Hi Mary-
I'm no expert on the history of the name, but I too have always assumed it
was just spelling variations of the same family name, which is derived from
Ceallachan of Cashel (Ceallachan Caisel) in the 10th Century. As I read
somewhere, the O' has been taken off and then added back in increasing
numbers during the last couple of hundred years. People have been
intentionally adding it back, so there are supposedly more O'Callahan's
than Callahans now. I think the O' just means you are "descended from"
someone named Callahan, which seems a bit obvious and redundant. If I
listen to someone carefully say the name who has a strong Irish accent, I
can see why they original translation might have heard a "g" in it. The
name, of course, is an anglicized spelling version of a Gaelic word and
that word is spelled differently by different people. In the Irish saga
about the first Callahan, Ceallachan there is also the first Cennedig. The
translator indicates that he was the first "Kennedy." Similar spelling
changes occured for Sullivan, etc. The first son of the first Ceallachan of
Cashel was McCarthy. If I remember this correctly, the second son was
Ceallachan who is the branch the Callahans come from. Go back a thousand
years and the McCarthys and Callahans are related.
There are probably Gaelic speaking Irish name experts who know a lot more
about this than I do.
-Kevin L. Callahan
Minnesota
On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 1:47 PM, Mary Palmer via <callahan(a)rootsweb.com>
wrote:
HI Kevin,
My name is Mary Palmer nee Callahan. Can you tell me if the name Callahan
has ever been just Callahan because I have always thought that it was
derived from O` Callaghan and I have ancestors with the name O' Callaghan.
I always thought it came about because the gh is pronounced as an h sound.
and a lot of peoples names got changed when they emigrated to places like
the U.K. and U.S.A. because of this.
Mary Palmer nee Callahan, Spain.
On 7 August 2014 20:31, Kevin Callahan via <callahan(a)rootsweb.com> wrote:
> Hello-
> FYI. One of the three Callahan Castles in Ireland was at Clonmeen just
> south of the Blackwater River in County Cork, Ireland.
> It was built around 1590-1610 and was destroyed by war c. 1641. The
> cannonballs which battered the walls have been found there. The outside
> walls were approximately square in shape and were each about 250 feet
long
> and three feet thick. At the four corners were circular 2 or 3 story
towers
> with gun "loops" (V-shaped openings) to shoot out from. Inside the walls
> there was a castle "keep" which has completely disappeared. That
limestone
> was later used to make a lime kiln.
> I just located the castle ruins using Google maps to search the area
near
> the village of Clonmeen North, south of the River Blackwater. If you want
> to see a great aerial view of the remains of the castle, type in or copy
> and paste these coordinates into Google Maps 52.138562, -8.864036 The
> coordinates are for a road intersection. Just a little up and to the
right
> you will see a big square with circular tower remains for 2 of the 4
towers
> (There are partial remains of a third tower but that's not really
visible).
> There are also some black and white cows in the field just to the right.
> There are several street views of the castle ruins from the road.
> -Kevin L. Callahan
> Minnesota
>
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