Connolly ????????

Question:

Connolly ????????

does anyone know anything about this surname?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: A number of original Irish names have been anglicized as Connolly. The O'Conghalaigh from Conghal, as fierce as a wolf, were based in Connacht. The name arose as O'Coingheallaigh in West Cork while Ulster Connolly's derive from both the O' Conghalaigh of Fermanagh and the Monaghan Connolly's for whom a number of separate origins are suggested as a branch of the MacMahons. The latter Monaghan family has been the most prominent of the Connolly's recorded as having chiefs of the name
up to the seventeenth century and producing among others Speaker William Conolly [sic] reputedly the richest man in the eighteenth century Ireland and James Connolly labour leader, socialist writer and signatory of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence.