Sheehan, often written O’Sheehan, is a Gaelic Irish surname of Munster. In Irish it is Ó Síodhacháin, and it has long been one of the familiar names of Cork, Kerry and Limerick. Our Sheehan and O’Sheehan Irish family gifts collection carries both spellings on blankets, a mug, ornaments, a garden flag, a wall pennant and a Celtic harp tee.
Quick answer: Sheehan means “descendant of Síodhachán,” a personal name formed from a diminutive of síodhach, “peaceful.” Rev. Patrick Woulfe describes the main family as Dalcassian, belonging to the Dál Cais of North Munster, and very numerous throughout Munster, especially in Cork, Kerry and Limerick. He also records a separate old family of the name in County Galway, followers of O’Kelly of Uí Maine. Sheahan, Sheean, Sheen and Shean are other English spellings of the same Irish name.
What Does the Sheehan Surname Mean?
Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames (1923) enters the name under Ó Síodhacháin and explains it as “descendant of Síodhachán.” Síodhachán is a diminutive of síodhach, peaceful, so the ancestor who gave the family its name was known by an affectionate form of a word for a calm, peaceable person. Woulfe links the spellings Ó Síothcháin, Ó Sídheacháin and Ó Séadhacháin to the same name.
The English forms he gathered from older documents show how clerks handled the sound: O Shieghane and O Shehane first, then O’Sheehan and O’Sheahan, and finally Sheehan, Sheahan, Sheean, Sheen and Shean. Most families later let the O’ fall away, which is why Sheehan is now the usual form and O’Sheehan the fuller one. Both belong to the same Gaelic name.
Who Were the Dalcassian Sheehans?
Woulfe classes the Munster Ó Síodhacháin as a Dalcassian family. The Dál Cais were the kindred of North Munster, rooted in the country that became County Clare and the lands along the lower Shannon, and their most famous son was Brian Boru, whose descendants became the O’Briens. Belonging to the Dál Cais placed the Sheehans within that wider North Munster kindred alongside many other families; Brian’s own royal line is told in our history of Brian Boru and the O’Brien dynasty.
From North Munster the name spread across the province. By the time Woulfe wrote, he could call it “very numerous throughout Munster,” and he named Cork, Kerry and Limerick as the counties where it was strongest. In north Cork, around Mallow, Doneraile and Kanturk, it belongs to two of the best-known Sheehans of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Who Were the Galway Sheehans?
Woulfe records a second family of the name with its own separate history: an old Galway family who were followers of O’Kelly of Uí Maine and who were still numerous in County Galway in his day. Uí Maine was the O’Kelly lordship of east Galway and south Roscommon, so a Sheehan line with deep Galway roots belongs to that story rather than to the Dalcassians of Munster. The O’Kelly side is covered in our Kelly surname history.
Where Are Sheehan Families Found in Ireland?
Munster is the Sheehan heartland. Families of the name are spread through County Cork, from Mallow and Doneraile in the north of the county, and through County Kerry and County Limerick. The separate Connacht family keeps the name in County Galway. Emigration carried Sheehans to the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain, where the Sheehan and Sheahan spellings sit side by side in the records.
How Can I Research Sheehan Family History?
- IrishGenealogy.ie: look for Sheehan births, marriages and deaths in Ireland’s official civil records, and in the church registers held there for dioceses that include Cork and Kerry.
- 1901 and 1911 census returns at the National Archives of Ireland: look up Sheehan and Sheahan by county and compare Cork, Kerry and Limerick households with those in Galway.
- Griffith’s Valuation: a mid-nineteenth-century listing of who held land and houses, handy for pinning a Sheehan household to its townland.
- Catholic parish registers at the National Library of Ireland: Sheehan baptisms and marriages, many recorded before civil registration, which began in 1864.
- logainm.ie: the Irish forms of place names, such as Mala (Mallow) and Dún ar Aill (Doneraile).
Search every spelling at once. The same household can appear as Sheehan in a baptism, Sheahan in a census return and Sheen in a newspaper notice.
Notable Irish Bearers of the Sheehan Name
- Canon Patrick Augustine Sheehan (1852–1913), born in Mallow, County Cork, on 17 March 1852 and parish priest of Doneraile from 1895 until his death. His novels include My New Curate (1900), Luke Delmege (1902) and Glenanaar (1904–5), a story built around the Doneraile conspiracy trial of 1829.
- D. D. Sheehan (1873–1948), Daniel Desmond Sheehan, born at Dromtarriff near Kanturk, County Cork. He led the Irish Land and Labour Association from 1898, sat as MP for Mid-Cork from 1901 to 1918, and pressed so hard for laborers’ housing that the cottages built under the Labourers’ Acts were popularly called “Sheehan’s cottages.” He served as an officer in the Munster Fusiliers during the First World War.
Related Irish Family Names
Readers tracing Munster roots often look up Sheehy, Scanlon, Slattery and Barry next.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Sheehan Name
Is Sheehan an Irish surname?
Yes. It is an English spelling of Ó Síodhacháin, the name of a Dalcassian family of Munster, and a second old family of the name belongs to County Galway.
What does Sheehan mean?
It means “descendant of Síodhachán,” and Síodhachán comes from síodhach, “peaceful.”
What is Sheehan in Irish?
Ó Síodhacháin, also written Ó Síothcháin.
Are Sheehan and O’Sheehan the same name?
Yes. The O’ in O’Sheehan stands for Irish Ó, “descendant of,” and families who stopped writing it became plain Sheehans without changing their name.
Is Sheahan the same as Sheehan?
Yes. Woulfe lists Sheahan, O’Sheahan, Sheean, Sheen and Shean among the English forms of Ó Síodhacháin.
Which county is the Sheehan family from?
The main family belongs to Munster, and above all to Cork, Kerry and Limerick. A separate Sheehan family is rooted in County Galway.
Are the Sheehans related to Brian Boru?
Woulfe calls the Munster Sheehans Dalcassian, which places them among the families of the Dál Cais, the North Munster kindred that produced Brian Boru. His direct descendants are the O’Briens; the Sheehans belong to the wider kindred.
Is there a Sheehan family crest design?
Yes. Both Sheehan blankets, the mug, the wall pennant and the framed Christmas ornament show our Sheehan family crest against the Irish National Tartan. For the O’Sheehan spelling, look at the garden flag and the ceramic ornament from our House of O’Sheehan designs.
Whether your Sheehans farmed near Doneraile or followed the O’Kellys in Galway, you will find the name on blankets, ornaments and more in our Sheehan and O’Sheehan family heritage gifts.