Dowling is an Irish surname. It is an anglicised form representing two unrelated clans:

1 – Ó Dúnlaing, noted as one of the seven septs of County Laois, the ancestral home called Fearann ua n-Dúnlaing (O'Dowling's Country).[1] The Irish form of the name is Ní Dhúnlaing (unmarried female), Ó Dúnlaing (male) or [Bean] Uí Dhúnlaing (married female).

2 – Ó Dubhlainn, a minor family of County Galway, represented by Richard William Dowling (1838–1867), American Confederate officer.

According to historian C. Thomas Cairney, the O'Dowlings in Ireland were one of the chiefly families of the Loígis tribe who in turn came from the Cruthin tribe who were the first Celts to settle in Ireland from between 800 and 500 BC.[2]

List of people surnamed Dowling

See also

References

  1. ^ Dowling family information and background Archived October 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Cairney, C. Thomas (1989). Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland. Jefferson, North Carolina, United States, and London: McFarland & Company. p. 54. ISBN 0899503624.
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