From Ó Tuathail, ‘ruler of the people’ — kings of Wicklow who held the mountains against the Anglo-Normans for four centuries.
The O’Toole certificate.
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Gaelic Origin · Root meaning ‘ruler of the people’
O'Toole comes from Ó Tuathail, joining tuath (‘people, tribe’) with a word for rule. Pushed out of Kildare by the Anglo-Norman advance, the family took the Wicklow Mountains instead and, alongside the O'Byrnes, held that ground against repeated attempts to dislodge them for close to four hundred years.
Displaced once, and answered by taking a harder piece of ground and holding it even longer than the one they'd lost.
Irish form: Ó Tuathail
