Delaney Irish Family Gifts & Heritage

Delaney is the English form of the Gaelic Ó Dubhshláine, “descendant of Dubhshláine,” a personal name that Rev. Patrick Woulfe renders as “Black of the Slaney,” after the Leinster river. Older records write it O Dowlaney and O Dulany, and the same Irish name also gave the spellings Delany, Deleany and Laney. Every piece in this range carries the Delaney name.

Woulfe describes the Ó Dubhshláine as a numerous family of Leix, now County Laois, once chiefs of Coill Uachtarach, the “upper wood” at the foot of Slieve Bloom. The territory survives as the barony of Upperwoods, named in the topographical poems of about 1400 and counted in later centuries as part of Upper Ossory. Laois gave the name Dean Patrick Delany, whose house at Delville in Glasnevin welcomed Jonathan Swift, and Bishop Daniel Delany of Mountrath, who refounded the Brigidine Sisters in 1807. The Arklow-born runner Ronnie Delany carried the Delany spelling to the Olympic 1500 m title at Melbourne in 1956.

The Delaney family crest is set on the Irish National Tartan across five pieces: a woven cotton blanket in three sizes with a fringed edge, a lighter 50″ × 60″ printed polyester throw, an 11oz ceramic accent mug, a Christmas ornament in a polished silver portrait frame, and an 18″ × 21″ wall pennant that hangs from a wooden dowel.

The Upperwoods chiefs, the Brigidine bishop and the Melbourne champion all have their place in our Delaney Irish surname history.