Carroll family
| O'Carroll Ó Cearbhaill |
|
|---|---|
 Armorial of O'Carroll |
|
| Country | Kingdom of Éile |
| Parent house | Ciannachta |
| Titles | |
| Founder | Cian mac Ailill Aulom |
| Final ruler | Tiege Caoc O'Carroll |
| Current head | Fredrick Arthur O'Carroll |
| Cadet branches | Carrol of Maryland |
O'Carroll (Irish: Ó Cearbhaill), also known as simply Carroll or Carrell, is a Gaelic Irish clan which is the most prominent sept of the Ciannachta (also known as Clan Cian). Their genealogies claim that they are kindred with the Eóganachta (themselves led by the MacCarthys), descended paternally from Ailill Aulom. During the Middle Ages until 1552, the family ruled an area within the Kingdom of Munster known as Éile. The last monarch Tiege Caoc O'Carroll surrendered and regranted to the Tudor Kingdom of Ireland.
Notable is the history of the Ó Cearbhaill whose territory, known as Ely O'Carroll in Éile, consisted of the pasture lands of Ballycrinass, Rosscullenagh and Drumcan, extending to the Lake of Leghagh, commonly Laghaghirisallive and bounded on the west by the lands called Laghenagarken and on the east adjoining or near to Glencrokin. This was always known as Ely O'Carroll. The mountain land extended from the Laghanagerah (Lochan na gCaorach) to Polle Dowa (Poll Dubh in Roscomroe) and then in a south easterly direction to the Slieve Bloom Mountains, which are the limits between Ely O'Carroll and Upper Ossory meeting at a village called Garryvoe or Scully's land.
The Ely O'Carroll sept was the most powerful and most famous, but there were at least four other septs, O'Carroll of Oriel in the Dundalk area, O' Carrolls of Ossory in the Carlow/Kilkenny area and two septs in the Kerry area. The prefix "O'" is very often dropped in the case of this surname, occasionally replaced with "Mac". Carvill is another anglicization of thesame family name.
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Wikipedia