The most frequent family names with roots in County Leitrim — names that spread through Ireland and the Irish diaspora:
County Leitrim has the smallest population of any county in Ireland — a direct consequence of emigration rates that were among the highest in the country throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The 2016 census showed Leitrim's population was still less than half of its pre-Famine peak.
The O'Rourkes were the ruling Gaelic family of Leitrim — Kings of Breifne — until the Plantation era. Brian O'Rourke was one of the last Gaelic lords to hold out against English authority; he gave shelter to the survivors of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and was executed at Tyburn in 1591 for treason.
Leitrim is a county of water. The Shannon rises in Cavan to the east, and the county is dissected by rivers and lakes — Lough Allen, the Allen River, the Bonet. The Shannon–Erne Waterway passes through the county, connecting the two great lake systems of Ireland.
Leitrim's emigrant stream was massive relative to its small population. The county sent disproportionate numbers to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and later to London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Leitrim families in America are among the most concentrated diaspora groups from any single Irish county.
Love Ireland covers Leitrim's lake country, the Shannon-Erne Waterway, the poetry of John McGahern — who grew up in the county — and the particular emigrant landscape that shaped a diaspora far larger than the county itself.
Subscribe to Love Ireland — FreeIf your family came from County Leitrim, here's where to start your research:
Common County Leitrim surnames with dedicated pages on this site: