Larry O'Brien
From:	JBRO66@aol.com
Sent:	Sunday, August 15, 1999 10:19 PM
To:	lpobrien@intranet.ca
Cc:	shamrock-L@rootsweb.com
Subject:	Breen
Taken from The Dicitionary of Irish Family Names - pg 35

"(O)Breen - also MacBreen, Brawney

Breen - in Irish O Braoin - is derived from braon, meaning sadness or sorrow. 
 It is a very numerous surname throughout Ireland, although the O or Mac 
prefix, once an essential part of the name, has long since been dropped.  In 
the course of time, the name became corrupted to O Brien, and even to Brown 
or Bruen.

There were a number of Breen septs.  At one time they were an influential 
family in Knocktopher, County Kilkenny, until the Anglo-Norman invasion began 
in 1169.

The Breens of Westmeath were a more important sept.  They owned much land in 
Offaly, near Athlone.  Their chieftans were lords of Brawney and, until the 
fifteenth century, they were on a par with the great O Conor kings of 
Connacht and MacMorrogh, King of  Leinster.

>From the Brawney sept came Tighearnach OBraoin, the annalist and, in 1088, 
Abbot of Clonmacnoise.  Donal O Breen was Bishop of Clonmacnoise from 1303 to 
1324.

Francis Breen of Wexford fought in the 1798 Rebellion.

Elizabeth Breen was with the Irish nuns who were imprisoned during the French 
Revolution which began in 1793.

By far the most notorious Breen was Dan Breen (1894 - 1969), the son of a 
Tipperary farmer, who took a leading part in the War of Indpendence. At one 
time there was a reward 10,000 pounds on his head.  He was elected a member 
of Dail Eireann for Tipperary in 1923.  His autobiography recounting his 
famous guerrilla battles, "My fight for Irish Freedom" (1924), was a 
bestseller."