In 982 the King of Connaught, Aedh Ua Dubhda (or Hugh O’Dowd), “died an untroubled death.” This note in Lebor Laignech, the medieval Irish manuscript better known as the Book of Leinster, is the first record of the O’Dowd surname, making it one of the oldest continually-used family names in Europe. It is also one of the few names that has almost universally kept the “O,” O’Dowd being far more common than Dowd (modern Irish Ó Dubhda).
Literally translated as “grandson of the Dark One,” the name derives from a 9th- century king of Connacht called Dubhda, pronounced DOO-da, from the Irish root word dubh, black. The clan lineage however, can be traced even further back to the final decades of the 4th century and the early years of the 5th to Niall of the Nine Hostages,the famed Irish King, through his nephew, Daithi. Daithi, who succeeded Niall upon his death in 402, was also notably the last pagan King of Ireland.
By 482, the antecedents of the O’Dowds had lost the throne at Tara but the clan continued to be the leading family in Connacht until the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century when they were reduced to their original territorial holdings in Sligo and Mayo.
Until the late 17th century, the O’Dowds impressively maintained hereditary historians to record the lineage of the chieftain, and there is also a highly detailed account of the clan’s inauguration ceremony recorded in the Leabhar Leacain, the Great Book of Lecan, written around the turn of the 15th century.
Apart from Hugh and his sadly normal death, one of the oldest O’Dowds of note is Sen-Bhrian O’Dowd, who for several decades in 1354 drove all of the Anglo-Norman invaders out of Tireragh, the barony straddling Sligo and Mayo on the northern coast. Today, as one might expect, the majority of O’Dowds hail from those borderlands between Sligo and Mayo, though the diaspora, as with all Irish surnames, has spread the clan globally.
In fact, only one of the three O’Dowds of greatest fame in the 19th century was born in Ireland, and he died in Montreal. Father Patrick Dowd (baptized 1813, d. 1891) was a member of the Seminaire de Saint-Sulpice and director of St. Patrick’s church in Montreal. He was highly regarded by the French and Irish Catholic populations for his charity, especially during the Famine years. In fact, he refused a Papal Bull that would have promoted him to Bishop of Toronto so that he could stay in Montreal, inciting a six-month tribunal at the Vatican.
In the United States, Charles F. Dowd (1825 – 1904) was the first person to propose time zones to ease train schedules, and though his specific plan was not adopted, the railroad industry did establish its own time zones based on the Greenwich Meridian a decade later. (Charles proposed a Washington Meridian.) The other 19th century clan member was Bernard Patrick O’Dowd (1866 – 1953), an Australian educator, publisher, politician, and poet, known primarily for keeping all those occupations separate.
Returning to American O’Dowds who invented things, Tom Dowd (1925 – 2002) was a sound engineer and the man responsible for multitrack recording while at Atlantic Records in the 1950s. In 1982, John H. Dowd (1922 – 2004) forever changed the relationship between candy and movies when he brokered the Hershey Company’s first product placement with the Reece’s Pieces tie-in for E.T. Twenty years earlier, painter and sculptor Robert Dowd (1936 – 1996) was included in the 1962 exhibition “New Painting of Common Objects” in Pasadena, which was the first institutional recognition for the Pop Art movement.
Also in the arts in the United States, we may include Maureen Dowd (b. 1952), a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and editorial writer whose critically conversational newspaper columns have been earning her praise and influence for more than three decades. Across the pond again, the 80s British pop sensation Boy George is also a member of the clan. Born George Alan O’Dowd in 1961, Boy George is responsible for pioneering a new era of androgynous glam rockers, well as that paragon of 80s songs, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”
Keeping with performance, but going back (roughly) to the original Ó Dubhda territory, Chris O’Dowd (b. 1979), is the Roscommon-born actor of Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd fame, currently, and fittingly, staring in the HBO documentary-style comedy “Family Tree,” playing Tom Chadwick, a 30-something Irishman who goes to America to research his lineage.
Maintaining the theme of trans-Atlantic familial bridges, we end with Tipperary brothers Fergus and Niall O’Dowd. Fergus O’Dowd (b. 1948) is a Fine Gael politician and current Minister of State for the NewEra Project. His brother Niall O’Dowd (b. 1953) is a U.S. journalist and publisher responsible for numerous Irish American publications including, you guessed it, this one.
Any news about the Clan Reunion in Enniscrone 2015? The O’Dubhada website does not seem to exist anymore?!
RESTORATION Work has now started on Enniscrone Castle Co Sligo first mentioned 1417 by Giolla Iosa Mhor MacFirbis but Rory ODowda his brother started this work
the project will start 2nd week september 2024
enniscrone Gathering 2015 thursday 1st october to4th october.
program from brendan at above web.
Hi! Hope this website is still up and running….I’m looking for any information about Mary Catherine O’Dowd, my maternal greatgrandmother. As far as I know, she came to the U.S. as a young girl somewhere in the late 1860’s or so and was from around Sligo/Mayo. She didn’t marry until sometime after she came to the U.S. and married my greatgrandfather, William Boone. The details about her early life in Ireland are very sketchy to say the least, and not much information was passed on. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
Hello, I have been trying to find information relating the Dowda surname to the O’Dowd clan. My father and uncle believed this to be the case, but I’m not sure if it is true. I would greatly appreciate a nod in the right direction. I am an American living in México, where two of my three daughters were born, continuing the diaspora.
Hi,
Just a few lines to advise you that the remains of one of the O’Dowd Strongholds at Beltra, Co. Sligo, Ireland is at the moment being destroyed and being turned into a holiday park without planning permission by a local family with strong political connection and their main opposition is being led by the Dowager Lady Sally Crofton, 88 years old. She has advised both local and government heritage officials and removal orders have been issued last year but have, like previous orders, been ignored. As I said they have political clout.
Since you have a meeting of the clan in nearby Enniscrone Co Sligo this year I suggest that you arrange a meeting with Lady Sally and view the problem. Please contact me at the above email address.
Yours sincerely
Kieran Matthews
Hi Kieran,
Can you pinpoint where exactly the holiday park is being built ? What local landmarks is it beside ?
Can you provide a link to any on-line article about what’s happening ?
The O’Dowd clan should intervene to stop this from happening. Have you tried contacting the national museum in Dublin. Maybe archaeologists there could object to what’s happening.
Sean Murphy
I’m Randy Dowdy, from Providence NC, USA.
DNA has tied me in to Ireland. I’m intrigued by the possibility (and massive hope!) that we’re indeed tied into the O’Doubda lineage.
I spend most every evening reading anything I can about the history.
It’s surely interesting!
Backup email is randydowdy_27315@yahoo.com
I’m Ronan ODowd , Originally from Ballydougan
Co Down IRELAND
Our Family were set up by to be wiped out (Extermiinated ) By Proxy ( Loyalists)Assassins for the Crown 4/01/76
Simply because we as Catholics , & my Father being a hardworking Enterprising man ,had managed to build a successful Business, farming retail Milk & Coal delivery.
With a family of Six boys & two girls & my Mother hailing from Lisnaskea Co Fermanagh IRELAND
A family of Gaels to the Core ,
The paid Assassins for the English Crown
On the 4th of Jan 1976 at 6.35 pm they gained entry to our home ! As it happened to be the 1st Sunday of the new year , my Mother & Father were having friends an relatives over for dinner
She opened the door with open arms to welcome arriving Guests .
The Assassins pushed by her & opened fire with semi automatic weapons & British Army supplied Bullets
My Brother Declan was the 1st to fall as he ran to aid a screaming Mother
Next was my fathers Brother , our dear uncle Joe
He rushed the killers to no avail , he was felled by they’re hateful lead
My Father faced The Evil that night with hard worked bare Hands The assassins dropped him to the ground
Playing Music at the piano , my Dear brother Barry faced the Evil , again they pulled the trigger
Another true Gael fell that January Night
My dear brothers were
Declan ODowd 19 years
Barry ODowd 24 years
Uncle Joe 61 years
My loving Father was torn to bits with the assassins lead that night
53 year Barney , made a vow to our mother that he would live
& live he did .the Surgeons described him as the miracle man He moved the family to Co meath in August 1976 , were he an my mother lived for the remainder of theyre lives our dear mother Kathleen (née) Durnien died on the 15th December 1999 a week
Before she died , she tasked me with exhuming Declan Barry , from the parish of Tullylish Cemetery in Co Down
Myself an my remaining Brothers Noel Loughlin & Cathal & 3 close friends of the family carried out the exhumation ourselves, it was the right thing to do
We didn’t want any other person handling this sacred task
We reinterred our brothers that lovely 31st Aug evening , beside they’re beloved mother
My Father Barney got to carry his sons remains that day , on the 7th of Jan 76 he was in hospital fighting for his life
Barney (my father ) would go on to live for many more years , he lived a happy peaceful life surrounded by his loving family
He passed away on the 10th of April 2024 , 22 days short of his 101 year
He looked Evil in the Eye & he defeated it
A true son of Ireland & a fearsome Gael
Hey Ronan,
Thank you for sharing your family’s story with us ????????