O'Scanlan Family History / Scanlon / O'Scannell Coat of Arms



There are at least two quite distinct septs whose descendants are now known as Scanlan. One is O Scannlain of Munster and the other Mac Scannlain of Oriel (Louth), neither of which has retained the prefix O or Mac in modern times. The latter are perpetuated in the place name Ballymascanlon near Dundalk. The widespread distribution of the O'Scanlans is indicated by the fact that there are six Ballyscanlans in Ireland as well as a Scanlansland and a Scanlan's Island. Two of these are in Co. Clare and one in Mayo, which lends colour to the statement that there was also a north Connacht sept of O'Scanlan. Further evidence in support of this is supplied by the records of the Registrar-General, which show that after the Kerry-Limerick-Cork area most Scanlan births are reported from Clare and Sligo. In this connexion the returns of the 1659 census are interesting: in that year the majority of people called O'Scanlan and O'Scannell were located in those very areas. At that time it would appear that O'Scannell was often used as a synonym of O'Scanlon even in Munster. The "Composition Book of Connacht" (1585) uses the form Scanlan in its survey of Co. Sligo. The MacScanlans appear to have almost died out as hardly any Scanlan births were reported from the provinces of Leinster and Ulster. The Scanlans belonging to Co. Sligo and Co. Donegal are really O'Scannells - an instance of a common name absorbing a rarer one - for example Most Rev. Patrick O'Scanlan, Bishop of Raphoe (afterwards Archbishop of Armagh 1262-1272), was also called O'Scannell. A Tipperary-born Bishop of modern times Dr. Lawrence Scanlan (1843-1915), Bishop of Slat Lake City, is remembered in America on account of his amicable relations with the Mormons of that place. In Ireland the name is chiefly associated with a most tragic event, the Scanlan murder in Co. Limerick in 1819, which was the theme of several novels and plays, the best known of which is The Colleen Bawn. There were three Irish-American authors of note, viz John F. Scanlan (b. 1839), Co. Limerick Fenian and poet, his better-known brother Michael Scanlan (b. 1836, Co. Limerick), author of Jackets Green, The Fenian Men etc; and William J. Scanlan (1855-1898), actor, singer and song writer. Rt. Rev. Mgr. James Donald Scanlan (b. 1899) was Bishop of Dunkeld and Vicar Delegate to the U.S. Forces in Britain.