
Sometimes Anglicised as Fox {Sionnach}
Irish Frequency (1911): 2,362.
Irish Locations (1911): Tipperary, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, Dublin.
Current Irish frequency: 2,477.
Current British frequency: 1,609.
Current Frequency United States of America: 8,616.
Irish Language: Ó Seanacháin {pronounced O Shanakawn}.
The surname Shanahan is a very old one indeed. The Shanahan's were a Dalcassian sept, that is to say, part of the Dál gCais tribe who were based in Thomond.
The Irish Pedigrees state that the Dalcassians are the race of Cas, the sixth in descent from Cormac Cas, son of Oilioll Olum, King of Munster in the 3rd century.
The Shanahan's were of sufficient importance enough to have their own Chief "Uí Bloid". Uí Bloid means descendants of Bloid, first son of Cas, a branch of the Dál gCais.
This clan includes the O'Kennedy, O'Shanahan, O'Durack and O'Ahern families of eastern Co. Clare.
The Shanahan's were a bardic clan - in Celtic cultures, a bard was a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. The Shanahan's were the bards to the Dál cGais/O'Brien's.
The territory held by the Shanahan Clan lay between Bodyke and Feakle in Co. Clare, where the name still survives.
In the year 1318 Uí Bloid and his followers were dispossessed by the MacNamaras, after the Battle of Dysert O'Dea, and during the 14th Century they became dispersed to all of Munster.
The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of O'Shanahan, Chief of the Clan Uí Bloid, which was dated 1318, in the "Early Irish Records Register", during the reign of King Edward 11 of England, known as "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327.
Family folklore says that the Shanahan's were banished to The Long Stone, of Baurne/Bawn in the parish of Toomevara in 1318.
In modern times Shanahan's are numerous in the County Tipperary parishes of Boherlahan-Dualla, Borrisoleigh, Carrick-On-Suir, Holycross-Ballycahill, Loughmore-Castleiney, Moycarkey-Borris, Templederry, Toomevara, Upperchurch-Drombane and many more! 50 pages in the 1901 Irish census records attest to those bearing the surname Shanahan.
The Shanahan's are also numerous in the Irish Counties of Clare, Cork, Dublin, Kerry. Kilkenny and Waterford.
Dysert O'Dea Castle - the site of the battle on the 10th of May 1318, which resulted in the loss of the Shanahan Clan lands.
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/battle_dysert_odea.htm
Shanahan Lands/Feakle/TUATH ECHTGHE: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/feakleinterest.htm
https://irishtype3dna.org/surnames.php courtesy of Dennis Wright
Muhr, Kay; Ó hAisibéil, Liam. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Ireland.
Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, Peter McClure. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland.