Breathnach (meaning Welsh), or Bhreathnach (feminine form), is an Irish surname, indicating an ancestor who was Welsh. It is the Irish-language version of surnames such as Brannagh, Brunnock, Brannick, Walsh, Wallace, and Wallis.
However, it does not necessarily mean that the ancestor concerned was from modern-day Wales; Robert Bell notes that Wallace was a surname indicating a Briton native of Strathclyde or any part of the Latin name Wallensis meant just that. It can also refer to the Cambro-Normans (later Hiberno-Normans) that were of Norman origin, but came to Ireland via Wales. The name appears in twelfth-century records of Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, parts of the old Strathclyde kingdom ... Wallace has also been used as a synonym of Walsh." (Bell, p. 244). The best known bearer of the name from the area was Uilleam Breatnach ( William Wallace).
John de Courcy (1160–1219) planted significant numbers of Britons of Cumbria during his lordship of Ulster. Gaelic-Irish sources such as Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh concur, referring to such people as breatnaigh, denoting a Briton (see Old Welsh) (Medieval Ireland, p. 514).
- Breandán Breathnach, music collector and uilleann piper
- Cárthach Bán Breathnach, actor and DJ
- Cormac Breathnach, teacher and politician
- Edel Bhreathnach, academic and historian
- Deasún Breathnach, writer and journalist
- Fiachra Breathnach, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sportsperson
- Gearóidín Bhreathnach, sean-nós singer
- Lucilita Bhreatnach, Sinn Féin politician
- Maire Breathnach, actress
- Máire Breatnach, musician and educator
- Mícheál Breathnach (1881-1908), writer
- Micheál Breathnach (1886-after 1954), educator and writer
- Niamh Bhreathnach, Irish Labour Party politician
- Paddy Breathnach, film director and producer
- Pádraic Breathnach, actor and producer
- Seán Bán Breathnach, radio and television personality
- Séanna Breathnach, Provisional Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin member
- Séamus Breathnach, Lab analyst
- Míchael Breathnach GAC, a Gaelic Athletic Association club
- Bhreathnach
- The Book of Ulster Surnames, Robert Bell, 1988.
- Walsh:Breathnach, Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2003
- Welsh Influence in Medieval Ireland:An Encyclopedia (2005), ed. Seán Duffy, p. 514.
- http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=
- http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&Surname=Walsh&UserID=
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