MacBreen / O’Breen
At the present time the Breens are distributed widely throughout Ireland. They
are always called simply Breen though originally they were both MacBreens and
O'Breens. The former, MacBraoin in Irish, were an Ossory sept seated near
Knocktopher in Co. Kilkenny; but after the Anglo-Norman invasion they were
dispersed by the Walshes and sank in importance. Though in 1659 they were noted
as still numerous in Ossory - the prefix Mac had even then been dropped - Co.
Wexford, adjacent to Co. Kilkenny, is the area in which the name Breen is now
chiefly found, and it is reasonable to assume that these are MacBreens. The most
important O'Breen (O Braion) sept in mediaeval times was that possessed of
territory in Counties Westmeath and Offaly near Athlone. Their chief was Lord of
Brawney. As late as 1421 O'Breen of Brawney is mentioned in a contemporary
document with O'Conor and MacMorogh as a great chieftain of the Irish nation.
The name Breen is seldom met with in that area to-day., but it is said to be now
disguised there under the alias O'Brien. The infamous Jemmy O'Brien of 1798
notoriety was an O'Breen , not an O'Brien of Thomond. It is also a fact that a
comparable corruption occurred in the case of the O'Breens of north connacht who
in course of time became Bruen in Co. Roscommon, a name fairly common there now
(which Breen is not), and Browne in Mayo. William Browne (1777-1857), of Foxford,
famous Argentine admiral, was possibly of the Connacht O'Breens (see Browne).
Finally the name has been common in Co.. Kerry, at least since the seventeenth
century. Henry H. Breen (1805-1882), the poet, was a Kerryman. Francis Breen,
the 1798 rebel, was from Co. Wexford. The Brawney sept is represented in history
by Tighearnach O Braoin, the annalist, who died at Clonmacnois, where he was
Abbot, in 1088, and by Donal O'Breen, Bishop of Clonmacnois from 1303 to 1324.
Elizabeth Breen was one of the Irish nuns arrested in France in 1793 during the
Terror. Patrick Breen (d. 1808), whose diary of the Donner exploration party is
remarkable for its stark realism, was born in Ireland. The best known modern
bearer of the name was Dan Breen, one of the most prominent fighters on the
Irish side during the War of Independence 1916-1921.
(source:
http://www.goireland.com/genealogy/)
|