McGonagle — Hound of Valour

McGonagle anglicises Mag Congail, ‘son of Congal’ — a personal name built from cú, ‘hound’, and gal, ‘valour’, the same root that gives Connolly its meaning. In the words of the scholar Patrick Woulfe it is ‘a well-known Tirconnell surname’: a Donegal name, written McGonigle, McGonigal and many other ways.

Its best-known bearer, Donald MagCongail, Bishop of Raphoe from 1562, was one of the few Irish bishops at the Council of Trent — a Donegal name heard in the councils of Europe.

Irish form: Mag Congail