Hi James Doorley here from Borrisokane in County Tipperary. According to family history my family originally came from Cloghan (about 25 miles away) which is as has been stated here is County Offaly (originally called Kings County) after the famine as far as I know. There are still Doorleys in Cloghan to my knowledge and quite a few Doorleys/Doorlys in the South Offaly/North Tipperary area. There is also a history of Cloghan which I came across when in college. There were (spelt Durleys) in Cloghan in the 1659 hearth rolls (basic census of the time). I
I did a bit of research on the name a few years back, and sent my queries to a journalist who writes on these things, as a result there was an article on the history of the name and the association with Cloghan in the Irish Times of the 2nd of February 1998. You can access it here but you have to pay to get a copy.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0532/ Some people thought it was an English name, but Doorley is an anglicisation of an Irish name. All my family are catholics and indeed one of our name sakes was a Catholic Bishop in the West of Ireland
http://www.discoverireland.ie/di/resultsengine/IndividualResultTCS.aspx?touristItemID=11659 also one of our name sakes was a leader of the 1798 uprising against the British a man called John Doorly
http://kildare.ie/library/1798-Rebellion/clonard.asp there There is a Doorly cottage in Lullymore Heritage Park in Lullymore, Co. Kildare.
I will check the other information I have on my family because my brother in law did quite a bit of work on our family history. I know there are Doorleys who emigrated from Ireland to the US, Ohio and Pennslyvania and some to Australia. There is a book called "Oceans of Consolation" which has recounts letters from Doorleys who emigrated to Australia writing home to Offaly in Ireland in the 19th century. I have a copy, but I am away at the moment, so cannot check the finer details. It also seems that some Doorlys emigrated to the
Show Posts