621 Global SHANNAHAN Family Members

SHANNAHAN Family History

This is an Anglicized form of three distinct Gaelic (Irish) surnames. The first, "O'Seanain" with the cognate "MacGiolla tSeanain", translates as "descendant of the follower of St. Senan". St. Senan was a 6th Century Irish abbot-bishop who settled on Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary. These names normally Anglicized as (Mac)Giltenan in Counties Wexford and Carlow, became Shannon in Co. Clare. A second West Clare name "O'Sionain", originally given to a worker with straw (i.e. a maker of straw baskets, straw festival garments, etc.), is rendered Shinane or Shannon in English.