Welcome to the Flannery Clan website

This website represents a fledgling attempt to chart the Irish origins and world-wide progress of the Flannery Clan. A more comprehensive account will doubtless evolve in the fullness of time.

The Flannery Clan comprises three distinct septs or tribes of people, namely Ó Flannabhra of Uí Fiachrach Muaidhe in Connaught, Ó Flannabhra of Uí Fidhghente in Munster, and Ó Flannghaile of Uí Fiachrach Muaidhe. The inclusion of this latter sept may surprise some classical historians, but shall be fully justified in the text.

The Flannery Clan has much in common with many Irish families, and is consequently quite representative of the typical Irish Clan. The similarities, which are discussed fully in the text, are characterised by the following traits :-

The component septs inevitably descend from early medieval kings, this being a relatively common feature of Irish surnames, given the large number of co-existent minor kingdoms in Ireland at any given time during the middle ages.
There is no known surviving documentation tracing a bloodline chieftain, nor would this be expected in a land which tended not to adopt the continental practice of primogeniture or automatic hereditary succession. Leadership was normally gained by popular election according to the time-honoured regulations of Brehon law, although not without some chicanery. There are no known records of a formal hierarchy having ever existed among the Flannerys.
The family surname has undergone numerous distortions from translation and transcription. There are dozens of known spelling variations which span centuries of time and several continents. All variants are deemed to be equally valid.
The overwhelming majority of family members were farmers up to the eighteenth century, when the development of long-haul transportation facilitated emigration from the confines of rural Ireland and presented unique opportunities in foreign lands.
Emigration increased rapidly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, until we have now reached a stage when most of the family members reside outside Ireland and retain little or no knowledge of their ancient roots.

The recent rise in living standards over the past few decades has provided many Flannerys, both native and diasporic, with the opportunity of revisiting their origins to regain their heritage. This has been greatly facilitated in recent years by the current technological age of global information sharing via the internet.

This website has been produced by the newly formed Flannery Clan Society, and will hopefully constitute a modest contribution to the body of knowledge shared by the family members. It cannot hope to be a complete and full account of our family history, but hopes to provide a few pieces of the puzzle. All of the information contained in this website has been gleaned from either personal sources (oral lore, family bibles, etc.) or published sources (parish registers, books, newspapers, internet, etc.). Whilst accuracy in every detail cannot be strictly guaranteed, considerable effort has been spent validating from primary sources and cross-references. Finally, if I may borrow the words of the scholar Thomas Flannery (1840 - 1916) : “I daresay the sharp eye of the critic may discover a fault here and there – I hope he that points out one will also help me to correct it.” In the same spirit, please note that all corrections and additional information will be gratefully received.