(O) Callaghan
Callaghan Sept Arms
In direct line from Ceallachan, King of Munster from 935
until his death in 954, comes the widespread family of O
Callaghan. Ceallachan was also Chief of the Eoghanact tribe
which included the most powerful families in Munster,
including the MacCarthys. Ceallachan became a folk hero and
is the ancestor of many of the families which are still in the
County Cork area. Even further back than Ceallachan's time,
there is a manuscript in Dublin's Genealogical Office showing
the tree of posterity of Milo, circa 1400 bc, which includes
the progenitors of the O Callaghans and continues up to AD
1614! There is also a manuscript that records a pedigree of
the O Callaghan chiefs and their vast territories, from 900 up
to 1933. They were settled in County Cork until about 1670
when, as with so many Gaelic families, they were driven to
Connacht.
Genealogists believe the name Ceallachan is derived from
the word strife. This is certainly appropriate for King
Ceallachan who, in the heat of his youth led his warriors to
ravage counties Meath, Kilkenny and Waterford, not even
hesitating before plundering the monastic settlement at
Clonmacnoise. He it was who defeated Cinneide, father of
the great Brian Boru, who was to drive the Norsemen from
Ireland and give his name to the O Briens.
From the seventeenth century when the family dispersed,
two distinct lines emerge. One fled to Spain and have long
since become Spanish citizens, while the other lived for
centuries at Lismehane, their mansion near the village of O
Callaghan's Mills in County Clare. It was through
intermarriage with related Westropps that they consolidated
their properties and acquired the additional surname.
Don Juan O Callaghan (b. 1934), the O Callaghan Chief of the
Name, is a lawyer in Barcelona, Spain. Don Juan is in the
direct line from Ceallachan who was the 42nd Christian King
of Munster.
In 1641, just before Cromwell's army forced many of the
Gaelic landowners to flee abroad, Colonel Donogh O
Callaghan was a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish
Confederation of Kilkenny. Following the rebellion of that
year, he lost his property, and was outlawed. Another
member of his family had preceded him abroad, this was the
Abbe John O Callaghan (1605 - 54), a notorious Jansenist.
Cornelius O Callaghan (1742 - 97) of Shanbally Castle,
Clogheen, County Tipperary, was created Baron Lismore in
1785. His son was known as the 1st Viscount Lismore and
his daughter was the mother of one of the Dukes of
Devonshire, whose family owns Lismore Castle.
Father Jeremiah O Callaghan (1780 - 1861) blazed a trail
through Paris and Rome, preaching vehemently against
usury, rack-renting and capitalism. When he went to London
he was actively supported by William Cobbett, a reformer
and journalist. Eventually Jeremiah was found a congenial
clerical post in North America, where he earned the name
"Apostle of Vermont", befriending both the French Canadians
and the immigrant Irish.
Edmund Bailey O Callaghan (1797 - 1880) of Mallow, County
Cork, studied medicine in Dublin, Paris and Quebec. He
dabbled in politics in Canada, which led to his having to
escape to Albany, New York, where he settled and practised
medicine. He studied the records of the Dutch founders of
New York and wrote the first published history of the city.
There was no financial profit from this huge labour, yet with
his own money he published a second volume. He produced
eleven quarto volumes of State Records or Documentary
History of the State of New York, 1849 - 51, plus an
astonishing variety of other publications.
One of the first Roman Catholics to be admitted to the legal
profession in Ireland since the penal laws were repealed was
John Cornelius O Callaghan (1805 - 83). He was a Young
Irelander and was on the staff of the Nation newspaper. His
great work of 25 years, History of the Irish Brigades in the
Service of France from the Revolution in Great Britain under
James II, to the Revolution in France under Louis XVI was
published in Glasgow in 1869 in eight volumes. He
declaimed, "I love, not the entremets of literature, but the
strong meat and drink of sedition - I make a daily meal on
the smoked carcass of Irish history".
Sir George Astley O Callaghan (1852 - 1920), a London-born
O Callaghan who was the son of an army captain, was the
admiral who commanded the frigate that entered Peking in
1900 during the rising of the "Harmonious Fists", commonly
known as the Boxer rebellion.
The O Callaghan name is recorded extensively in the archives
of Spain. In Germany, James O Callaghan and his brother,
Louis, filled the post of Baron and Grand Veneur (agent) to
the Margrave of Baden-Baden. Their elder brother, John, was
a captain in O Brien's Regiment in the French army. Their
youngest brother, Cornelius (d. 1741), was a captain in the
Ultonian Regiment in Spain where he died at Oran, leaving
an O Callaghan son.
There were Callahans who fought at Bunker Hill in the
American Revolution.
Genealogists give scant recognition to women. To be
recorded they have to be an heiress, or have some special
talent (or notoriety). In America there was Trixie Friganza
Delia O Callaghan (1870 - 1955) who was an actress and
singer.
Rose Mary O Callaghan Westropp of the Lismehane branch is
mentioned in Burke's Irish Family Records as having painted
the great jockey Pat Taafe on that most loved of Irish
racehorses, Arkle.
Colonel George O Callaghan (1864 - 1944) added the
surname Westropp to comply with the will of his maternal
uncle. He was aide-de-camp to three of Britain's kings:
Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII. He was president of
the Irish Farmer's Union and a member of the first Irish
Senate. His son, Conor John O Callaghan Westropp (d. 1986),
inherited Lismehane, but demolished it and built a small
house nearby.
In the 8th Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, Dr Pat O
Callaghan of Kanturk, County Cork, won Ireland's first gold
medal as an independent nation in the 16-pound hammer
event. He subsequently practised for many years as a
medical doctor in Clonmel, County Tipperary.
A very English Callaghan of Irish origin is James Callaghan
(b. 1912), son of a chief petty officer in the navy. A member
of the British Labour Party, in 1976 he became Prime
Minister of Britain upon the unexpected retirement of Sir
Harold Wilson.
According to Dr Edward MacLysaght, a former Chief Herald of
Ireland, the Ulster O Callaghans of counties Armagh and
Monaghan are a different sept from those who sprang from
King Ceallachan. He suggests their name was probably
originally O Kelaghan or Kealahan.
The O Callaghans are obviously still jealous of their ancient
lineage to judge from the clarification which appeared in an
Irish newspaper in 1978: "Aubrey W. O Callaghan has not
announced his engagement. The announcement by Aubrey E.
O Callaghan is that of his grandfather".
An entirely separate family, that of O'Ceileachain, is found in
the ancient territory of Oriel (Armagh, Louth and Monaghan).
They are found using the family names of Callaghan and
Kelaghan. The Kelaghan spelling of the name is mostly found
in Westmeath.
Heraldry
The sept arms of O'Callaghan are
Argent in base a mount vert, on the dexter side a hurts of
oak trees, therefrom issuant a wolf passant towards the
sinister all proper.
Several (O) Callaghan's have borne these, or similar, arms,
some with the addition of a crest and motto.
I can find no record of a coat of arms belonging to the
Kelaghan / Callaghan sept of Oriel.