o'toole family name

Ó TUATHAIL

From Irish Names and Surnames 1923 (Woulfe)

Ó TUATHAIL—I—O Toughill, O Touhill, O Twohill, O Tuale, O Towell, O'Toole, Toughill, Tuohill, Twohill, Toohill, Tohall, Tohill, Towell, Toole, Toal, Toale, &c.; 'descendant of Tuathal' (people-mighty); also written Ó Tuathghail and Ó Tuathghaile; the name of at least two distinct families in Ireland, viz.: (1) Ó Tuathail of Leinster, and (2) Ó Tuathail of Ulster. The O'Tooles of Leinster, who are one of the most illustrious families of that province, derive their name and descent from Tuathal, son of Ughaire, King of Leinster, who died in the year 956. Their clan-name was Ui Muireadhaigh. This afterwards became the designation of their territory, which originally comprised the southern half of the present Co. Kildare. Driven thence soon after the Anglo-Norman invasion by Walter de Riddlesford, they settled in the mountain fastnesses of Wicklow, first in Ui Mail and afterwards in Feara Cualann, where in alliance with their kinsmen, the O'Byrnes, they carried on incessant warfare with the English for a period of four hundred years, and preserved their independence as a clan down to the close of the reign of Elizabeth. In the reign of James I, the whole of 'Fercuolen' was confiscated and granted to Sir Richard Wingfield. The O'Tooles, however, retained considerable property down to the Cromwellian and Williamite confiscations. A branch of the family settled at an early period in West Connacht, and are still numerous in Mayo and Galway. The Ulster family of the name is, according to MacFirbis, a branch of the Cinel Eoghain.