Folan

Folan (Irish: Ó Cualáin or Ó Culáin), is an Irish family name. They were a Brehon family in County Galway. The Folan family are of Conmhaícne origin.

The surname Folan is most numerous in County Galway, particularly in the area between Galway City and Clifden, in Connacht, Ireland.^[1] The Gaelic spelling used in the Irish-speaking Gaeltacht of Galway is Ó Cualáin, despite Mac Fualláin and O Fualláin being attributed to it by Edward Mac Lysaght and other Irish surname scholars. It is also often incorrectly listed as a variation of other Irish names Fallon, Phelan, or Foley.

16th Century Brehon Family

There was a well known Brehon family called O'Folan in County Galway in the sixteenth century.^[2]

• Servreagh O'Folan, Gentleman, was a signature to an official fiant in 1585, called "Indentures of Composition, The Country of the O'Flaherty's of Eyre Connacht, A.D. 1585", which listed him as a landowner in Moyrus in the Barony of Ballynahinch, County Galway.
• Nehemias Folan of the Newtone, Gentleman, was listed as a landowner near Loughrea, County Galway, in a fiant dated 1585. In a fiant dated 1594 for the O'Halloran clan, he is described in Latin as "in Christo Nehemian Ffolan, generosum, meum attornatum".^[3] In 1615 he was involved in a trial concerning the inheritance of Sir Roger O'Shaughnessy, in Loughrea, and was described as "Nehemias Folan, of Balladowgan, County Galway, Esquire, 60 years old".^[4]

Lands confiscated in 1651

Several O'Folans are mentioned in Elizabethan era fiants as being pardoned for rebel activities.

• In a fiant dated 1590, "Sirwrehagh Folain,of Moiris, Gentleman, Nehemiah Folain of Moyris, Boetius Folain, Mackragh Folain, Fernand Folain and Connor McSerally of Moyris", were all given Royal Pardons. In another fiant in 1590, "Nehenas Folone of Newtown, Co Galway", also received a pardon.^[5]
• Salamon Folan took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and was one of the group of men led by Colonel Edmond O'Flaherty at the siege of Tromroe Castle in County Clare.^[6]
• Ferdinando Follin, (Feargananim Folan), of Moyrus, Carna, County Galway, was registered as owner of lands consisting of 3,678 acres (14.88 km²), and 193 acres (0.78 km²). Following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1651, his lands were confiscated.^[7]

Military Roll of Honour

Many Folans served in the Connaught Rangers Regiment of the British Army.

• Patrick Folan was killed at the Battle of Inkermann 5 November 1854, during the Crimean War.^[8]
• John Folan won the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1916 for Gallantry while serving in Mesopotamia during World War I with the 3rd Battalion of the Connaught Rangers.^[9]
• Patrick Folan was killed in action in the Gallipoli Campaign on 27 August 1915, his brother John Folan was Killed in Action in France in 1918, and Joseph Folan died in Mesopotamia in 1918. All were serving with the Connaught Rangers during World War I.
• Peter Folan died while serving with the Royal Navy in 1919.^[10]
• Joseph Folan was killed in action during World War II, while serving with the Royal Artillery in Malaysia, in 1945.^[11]
• John Folan was awarded the Dewey Medal while serving with the United States Navy in the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish–American War in 1898.^[12]

Several Folans also served during the American Civil War.

• John Folan, was killed in action at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 19 May 1864, while serving with the New York, I Co. 6th HA Regiment.^[13]
• Bartholomew Folan, serving with the B Co. 16th Inf Regiment. NH died from disease at New Orleans, LA on 7 June 1863.^[14]
• James J Folan, from Boston, Massachusetts, served as 1st Lieutenant with the 48th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, of the Union Army.
• Captain A.H. Folan served with the 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army.
• Colonel John B. Folan flew during the Berlin Airlift in 1948, with the United States Air Force.
• James Folan, Woodquay, Galway, was the Battalion Quarter-master of the Galway Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence.^[15]

Other historical Folan references

• Dermot Folan was vicar of Moycullen and Kilcummin in 1628.^[16]
• Thomas Folan was the Prior of the Dominican Convent in Galway from 1865 to 1873, and was also King of the Claddagh up to his death in 1874.^[17]

Folans today

• Caleb Folan, was a Republic of Ireland forward, who made his senior debut against Cyprus in October 2008. He played in the Football League Championship with Hull City, and qualified for Ireland through his paternal Grandparents who are from Galway.
• Cormac Folan from Barna, County Galway, represented Ireland in Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's coxless four, at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• Tony Folan was an Irish footballer during the 1990s and 2000s. He represented Ireland at every level up to Under-21 and "B".
• Lilias Folan from Cincinnati, Ohio was a yoga pioneer in the USA, and hosted the TV show Lilias, Yoga and You on PBS Television. The show first aired in 1972 on Cincinnati PBS member station WCET-TV and four years later was carried on PBS across the United States, where it ran until 1992. Named one of Yoga Journals 4 most influential figures in American Yoga over the past 100 years she is often referred to as "The First lady of Yoga" or "The Julia Child of Yoga". She still teaches in the USA.
• William J Folan is an archaeologist and explorer, and is an expert on Mayan Archaeology who has worked on the Coba^[18] and Calakmul^[19] excavations
• Sean Ó Cualáin and Eamonn Ó Cualáin are brothers and award winning documentary producers and directors, they directed the documentary 'Men at Lunch' about an iconic photograph of construction workers on a New York skyscraper.^[20]
• Seosamh Ó Cualáin was elected as a member of Galway County Council in 2014.^[21]

Edward MacLysaght notes on the surname Folan

The name is mainly confined to Connacht, as seen by the birth registrations: 63 were recorded in 1866, 62 of which were in County Galway; in 1890 the number was much less, only 28, but 23 of these were in County Galway and the other 5 in County Mayo. It is stated that the name is Mac Fualláin in Irish; but it may be Ó Fualláin. In a fiant of 1584 relating to County Galway the name MacFolane appeared once, whereas O'Folane is frequent: in a fiant of 1577 an area in County Roscommon called Grange O'Folan is specifically termed O'Folan's country. O'Folan and O'Fallon have been confused in records: "O'Folan's country" was in County Roscommon, "O'Fallon's country" in County Galway.

In the Composition Book of Connacht eight years later, several O'Folanes of County Galway are mentioned. O'Phelan (in Irish, Ó Faoláin) was often entered in early medieval records as Offolan and later. as Follon, Follan etc., e.g., in Petty's "census", giving the impression that Folane is a Waterford or Kilkenny name. A good example of this is to be seen in the person of the Bishop of Limerick (1489–1521) whose name is given by Canon Begley as John Folan alias Whelan (Whelan is the same as Phelan). Eugenius O'Folan, Bishop of Kilmacduagh from 1409 to 1418 and then Bishop of Killaloe, was of the Ó Fualláin sept.^[2]

References

1. Folan Surname
2. "Irish Families" Edward Mac Lysaght, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1985
3. "A History of West or H-Iar Connacht" Roderick O'Flaherty, Irish Archeological Society, Dublin, 1846
4. The Tribes, Customs and Genealogies of the Hy Fiachrach. John O'Donovan, Irish Archaeological society, Dublin, 1844
5. The Sixteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland,Calendar of Fiants of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 1586–95, Alex Thom., Dublin, 1884
6. Deposition of Salamon Folan, 1641 Depositions Project, MS 830 281r, Trinity College, Dublin, 1653
7. Books of survey and distribution Vol. III. County of Galway, 1680
8. Crimean War Roll of Honour.
9. Military-genealogy.org.uk/Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations 1914–1920
10. Forgotten Heroes, Galway Soldiers of the Great War 1914–1915. William Henry, Mercier Press, Dublin 2007
11. Army Roll of Honour 1939–1945
12. US Navy Service Medals
13. John Folan Civil War Graves
14. Barthalomew Folan Civil War Graves
15. Connacht Tribune 1909–2010; Page: 12; Date: 19 November 1960.
16. The Wardenship of Galway. Rev Fr Martin Coen, Kennys, Galway, 1984
17. Dominicans in Ireland, 1841-1845. Hugh Fenning, Collectanea Hibernica
18. COBA: A Classic Maya Metropolis William J. Folan, et al., New York: Academic Press, 1983.
19. "Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capitol in Campeche, Mexico." Folan, William, et al., Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 6, No. 4, Dec. 1995.
20. www.nytimes.com Men at Lunch
21. Galway County Council Results

External links

• Thomas Folan Biography
• Lilias Folan Biography
• Folan Family Forum
• Folan Bulletin Board on Ancestry.Com
• www.military-genealogy.com