Gallagher

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic Gaelic Irish: a Donegal family of the Cenél Conaill, the kindred that ruled Tír Conaill.^[1][2]

The name is built on the personal name Gallchobhar, usually explained as “foreign help”. Woulfe's gloss. Wikipedia, citing a 2023 dictionary of Celtic names, renders the surname 'descendant of the foreign helper'.^[1][3]

Place

Where the Gallaghers lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct Gallagher lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

The name over time

History

A family of the Cenél Conaill

The Gallaghers belonged to the Cenél Conaill, the kindred descended from Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who gave his name to Tír Conaill (Donegal). Sources differ on the ancestor. Woulfe traces the family to Maolchobha, a 7th-century king of Ireland, while Wikipedia names Gallchobhar mac Rorcain, who lived around the time surnames came into use in the 10th century. The earliest datable bearer is Mael Cobo Ua Gallchobhair, abbot of Scrín Adamnáin, whose death in 1022 is recorded by the Four Masters.^[1][2][3][5]

Marshals of Tír Conaill

From the 14th century the O'Gallaghers were marshals of the O'Donnell lords, commanding their forces, particularly the cavalry, and they appear in most of the military campaigns of the Cenél Conaill. Wikipedia describes the post as hereditary, lasting into the 16th or early 17th century. Relations with the O'Donnells were not always smooth. After a religious dispute in 1543 the Gallaghers seized the O'Donnell stronghold at Lifford and held it for about a year. In 1567 a breakaway band of Gallaghers helped Shane O'Neill escape after his defeat at Farsetmore.^[1][2]

Bishops of Raphoe and Derry

Woulfe notes that many O'Gallaghers became bishops of Raphoe and Derry. In the 16th century Edmond O'Gallagher's claim to Raphoe was blocked when the O'Donnells backed a rival, and he died in 1543. Redmond O'Gallagher was made bishop of Killala in 1545 and moved to Derry in 1569, dying in office in 1601. Donat O'Gallagher, a Franciscan, held Killala and then Down and Connor. James Gallagher, bishop of Raphoe from 1725 and later of Kildare and Leighlin, published sermons in Irish in 1736. It was one of the few books printed in Irish under the penal laws, and it ran to more than twenty editions.^[1][2][6][7]

The Flight of the Earls

The Gallaghers shared in the fall of their O'Donnell lords. When the Ulster earls left Ireland on 14 September 1607, the record drawn from Tadhg Ó Cianáin's account of the voyage named five Gallaghers among the company. They stayed in Flanders and joined the O'Neill regiment of the Spanish army, fighting the Dutch in the Eighty Years' War. Aodh Ó Gallchobhair and his wife, who had nursed the O'Donnell sons, travelled on with the family to Rome.^[2]

Donegal and beyond

The name stayed rooted in Donegal. In 1906 Paddy 'the Cope' Gallagher of Cleendra in the Rosses helped found the Templecrone Co-operative Society, which within a decade was the third largest agricultural society in Ireland. His grandson Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher later became a Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal. Woulfe records a shortened Irish form, Ó Gallchú, which became Gallahue in English. Gallaghers also emigrated widely, and the name is common in the Americas.^{[8][9][1][4][3]}

Places linked to the name

• Ballybeit and Ballynaglack, Co. Donegal — Centre of the principal Gallagher branch.^[2]
• Tirhugh (Tír Aodha) (Tír Aodha), Co. Donegal — One of the two baronies holding the family's principal lands.^[2]
• Raphoe, Co. Donegal — Barony where the family held land, and the diocese where, according to Woulfe, many O'Gallaghers served as bishops.^[2][1]
• Lifford (Leifear), Co. Donegal — The O'Gallaghers seized the O'Donnell castle here and held it for about a year after 1543.^[2][10]

Everyday lives

The Gallaghers in the census

Who the Gallaghers were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

Gallaghers All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the Gallagher bar

Given names

First names among the Gallaghers

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, James, Michael, Thomas; Mary, Bridget, Annie, Margaret, Kate.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Related forms

• O'Gallagher — The fuller form with O, used by Woulfe and in many historical records.^[1]
• Gallaher / Gallogher / Gollagher — Older anglicised spellings of Ó Gallchobhair recorded by Woulfe.^[1]
• Gallacher — One of more than 30 recorded variants. It is the spelling used by, for example, the Scottish footballer Hughie Gallacher.^[3][11]
• Gallahue — From Ó Gallchú, a shortened form of Ó Gallchobhair.^[4][3]

Diaspora

The Gallaghers abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a Gallagher coat of arms?

People

Notable people named Gallagher

• Redmond O'Gallagher (died 1601)
  Bishop of Killala from 1545 and of Derry from 1569, dying in office.
• James Gallagher (c. 1684–1751)
  Bishop of Raphoe, then of Kildare and Leighlin; his Irish sermons ran to over twenty editions.
• Paddy 'the Cope' Gallagher (1870/71–1966)
  Founder of the Templecrone Co-operative Society in the Rosses, west Donegal.
• Frank Gallagher (1893–1962)
  Cork-born journalist, author and Volunteer who wrote as David Hogan.
• Hughie Gallacher (1903–1957)
  Prolific Scottish goalscorer for Airdrieonians, Newcastle United and Chelsea.
• Bridie Gallagher (1924–2012)
  Singer known as 'The Girl from Donegal', described as Ireland's first international pop star.
• Tess Gallagher (born 1943)
  American poet, essayist and short-story writer.
• Rory Gallagher (1948–1995)
  Ballyshannon-born blues-rock guitarist, often called Ireland's first rock star.
• Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher (born 1948)
  Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal and Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, 2016–2020.
• Peter Gallagher (born 1955)
  American actor, known as Sandy Cohen in The O.C.
• Noel Gallagher (born 1967)
  English songwriter and lead guitarist of Oasis.
• Liam Gallagher (born 1972)
  English singer, lead vocalist and co-founder of Oasis.

Questions

Questions about the Gallagher name

Evidence

Sources

1. Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames — Ó Gallchobhair (1923)
2. Wikipedia, Gallagher family
3. Wikipedia, Gallagher (surname)
4. Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames — Ó Gallchú (1923)
5. Wikipedia, Cenél Conaill
6. Wikipedia, Réamonn Ó Gallchobhair
7. Dictionary of Irish Biography, Gallagher, James (Ó Gallchobhair, Séamus)
8. Dictionary of Irish Biography, Gallagher, Patrick
9. Wikipedia, Pat "the Cope" Gallagher
10. Wikipedia, Lifford
11. Wikipedia, Hughie Gallacher
12. Wikipedia, Rory Gallagher
13. Wiktionary, Gallagher
14. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.
15. Irish forms cross-checked against Gaois surname data (Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU).

How we compile these figures: methodology.