Ó Gráda

Rev Patrick Woulfe

Irish Names and Surnames

1923

Ó GRÁDA—I—O Grada, O'Grady, Grady, (Brady); 'descendant of Gráda' (noble, illustrious); the name of a distinguished Dalcassian family who were originally seated in the parish of Killonasoolagh, near the river Fergus, in the south of Co. Clare. After the year 1318, they removed to the neighbourhood of Tomgraney, where they obtained from the O'Briens an extensive tract of land, embracing several parishes in the counties of Clare and Galway. In 1543, Donogh O'Grady, 'Captain of his nation,' was knighted by Henry VIII, and granted by letters patent the lands of his clan. Thenceforward the heads of the O'Grady family were steadily on the side of the English interest. The surname about this time, in some unaccountable way, got anglicised O'Brady and Brady. Hugh Brady, the first Protestant bishop of Meath, was a son of Sir Donogh O'Grady, and the ancestor of the Bradys of Raheen, Co. Clare. Another son, John O'Grady, alias Brady, who settled in Co. Limerick, was the ancestor of the O'Gradys of Kilballyowen. The name is now common in Munster and Connacht. To be distinguished from Ó Greada, which see.

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