A number of original Irish names have been anglicized
as Connolly. The O'Conghalaigh from Conghal,
as fierce as a wolf, were based in Connacht. The name arose as O'Coingheallaigh
in West Cork while Ulster Connolly's derive from both the O'
Conghalaigh of Fermanagh and the Monaghan Connolly's for
whom a number of separate origins are suggested as a branch of
the MacMahons. The latter Monaghan family has been the most
prominent of the Connolly's recorded as having chiefs of the
name
up to the seventeenth century and producing
among others Speaker William Conolly [sic] reputedly the richest
man in the eighteenth century Ireland and James Connolly
labour leader, socialist writer and signatory of the 1916
Proclamation of Independence.
