The Connery or Conroy Family

(Crest No. 258. Plate 49.)

THE Connery or Conroy family is descended from Milesius, King of Spain, through the line of his son Ir. The founder of the family was Cahal McRory O’Connery, King of Connaught in the eleventh century. The ancient name was Cahal and signifies “Beautiful.” The possessions of the sept were located in the present County of Carlow.

Another family of this name—the McConroys—were Lords of Dealbh-na-Thire-da-locha, or Delvin of the Land of the Two Lakes, now the barony of Moycullen, situated between Lough Corrib and Lough Lurgan, or the Bay of Galway, in the County of Galway. They had lands also in the Counties of Limerick and Leitrim.

The McConroys, who are of the Dalcassian race of Thomond, are still very numerous in this territory, but they usually translate the name to King from the erroneous belief that the name is Mac-an-righ, or Son of the King, but the true Anglicized form of the name is McConroy.

Of this family was Florence Conroy, a celebrated ecclesiastic, born in Galway in 1560. He was educated in the Netherlands and in Spain and entered the Franciscan Order in the latter country. Appointed Provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland in 1588, he sailed in the Spanish Armada, but he has left us no record of his adventures with that ill-fated expedition. In 1602 he acted as chaplain to Hugh Roe O’Donnell, during the fatal illness of that chieftain, at Simancas, Spain, and attended the burial of his remains in the Monastery of St. Francis in Valladolid. In 1610 Florence Conway was appointed Archbishop of Tuam, but the persecution of the Catholics that then prevailed prevented him from occupying his see. He succeeded in founding the famous Irish College at Louvain, Belgium, where his remains now repose. He is the author of numerous learned writings.