Dooley — The Dark Hero

Dooley anglicises Ó Dubhlaoich, ‘descendant of Dubhlaoch’ — from dubh, ‘dark’, and laoch, ‘hero’ or ‘champion’. Before the Anglo-Normans came the family were lords of Feara Tulach, now the barony of Fertullagh in Westmeath; their lands went to the Tyrrells, and a branch settled on the western slopes of Slieve Bloom, in Ely O’Carroll.

There the head of the family held the honour of inaugurating the O’Carroll as king of Ely — the dark hero, in the end, the one who made the king.

Irish form: Ó Dubhlaoich