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Who am I?

I'm Claire.

My family name – Santry – is unusual not just for being uncommon but also because it is one of only a handful of Irish surnames derived from a place.

The village of Santry (now a sprawling suburb of Dublin) grew up on the banks of the River Santry just north of the capital. You can’t miss it when you arrive at Dublin airport.


Peculiarly, as a surname it has no certain connection with Santry in co. Dublin. In fact, it is pure Cork. I'm afraid I can't give a satisfactory explanation for this. Perhaps one of my ancestors moved from Dublin to settle in Cork and became known as Santry.

Whatever the reason for its emergence as a surname, every single individual called Santry should be able to trace their ancestry back to co. Cork and specifically to West Cork. Being descended from that county, I've got a fair drop of O'Driscoll in my blood, too.

My mother's heritage is less localised and takes in the counties of Carlow, Dublin, Roscommon, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. It is full of great Irish surnames like Doyle, Tierney, Tobin, Lanigan and Connor, plus a few less obvious ones. It was one of the latter that set me off on my ancestral trail. Who could resist a name like Sophia Doolittle?

When I came across this name in an old letter written by my great aunt Rosann to her niece, Maree, I just had to know more. And so it started......