Ó Siadhail

Ó Siadhail is a Gaelic-Irish surname.

Overview

There were at least three families of this name in Gaelic Ireland.

• Ó Siadhail of Ui Maine, now east County Galway.
• Ó Siadhail of Uí Failghe, now County Offaly and County Laois.
• Ó Siadhail of Tír Chonaill, now County Donegal.

Little is recorded of the Ui Maine family. Those of Uí Failghe and Tír Chonaill were ollamhs of medicine, hereditary physicians to the ruling families in the respectives kingdoms and environs. It is not clear if the two were branches of the one family, or unrelated families who happened to bear the same surname.

Current forms

The surname is now generally anglicised as O'Shiel, Shiel, Sheil, Sheils, Sheals, Sheal and Sheilds (or Shiels and Shields), but the original form, Ó Siadhail, is used by Gaeilgeoirs.

Famous bearers

Notable people named Ó Siadhail or one of its variants include:

• Eoghan Carrach Ó Siadhail, poet, fl. c. 1500-1550.
• Séamus Ó Siaghail
• James O'Sheil
• Michael Shiell
• James Shields, 1810-1879.
• Micheal O'Siadhail, poet, born 1947.
• Brooke Shields
• Jimi Shields
• Seán Ó Siadhail
• Damien Shiels, author of The Irish in the American Civil War

External links

• http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=
• http://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/II-XIV-1.php
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~grannyapple/SHIELDS%20DNA/DNA%20Test%20Results.html

References

• Medicine and Medical Doctors, Chapter XIV, A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland, Patrick Weston Joyce, 1906.