(Update 8/25) Broin O'Braoin Bruen name story

The Title: the Story of a Name The Name: Broin,O'Braoin,Bruen 

This could be a long story, but I will choose at this point to only give a brief recitation of the information upon which this story is based

The whole story and activity started with a curiosity over the origin of the family name, Bruen and looking for an answer as to why so few people had that name. In those years, the gold standard for the amount and number of names of the particular family was how many appeared in the Manhattan phone directory, for Bruen it consisted of just one name. In the days prior to the digital era, the name continued to appear to be extremely rare. I spent years looking in the indexes of books primarily devoted or aimed at the study of things Irish. I think it is fair to say that for 25 to 30 years of on and off activity, I developed very little. There were some popular classic books(Mac Lysaght) aimed it seem mostly at Irish-Americans looking for their family crests that gave brief recitations on the history of names. These it turns out are in many cases largely inaccurate and misleading, and they have multiplied in the digital age, copying from one another the same unfortunately inaccurate statements. Having said that, there was one which in hind site was largely correct, a large part of the balance will spell that story out.

A major breakthrough occurred when  fortuitously I was one of the first to discover the existence of a document called the Census of the Bishop of the Diocese of Elphin  taken in the year 1749 (this had only been discovered the year before and had not been diseminated and wasn't for many years).  This was an incredibly fortunate discovery since it turns out that the only Bruins(of that spelling) in all Ireland were located in the Diocese of Elphin, even in the year 1749. A condition that continued more or less unaltered for 200 years.

This document, the Cencus, showed a small number of families with the Bruen(Bruin) name and these were located in the Smutternaugh area of County Roscommon and in the Rosses point area of Sligo, some 20 odd miles away. There were in addition one or two others in an area of Mullen, or Cloonshanville  some 10 miles south from the Smutternaught area.The existance of a James Bruin family right on the site of our family place in Smutternaugh was a huge joy after those years of search. That spot is right across Loc Ce from Killbryan church, possibly visable with binoculars.

This story, as is indicated by the title, is the story of the name. The name, Bruen, in its many forms. I think at this point to enlighten and be honest I should indicate the various forms, that is, spellings that this name has appeared under in the documents I have studied over the years. The documents I referred to are primarily the Irish annals in addition to various history books and studies relating to ancient Ireland. These books and the material which I refer to were written in essentially three, argueably five languages, (old Irish, Latin, middle Irish, modern Irish and English) which would in part explain the fact that, believe it or not, there are at least 32 different spelling variations of this name (name of the family that it represents).

It may seem excessive, but I think it is necessary to show you a list representing most  of the names of the same "family" as they were written in the various documents:

broin,bruin,bruen,breen,brain,braen,bran,braoin,broen,breene, briuin,byrne,brioin
broein,berne,brine,brein,bryn,brune,brinn,bruine brin.bune,berne,brian,bryen
broon.broni,brooni,broyn,broyne,briwyn,broan bryen,bryuns,briwyn

There are a number of reasons for this wide variety of spelling in addition to the fact that there were three (5) languages involved that is, Latin, Irish and  (the Irish  evolving Irish), and finally English. One of the more obvious reasons for the various spellings is the fairly simple one of accent or pronunciation as it varied from region to region and person-to-person, that coupled with the fact that I suspect most spelling was based on phonetics, rather than learned explicit spelling. An Irish language expert has indicated that the name spelled BRAOIN  might be pronounced, depending on the region that the speaker was from as: Brain, Breen, Bruen.

In simple summary at this point I think it is fair to say (to be dmonstrated shortly) that the original name that is the name of the eponymous ancestor (Bishop Bron of "cilleaspuigbroin" as spelled in the earliest of writings about Saint Patrick) was in the original Irish BROIN (Bron). This name or spelling as the Irish language developed morphed into BRAOIN  and O'Braoin, which in modern times, resulting primarily from the introduction of the English language became first BRUIN(as in the 1749 Elphin census and various Church records) and then in the early 1800s became BRUEN.  The last spelling, no doubt, due to coming into the area a very wealthy land owning English family of the name Bruen!

There is another story (largely but not entirely a side track) that in fact occupied most of my time over the years that I won't bore you with here, but try to dispose of quickly. And in fact, I bring it up only because it is a key to a part of the total story of the name and its history. This story I refer to is the fact that the famous historian John O'Donovan mysteriously decided and without basis, that the name O'Braoin as it was then (and for 1000 yeras before) and existed in an area in County Westmeath should be called or spelled or understood to be BREEN. Because of his fame, especially as the translator of the Annals of the Four Masters, and as luck would have it, and editor footnoted that O'BRAOIN was BREEN: and so forever after, that is what will appear ,and be and was repeated, and what people believe. In fact, John O'Donovan, if it was his error, had absolutely no basis for it, other than conceivably, as I alluded to earlier, a phonetic spelling.  Additionly he stumbled in this area in several documents and appears to be confused as to whether he is saying this is the "Irish name of the family or the proper anglicizing of the name. It is only a slight exaggeration, a very very slight exaggeration on my part to say that there is not now and never was a single Breen in all County Westmeath:of 555 Breens in Ireland at the time O'Donovan wrote his comment( The Tithe Applotment Books(census /survey1832-1837) not a single one was recordedd in West Meath.

In fact, what happened was that the name O'BRAOIN , which was well recorded in County Westmeath, including the naming of features such as rivers and lands and was in fact the name of the "Kings of Brawney" the petty princes of the area, ironically what   was that the name,  probably as a result of some phonetic distortion converted the name into the name or spelling BRIAN, BRIEN or O'BRIEN. However, John O'Donovan, being John O'Donovan told the person who called himself that, that he and his father were wrong and that his name  was Breen!!. John O'Donavan the brilliant man he was, made a "million" correct observations and a few score of wrong ones but he was NEVER in doubt.See page 25 and 10 and the footnote on page 24 of Woulfes "Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall" a tome on Irish names.They could provide some explanation for O"Donavan's apparent gaffe.


Let me digress for a moment to indicate to those who might read this someday that I am not unaware of the fact that while most tend to assume that if something is written down, especially in a document thought to be original and old, that it is a fact; it might not be correct. Any amount of study of Irish annals, and other documents will show us  that just because it was an expert who wrote the opinion or simply discoursed on the subject that one cannot have complete  confident that it is a fact,  there are too many simple contradictions and different versions of events and conclusions for us to believe otherwise. However, these represent the material that we have to work with, intuition and logic must be ultimately the tools we use on all of these facts all to develop the most probable picture.

THE STORY:  it would be too laborious and time-consuming for me to present this story and at the same time and in the process identify all of the bases, citations and proofs etc that I have for reaching the conclusions and making the statements I do.I will save that for my thesis. I will in some few cases do that where I feel it either interesting or when necessary. Also in this document except where it is clearly not the case I will be using the names, BROIN,O'BRAOIN and BRUEN and BRUIN interchangeably.I am using voice recognition software,with some post corrections to dictate this.  I am incapable of  typing while my longhand penmanship is unreadable. And so the particular form of the Bruen name is at times the random choice of the software, not unlike the random choice of the annalists and translators.

There  is an area north of our primary area of interest( north Roscommon and Sligo,that is Loc Ce/Smutternaugh and Rosses Point) that runs in a band across Ireland from Fermanagh through Monahan, and finally to Louth, where in early times, a tribe or race of the name AIRGHILLA were based. One can show that the name BROIN existed in that area at very early times. As an aside, people of that name, that is Broin in that area eventually had the name morphed into BURNS,and BYRNE etc. It is  necessary at this point to make sure that these BYRNES are not confused with a race or group of the same name, but much larger numbers coming from the area of Wicklow.

I have no doubt, based on DNA samples of modern members of the Bruen name, and DNA studies of the names and locations of people of the Airghilla race that the origins of the family of Bishop Bruen  or their ancestors was from that group and area. One of the numerous questions that cannot be answered on the basis of the information we have is, at what point Bishop Broin or his ancestors moved from that area somewhat south to the Rosses Point area of Sligo. One will wonder, as the story unfolds whether or not Bishop Broin was possibly picked up by St. Patrick as he as  passed through the afore mentioned area and droped off so to speak in Sligo, or that St. Patrick ran across Bishop Broin in Sligo. There are a number of facts or indications that might support the position that the family of Bishop Broin was well-established in the area (reference in one case infers that his father Icnus was a leader in the area). But as I indicated, far from certain.

Bishop Broin was a close disciple of St. Patrick, being mentioned eight or 10 times in the  oldest of annals, starting with the book of Armagh,Tirechan, Mirchu,Tripartite Lives', Acta santorum etc. There are also stories of his association with St. Bridget (one of which is hilarious).(see Trias Thaumaturga blog site )
Another of these stories tell of Bishop Broin and Saint Patrick walking on the shores of the bay( across from  Rosses Point area). It speaks of Saint Patrick blessing Bishop Broin and his, that is, Bishop Broin's son (MACC RIME).Macc Rime was sent to Corcu Roide an area in Westmeath, later known as  BRAWNEY or Bregamaine. This is a digression at this point, but this fact, that Bishop Bruin's son was sent to the area which later became the only other place in all of Ireland to be populated by O'Braoins can hardly be a coincidence. Bruins(O'Braoins) were later and for many hundreds of years the local kings of that district. And these Bruins are the ones that John O'Donovan rechristened as Breen's

At any rate , one of the stories of Saint Patrick Bishop Broin has Saint Patrick instructing Broin to build a church right in that area, which is now the location of the ancient Killeaspuigbroin(the Church of Bishope Broin).Petrie in The Round Towers of Ireland express the opinion the current ruins were probably the original built in the fifth century,a conclusion I think many would disagree with. At any rate, it is a well documented ancient church built at the instructions of Saint Patrick.

I mentioned earlier that one cannot rely completely or have one's answers completely validated by the ancient writings, in a number of important cases the incidences are reported differently by different writers and even occasionally, if not contradictory, pointing in a somewhat different direction. A second phenomenon that appears in writings important to my subject is a situation where many of the writers present one picture and another writer will present a similar picture, but include details not present in the others. This situation exists even in the case of some of St. Patrick's most well-known and reported travels in the west of Ireland, including those in the Sligo area of interest to us. There are two examples I will point out, in particular, one of which is somewhat unimportant and a second one is intriguing and potentially important. The first is that one source reports St. Patrick's Bishop Broin and others in the party proceeding to  "BROONS"(note phonetics) hut. A detail not mentioned in most of the reports of that same trip.  Let me digress to a point I should have made earlier; that is, the fact most of the writers spell Bishop Broin as BRON or the Latin form BRONUS.
 As I was saying in the reports of Saint Patrick and Bruin travels, Bruen is introduced to the reader as the son of INCUS, here again, different writers spell that name differently, such as Angus. But the important point I want to make here is that one and only one of the several reporters of these sojourns say that they, that is Saint Patrick and bishop Broin, "entered into ICNUS'S  territory", possibly speaking to the issue raised earlier as to how long Bruen or his family had been in that area. Bishop Broin died in the year 512, and his day is celebrated in the martyrologies on May 1 or May 4th as well as June 8th.

There are no other significant mentions of Killeaupuigbroin in the literature other than the occasional references to St. Patrick's tooth, which was given by him to Bruen for keeping and the fact that after hundreds and hundreds of years, it was moved from Killeaspouigbroin to national authorities for safekeeping(see Petrie,Stokes" Irish Inscriptions") . In addition,there are the number of writings by various experts in the area of ancient buildings who have examined and commented on the structure.  Finally, it is mentioned in the annals when a vicar there died in 1302.
To  wrap up the subject of physical locations with names attributed or reasonably so to Bishop Broin or his prodgeny one should note Cluain O'Braoin,this is of course currently a townland abuting Killbryan and at one point encompassing Killbryan but was also identified in later years (1500'S as a Big house or "castle").  More significantly there is noted in Colgans Achta Sanctorum a Dichul Abbas of Cluain O'Braoin clearly pointing to an abby (of Cluain O'Braoin).
Finally, there is also a nunnery, frequently and I believe currently, identified as "clonbroney"
that on more careful study is identified as Cluain Broin founded very early by/for two sisters who were daughters of a local pagan "king" that St. Patrick was attempting to convert.The location is  near Granard and Brawney/Corkaree area. 

The next phase of this story moves, some 20 miles away to the Loc Ce area; and the area now known as Killbryan and Clooneybrien. Another digression. The spelling of these locations as they exist now were determined or chosen by our famous John O'Donovan. This process can be understood by reading documents still in existence between the local examiners and John O'Donovan. Locals and other,  "educated" people were asked what the proper anglicizing of the names should be. John O'Donovan, then chose from among those or as was frequently the case, simply ignore them, and establish his own choice. In our case, no recognition was taken of the fact that the town land that they were naming currently, Cloonbrien, was Cluain O'Braoin, which was named in the "Annals of Loc Ce" by the author as the location in which he recorded the annals and which John O'Donovan was editor and  at least later became very familiar with.  He then chose two different endings for the same "braoin" that is Cill Braoin and Cluain Braoin became Killbryan and Cloonybrien,neither by the way became BREEN.


There are only two references to a Killbryan  in the annals,One that Killbryan was founded by a  St. Fearghus ,later Bishope of Dunleathglass.This would date the church of Cill O'Braoin prior to the year(557  to some  583 to others),the year of Fergusus death..
This church's founding is recorded as Killbrian in one annal (Annals of Clonmacnoise) but Killbiain in Annals of Ulster and in others( probably copies of one another ).  Of couses John O'Donovan opines that Annals of Clonmacnoise and Annals of Ulster are the most reliable(of the many annals)`.I feel that in the case of spelling the Annals of Clonmacnoise may be more reliable because they are translated directly to English  from Irish without going through Latin as the Annals of Ulster have.  As for killbian or killmbian,I have looked exaustively as some others( the authors did and could not find such a place,but Killbrian is obviously found as an ancient church.
The second reference is where Killbryan is listed as one of a number of churches and abbeys that William Burke raided in the year 1204.See Annals of Clonmacnois 1204. The suprise is that considering its size (perhaps not its stature), it is listed along with major sites like Clonmacnoise, Clonfert etc.It is a major speculation on my part that the reference to Killbryan was one which included or meant to include Cluain O'Braoin which I believe was part with Killbryan as we know it now and was much more substantial in total.That is the townland of Cloonibrien  as we know it now was much larger and encompassed the church of Killbryan.  This was the conclusion of others not my assumption.

So we have two (3) ecleastical  sites named BROIN/BRAOIN within site of two family groups named BRUEN with no known conection over 1500 years but proven by DNA to be related not unreasonably at the start of that period.
Further the only (a very minor exception) other place in Ireland with O'Braoins
is that area of West Meath (Brawney)that Bishop Broins son Mac Rime (speculated his mothers name) was sent to as Bishop .O'Braoins were later 'kings"or petty Princes of that area and are mentioned frequently in the annals.

Below is a list of most ,but not all, of the more famous Eccleastical members who were Abbots or key figures of the Abby of Clonmacnoise,and in some cases Abbots of both Clonmacnoise and Roscommon at the same time.
The most famous is O'Braoin author of the  Annals of the Tiegernacht

969   Dunchad Ua Braoin

1088  Tiegernach O'Braoin Abbot of Clonmacnois and  Roscommon

 1101 Ech.  O'Braoin

1156

1170  Diaramuid O'Braoin  Abbot of Clonmacnoise and Roscommon

1187 Gilla isa O'Braoin ,son of Oilall O'Braoin

1231 Stephen O'Braoin,Ernagh of Mayo

1232 Tipraid O'Braoin,Corab of of St Coman

1234 Gilla na nave Art O'Broin

**1237(for reference this is year Clarus Macmillian was given Trinity Island within Killbryan parish and with land including the church of cill o'braoin, upon which Trinity Abby was built.This parish also of interest and strangely included the site of Killtasean also spans unusually both sides of Loc Ce.

1303 Donal O,Bruin Abbot of Clonmacnoice.

In "Exerpt from Irish Historical Studies by the famous historian Paul Walsh
when writing about  "The Annals" attributed to Tigernach O'Braoin he noted that
Father Woulfe of the famous "Sloinnte  Gadeheal is Gall" wrote that the surname (O'Braoin)
with great probability is now represented by that of BRUEN found in county Roscommon.This is also supported(repeated?)by Healy in Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum who said that the family probably resided in Cluain O'Braoin

Following the great Irish traditon a number of families ,including the O'Connors have tried to "adopt" Tiegernach   and the O'Braoins as part of their clans but there is no basis for these clains.