Shanly Coat of Arms / MacShanly Family History



The prefix Mac of the name was dropped as early as the middle of the seventeenth century;

Occasionally, since that time, O has been prefixed to it, but quite erroneously, as it is truly a Mac name, Mac Seanlaoich in Irish. The sept is of Co. Leitrim, the chief being known as MacShanly of Dromod. One Donnachy MacShanly is described in 1404 as a wealthy farmer of this place - his father, Murray, being "servant of trust" to the King of Connacht. They were often at war with their more powerful neighbours the MacRannalls, and in 1473 the latter destroyed their dwellings by fire and slew several of their leading men. They remained steadfastly Catholic: one, Cormac Shanley, is among the priests enumerated in a Penal Law presentment for Co. Leitrim in 1714. Except for the Irish born Canadian poet, Charles Dawson Shanly (1811-1875), whose two brothers, Walter and Francis, were noted engineers in Canada, the name has seldom been prominent in modern times.