Rooney Coat of Arms / O'Rooney Family History

In modern Ireland this name is seldom if ever found with the prefix O to which it is entitled, since it is O Ruanaidh in Irish. The O'Rooneys were a sept of Dromore (Co. Down) and to-day they are principally to be found in Ulster and the neighbouring county of Leitrim. Several notable ecclesiastics of the name appear in the history of the diocese of Dromore; Felix O'Rooney, Archbishop of Tuam, was a famous character who fell foul of the ruling O'Connors in Connacht, but in spite of imprisonment by them lived on till 1238, having resigned the episcopate and become a monk. The O'Rooneys were a literary family: Ceallach O'Rooney (d. 1079), was called chief poet of Ireland and Eoin O'Rooney (d. 1376) was chief poet to MacGuinness of Iveagh. This tradition was maintained by John Jerome Rooney (b. 1866), the Irish-American Catholic poet, and by the better-known William Rooney (1873-1901), poet and Gaelic revivalist. There is a place called Rooney's Island in Co. Donegal.