Crowley is the English form of the Gaelic Ó Cruadhlaoich, "descendant of Cruadhlaoch," a personal name meaning hard hero. In Munster it belongs to the O'Crowleys of Kilshallow, a West Cork family whose chiefs held a small territory north of the Bandon river under MacCarthy Reagh, lord of Carbery. The Crowley and O'Crowley pieces, from the woven blankets to the House of O'Crowley flag, are in our Crowley and O'Crowley Irish family gifts collection.
Quick answer: Crowley comes from Ó Cruadhlaoich, built from cruadh, hard, and laoch, hero. The Cork family held 32 plowlands in Kilshallow, across the parishes of Fanlobbus and Kinneigh in the barony of Carbery, and paid a yearly chief rent to MacCarthy Reagh. The Annals of Inisfallen name a Ragnall Ua Cruadlaích in 1283. Woulfe also records a separate Ó Cruadhlaoich branch of the MacDermots in County Roscommon, and later genealogists derive the Cork Crowleys from that Connacht family.
What Does the Crowley Surname Mean?
Rev. Patrick Woulfe's Irish Names and Surnames gives the Irish as Ó Cruadhlaoich, "descendant of Cruadhlaoch," and glosses the personal name as "hard-hero." The first part is cruadh, hard or hardy; the second is laoch, a hero or warrior. The Ó prefix marks a descendant, which is why the older English spelling is O'Crowley.
Woulfe lists a long run of English forms written down by clerks over the centuries: O Crowly, O Croley, O Croly, O'Crowley, Crowley, Crawley, Croly and Crolly. In spoken Munster Irish he heard the name pronounced Ó Croghallaigh, a sound quite different from the written Gaelic, and the Munster families appear in English records as both Crowley and Crawley.
Where Did the Crowley Family Come From?
Woulfe places two families under the one Irish name. The first was a branch of the MacDermots in County Roscommon. Citing the genealogies of MacFirbis, he traces it to Diarmaid "an cruadhlaoch," the hard hero himself, who was fourth in descent from Diarmaid, the ancestor from whom the MacDermots take their name, and he notes that this family was still represented in Connacht in his own day. The second was "a family originally seated in West Cork," once a strong one there, which Woulfe judged to be probably a branch of the O'Mahonys.
Later writers join the two. The genealogist Edward MacLysaght treated the Cork Crowleys as an offshoot of the MacDermots of Moylurg who moved south into Munster, and that is the account summarized in the Wikipedia entry for the surname, which places a junior branch near Dunmanway. The two views are set out here side by side because the older authority, Woulfe, kept them apart.
Whatever its roots, the name was established among the Gaelic families of Munster by the late thirteenth century. Under the year 1283 the Annals of Inisfallen record that "Ragnall Ua Cruadlaích was slain by Eógan Mac Carthaig," an early notice of the family among the MacCarthys of Munster.
Where Was Kilshallow, the O'Crowley Country?
The clearest picture of the Cork lordship comes from W. F. T. Butler's study of the barony of Carbery, published in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in 1904. Butler placed the O'Crowleys north of the Bandon river and east of Glan-a-Chroim. Their country, called Kilshallow, took in the east of Fanlobbus parish and the west of Kinneigh, with the small Blackwater stream running through its center. The chief's house, Castle Crowley, stood in Fanlobbus close to the parish's northeastern corner.
Kilshallow was a modest holding. Butler counted 32 plowlands in the family's hands, and from the list of MacCarthy's chief rents in 1636 he recorded that they paid a chief rent of £9 4s. 4d. to their overlord, MacCarthy Reagh, the lord of Carbery. The O'Crowleys were chiefs inside that lordship rather than rulers in their own right, one of several Carbery families who paid him a yearly rent.
On logainm.ie, Fanlobbus (Fán Lóbais, "the slope of Lóbas") is a civil parish in the barony of Carbery East (West Division), and its townlands include Dunmanway North and Dunmanway South. The townland of Ahakeera (Achadh Caorach) lies in the same parish, and the Crowley family society identifies the surviving north wall and parts of the east and west walls there as the O'Crowley castle, at the north of the old Kilshallow lands.
Is Crowley Always an Irish Name?
No. Crowley is also an English habitational surname, taken from a place name meaning a meadow of crows, so an English Crowley and an Irish Crowley need not share any history. Within Ireland, Ó Cruadhlaoich covers both the Roscommon branch of the MacDermots and the West Cork family, and Woulfe treats the Croly and Crolly families of the north of Ireland as a separate case, produced by a similar change of form. O'Crowley is simply the older form with the prefix kept, and Woulfe gives Crawley as a Munster spelling of the Cork name.
Where Are Crowley Families Found Today?
Woulfe described the family as once strong in West Cork and, by his day, numerous throughout Munster. Cork is still the place to begin, above all the Carbery parishes of Fanlobbus and Kinneigh and the country along the Bandon river around Dunmanway, before widening the search to the rest of the county. The families of that district are described in our guide to Irish surnames from County Cork, and the wider province in the old Gaelic families of Munster.
How Can I Research Crowley Family History?
- IrishGenealogy.ie: civil birth, marriage and death records, plus church registers for several dioceses.
- National Archives of Ireland 1901 and 1911 census: search Crowley and Crawley in County Cork and compare households in Fanlobbus, Kinneigh and the neighboring parishes.
- Griffith's Valuation: mid-nineteenth-century landholders, the quickest way to tie a family to a townland.
- National Library of Ireland Catholic parish registers: baptisms and marriages, many recorded before civil registration began.
- logainm.ie: standard Irish and English townland names, with historic spellings, for Fanlobbus, Kinneigh and the rest of Carbery.
- Cork Historical and Archaeological Society: its journal archive holds Butler's articles on the lordships of Carbery.
Search O'Crowley, Crowley, Crawley and Croly together in older indexes, since clerks wrote the name in whatever form they heard.
Notable Irish Bearers of the Crowley Name
- Ragnall Ua Cruadlaích (d. 1283), whose killing by Eógan Mac Carthaig is entered in the Annals of Inisfallen.
- Nicholas Joseph Crowley (1819–1857), a Dublin-born painter who became an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1836 and a full member on 27 May 1837, the Academy's youngest elected member; his pictures include Taking the Veil.
- Peter O'Neill Crowley (1832–1867), born at Ballymacoda, County Cork, into a family of tenant farmers and named for his great-uncle Fr Peter O'Neill, a 1798 rebel. A Fenian captain in the rising of March 1867, he was mortally wounded after Kilclooney Wood near Mitchelstown was surrounded on 31 March, and a large crowd attended his funeral at Ballymacoda.
- Diarmuid Crowley (Ó Cruadhlaoich) (1875–1947), born Jeremiah Crowley at Glanbuss, Kilbrittain, County Cork. Called to the bar in 1916, he took up office as a judge of the Dáil courts on 1 August 1920, and on 19 July 1922 he issued an order of habeas corpus for George Plunkett, a ruling that set off a constitutional crisis.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Crowley Name
What is Crowley in Irish?
Ó Cruadhlaoich, "descendant of Cruadhlaoch," the hard hero. Woulfe heard it spoken in Munster as Ó Croghallaigh.
Which part of Cork did the Crowleys come from?
Kilshallow, in the barony of Carbery: the east of Fanlobbus parish and the west of Kinneigh, north of the Bandon river and close to Dunmanway.
Were the O'Crowleys chiefs?
Yes, of a small territory. Their chief lived at Castle Crowley, and the family held 32 plowlands under MacCarthy Reagh, lord of Carbery, paying him a yearly chief rent.
Are Crowley and O'Crowley the same name?
Yes. Both are English forms of Ó Cruadhlaoich; O'Crowley keeps the Irish prefix and Crowley drops it.
Are the Crowleys related to the MacDermots?
Woulfe records an Ó Cruadhlaoich branch of the MacDermots in Roscommon, and MacLysaght made the Cork family an offshoot of it. Woulfe himself kept the two apart and thought the West Cork Crowleys were probably a branch of the O'Mahonys.
Is Crawley the same name as Crowley?
In Munster it usually is: Woulfe gives Crawley as a second English form of the Cork Ó Cruadhlaoich family.
Carry Kilshallow and Castle Crowley into the family home with the crest on the Irish National Tartan, from woven blankets to the House of O'Crowley garden flag, in our Crowley and O'Crowley family crest gifts.