The Brennan coat of arms (above) came into
existence centuries ago. These are created by a specific person and are
owned by that person. There is no such thing as a Family Coat of Arms.
Read the following:
Genealogy Tip of the Day. The process of creating coats of arms began in the eight and ninth centuries. The
new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual
family members to have their very own coat of arms.
Arms: Gules two
lions rampant combatant supporting a garb all or, in chief three swords,
two in saltire, points upwards, and one fessways, point to the dexter
argent pommels and hilts gold.
Crest: An arm
embowed in armour grasping a sword all proper.
The
meaning of the name BRENNAN in its original Irish form,
as a personal name, still remains an enigma. Spelling variations
include: Brennan, McBrennan, Brannon, Brannan, Brannen, Brannin,
O'Braonain and MacBranain and many more.
The current thinking of the name Brennan
or Braonan is generally interpreted as meaning 'Sorrow',
or 'Little Drop', although some might wonder whether a
King of the Vikings was more likely to name his son after
Braon, the Celtic God of War. Another meaning of the word
is "The
sons of little Raven",
"One who delights in battle."
The ancestors of the Brennan
family are thought to have arrived in Ireland in the 5th
century B.C. and settled in northern Kilkenny shortly
after the time of Christ.
The ancestors of the Brennan's
possibly were Christianised before the arrival of St.
Patrick, by their own bishop, Ciaran of Saiger.
We are all descended from
Cearbhall (pronounced Carroll), the most famous King of
Ossory. Through various political machinations, he ended
up as King of the Vikings in Ireland in 873 A.D.
In modern Ireland there are
many Brennans. Here and there one is met with the prefix
O, but, today, the form Mac Brennan is seldom seen, if
ever found.
The simple form, Brennan, is
used in the anglicised form of two quite distinct Gaelic
Irish surnames, viz., O'Braonain and MacBranain. The
former is the appellation of four different unrelated
septs; the latter, of one only.
Judging by the present day
distribution of the name, two of these five have survived
in large numbers in the districts around their original
habitats. It is sufficient therefore, just to mention the
three others which were located respectively in the
Counties of Galway, Westmeath and Kerry.
MacBranain was chief of
Corcachlann, the old name for the territory in the
Eastern part of Co.Roscommon. A succession of these
chiefs appear in the Annals between 1159 and 1488. While
the leading members of the sept retained the Mac until
the submergence of the Gaelic order in the Seventeen
century, the substitution of O for Mac in some cases, is
noted as early as 1360.
Probably one of the most famous Brennan's of
our day has to be Walter Brennan the actor. He was
born in a place called Swampscott, Massachusetts on
July 25th, 1894. Not much is know about his time before
he made it as a Hollywood actor, but acting was not his
first choice of career. He studied to be an engineer in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, but like many he found his way
to acting through school. While at Cambridge he caught
the acting bug, and wound up performing in several school
plays, and later moved on to vaudeville.
However he was not a big success and wound up supporting
himself at a variety of jobs form lumberjack to bank
clerk. Eventually he hooked up with several musical
comedy troupes, but set aside his acting, in 1917 at the
age of 23, to serve as a doughboy in WW I. After his
release from service he travelled to Guatemala to raise
pineapples, before winding back in America in Los Angeles
to try his hand as a realtor.
During his career as an actor he has appeared
in more that 140 films but never had a leading role.
http://www.what-a-character.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=BrennanW
