Dr. Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986) is considered to be the foremost authority on the derivations of Irish surnames, and spent many years of his life with the Genealogical Office at Dublin Castle. He was responsible for a number of books on the topic of Irish surnames, including Irish Families, Their Names, Arms and Origins, one which is still regarded as a valuable source for genealogists and heraldry enthusiasts.

It is a point of interest that MacLysaght was a man from the western part of Ireland--from County Clare, originally: although he would have been well aware of the Cullinans from that County, he did not provide a great amount of information on that particular branch. One of MacLysaght's sources, Rev. Patrick Woulfe, who had conducted an extensive survey of Irish surnames, mentions a number of references to the Cullinan and Cullinane names, however, MacLysaght fails to provide much information on them at all. Woulfe, an authority on the Gaelic language, notes that the surname Ó Cuileannáin comes from the root word, Cuileann, which means "holly".

From Woulfe we learn the following:

Ó Cuileannáin--Irish--O Cullanayne, O Cullinan, Cullinane, Cullinan, Quillinan, Culnane, Quilnan (Callanane, Callanan), &c.; 'des. of Cuileannàn' (dim. of Cuileann); the name (1) of a Co. Louth family who were anciently lords of Conaille; and (2) of a family of Corca Laoighdhe, formerly seated in the barony of Barryroe, in South Cork. Dr. O'Brien, in his Irish Dictionary, mentions anther family of this name as lords of Muscraighe-tri-maighe, now in the barony of Orrery, Co. Cork, but I have failed to trace it. There was also a remarkable family of the name in Tirconnell, to which belonged Dr. John O'Cullinan, Bishop of Raphoe at the period of Confederation.

MacLysaght provides the following summary:

(O) CULLINAN, Quillinane. Cullinan is the most anglicized spelling of the name Ó Cuileannáin in Co. Clare and Cullinane in Co. Cork and east Munster. The prefix O is seldom found with Cullinan or Cullinane nowadays. One important sept so called originated in Tirconaill (Donegal), but there the name has been changed to Cullen. Up to the end of the seventeenth century they were still using the form O'Cullinan. They were closely associated with the O'Donnells and their seat was at Mullinashee. One of their chiefs was remarkable on account of the careers of his sons, of whom one was a bishop and six were abbots. Dr. John Cullinan (1585-1653), was Bishop of Raphoe and suffered much persecution as such: he was a prominent supporter of Rinnuccini at the Confederation of Kilkenny. His brother, Glaisne O'Cullinan (1558-1584), Cistercian Abbot of Boyle, was martyred. The O'Cullinanes of Co. Cork are a branch of the Corca Laidhe and their territority was in the barony of Barryroe. The Civil Survey and the 1659 census indicate that the name was very numerous in Co. Cork in the seventeenth century not only in Barryroe but also in the surrounding baronies: two from Kinalea were among the Irish who sailed for Spain after the Battle of Kinsale. At that time, as to-day, branches of the sept were well established in Co. Clare and in Co. Waterford; in the latter the spelling of the name was then Quillinane, a form still met with in Munster.

Cormac MacCuilleannáin, King and Bishop of Cashel, who was slain in battle 908 A.D., is famous as the compiler of the genealogical tract called the 'Psalter of Cashel' and as the first language lexicographer. He cannot, however, properly be called a Cullinane because he lived before the era of surnames: his father's christian name was Cuileannán.

See the Coat of Arms

    Also worth adding is the genealogical tract which was written by the Irish Ancestry Guild. Most of the items which I have researched here cannot be retraced as no sources were provided. Although the IAG was considered to be an authoritative source for genealogical research, some of the items can be discounted if for no other reason than the accounts cannot be proven or disproven.

To meet the Cullinans we must first go to Co. Louth, where the first records of a Cullinan family are to be found. Old Irish MSS show that Cullinans were Lords of Conaille, a few miles to the west of the present town of Dundalk from 850 A.D. to 1610 A.D.—at the latter date their property was confiscated and given to Scottish Presbyterian settlers by James I. Some 30 chiefs of the family in this region are shown in old genealogical tables in the Ulster Annals, in the period 1180 A.D.-1320 A.D., though there were numerous other Chiefs who are unrecorded.

Cian O’Cuileannain was a famous Bard of the family in the Louth region who was Chief of the Sept, (a sept is a group of the same surname, while a clan is a group of families of different surnames though often of the same ancestry). Cian lived in 1300, and married Eleanor Savage, daughter of a landed Norman family who had been ‘granted’ lands in Co. Down. He was killed in battle in 1340 A.D. The founder-Chief of the family was called Cuileann, diminutive of a Gaelic word meaning 'Holly'--holly was the sacred tree of the old Druids and was worshipped in the pagan rites, and it is a word incorporated in many Irish Christian names and surnames. Cuileann was born in Conaille in 1030 A.D., and was killed in battle against the Casey sept in 1100 A.D. while old and enfeebled. He was succeeded by his son Conall, who married Maeve O’Neill, daughter of the head of the great O’Neill clan.

In Co. Cork, records of that region show that a sept here took their name from another Chief called Cuileann, in 1100 A.D. They were, of course, of distinct origin from the Louth family. This Cork sept were a branch of the McCarthys, from a Chief of which, Cuileann, they took their name. The Cullinans in Cork belonged to a Clan known as Corca Laoighdhe, and were Chiefs in the Barony of Barryroe in south Cork. In the Barony of Orrery, Co. Cork, yet another separate Cullinan family had its origin, but no particular records of this family exist.

In County Donegal a Cullinan family were attached to the Gallaghers, one of the leading families of this region. They were Physicians to the Gallaghers, and were granted lands near the present town of Donegal, where they remained until they were evicted by Queen Elizabeth in 1570 when Donegal was first made into a county. To this family belonged Dr. John O’Cullinan, Bishop of Raphoe in 1640 A.D., who was renowned for his fearlessness in face of the English.

Although the Cullinans did not originate in Co. Clare, they came to that region in large numbers particularly in the Cromwellian ear (1650 A.D.), when many left their old lands in Louth, Cork and Donegal. Because of this we find the name common in Co. Clare. They, in the course of time, intermarried with powerful families such as the O’Briens and the FitzGeralds, and acquired much property. There are many individual families of Cullinans in County Clare who no doubt would have an interesting history, but this would involve a separate inquiry. Individual family histories are very arduous to compile in Ireland, as it is very difficult to get cooperation from the people concerned, who, very often, have no records available. The present enquirer might, however, like to pursue the matter further as the Culinans still occupy their ancestral castle in Co. Clare. He should write to Mr. P. Dunne Cullinan of Knockdrin Castle, Knockdrin, Co. Clare, (Tel: Knockdrin 6). Cullinan solicitors who might also be written to are Messrs. F.F. Cullinan and Co., Solicitors, Bindon Street, Ennis, Co. Clare. Ennis is the capital of the county and has a population of 6, 097.

Searching through historical records of Co. Clare, we find that Bran O’Cuileannain, Colm O’Cuileannain and Fiachra O’Cuileannain were Erenaghs in the 1400-1500 A.D. era. An Erenagh was a lay ecclesiastic, tonsured but not in Holy Orders, whose duties were to manage church lands and to collect tribute, a third of which was given to the local bishop. A Cuillinan Chief from the Killaloe area, Duibne O’Cuilleanain is recorded as having accompanied Johannes de Burgo to the Holy Land on the Crusades, in 1230 A.D. Edru O’Cuileannain was Abbot of Kilmacduagh monestery in 1190 A.D.

In 1650 Stephen Cullinan, John Charles Cullinan and James Henry Cullinan were hanged at the orders of Cromwell at Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, for having failed to provide his soldiers with food and shelter. Hundreds of Cullinans, from Louth, Donegal, Cork and Clare, left Ireland at this time to take service in the Armies of the Continent. General Joseph Cullinan in 1700 served under the King of Spain; Count David Cullinan was French Ambassador to Spain in 1750. In the records of the Irish Brigades in France from 1690 to 1830 there are hundreds of Cullinans listed, and whose descendants are today absorbed into the French nation.

Jonathan Cullinan in 1840 was a noted Tipperary lawyer who had a price on his head for ‘seditious’ speeches; he was never caught, and later escaped to Australia. Daniel James Cullinan owned 3,000 acres of land in Killaloe in 1800. Patrick Cullinan was a well-known agriculturalist at Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, in 1830, who was noted for his advanced methods. Thomas Cullinan of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal owned an iron works in that town in 1790.

Footnotes:

1. According to the Irish Ancestry Guild, the name Ó Cuileann´in appears in County Louth as early as A.D. 1260.
2. A Benedictine Martyrology (a revision of Rev. Peter Lechner's Ausführliches Martyrologium des Benedictiner-Ordens und seiner Verzweigungen by Alexius Hoffmann, O.S.B., published in Collegeville, MN by St. John's Abbey in 1922.
3. Dr. John O'Cullinan was Bishop of Raphoe, and is found in numerous historical accounts, including A New History of Ireland: 1534-1691 by T.W. Moody, F.X. Martin, and F.J. Byrne, Oxford University Press, ©1976.
4. The question of Patrick Dunne (Paddy) Cullinan being a relative of any other branch of the Cullinans, especially to the branch in South Africa is a matter of pure conjecture on the part of the Irish Ancestry Guild.
5. The 1659 Census shows numerous Cullinane, Cullynane and other spellings in Counties Cork, Clare, Galway and in Limerick.

Sources:

• MacLysaght, Edward. Irish Families, Their Names, Arms and Origins (4th Ed.), Irish Academic Press, Dublin: 1972.
• Woulfe, Rev. Patrick. Sloinnte Gaedeal ir Gall, M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin: 1923.
• The Cullinan & Cullinane Family Genealogy, Michael Cullinan (Editor), © 1996.