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Dillon in Ireland goes back to Sir Henry Dillon, who came over with Prince John in 1185 and whose grants in Westmeath became known as Dillon’s Country. This collection sets the Dillon family crest on the Irish National Tartan across woven and printed blankets, a mug, a garden flag and a framed ornament, alongside a Celtic harp T-shirt.
Dillon in Ireland is first an Anglo-Norman name, written Díolún in Irish and Díolmhain in older spelling. Rev. Patrick Woulfe traces it to a Norman-French personal name built on the old Germanic Dill or Dillo with the French ending -on, and early Irish records spell it Dylun and Dilloun. In Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Galway the same English form also covers a Gaelic family, Ó Duilleáin, a variant of Ó Dalláin, “descendant of Dallán.”
Sir Henry Dillon came to Ireland with Prince John in 1185 and received large grants in Westmeath and Annaly, later called Dillon’s Country, where his descendants were barons of Kilkenny West. Three peerages grew from the family: Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen in County Mayo and Earl of Roscommon, both created in 1622, and Baron Clonbrock in County Galway in 1790. In 1688 Theobald, 7th Viscount Dillon, raised regiments for James II, and his son Arthur landed at Brest with Dillon’s Regiment on 1 May 1690; the regiment was still in French service at Fontenoy in 1745. In 1842 John Blake Dillon co-founded The Nation, and his son John Dillon led the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1918.
The range sets the Dillon family crest on the Irish National Tartan across a woven cotton blanket in three sizes, a lighter printed throw, an 11oz accent mug, a House of Dillon garden flag and a silver-tone framed Christmas ornament. For everyday wear there is a Dillon T-shirt that pairs the surname with a Celtic harp and Irish Heritage lettering.
How a Norman-French name became Dillon’s Country in Westmeath, and how Dillon’s Regiment reached Brest in 1690, is told in our history of the Dillon surname in Ireland.
