The Family Crests of the Richard O'Brien and Lady Heather Davis O'Brien's families.

The first individual to clearly use O'Brien as a genuinely hereditary surname was Donogh Cairbre O'brien, son of the King of Munster, Donal Mor. His descendents split into a number of branches, including the O'Briens of Aberlow, the O'Brien's of Waterford, the O'Briens of Arra in north Tipperary, and the O'Brien's of Limerick, where the surname is perpetuated in the name of the barony of Pubblebrien. Today the name is numerous and widespread throughout Ireland, with particular concentrations in these areas, as well as the original Homeland of Clare. The surname has been prominent in all spheres of Irish life. The novelist and dramatist Kate O'Brien (1897-1954) suffered, like most Irish novelists of worth, at the hands of the censors in the early years of the Irish Free State. William Smith O'Brien (1803-1864) was one of the founders of the Young Ireland movement, and took a prominent part in the rising of 1848. His grandson Dermod O'Brien ( 1865-1945) was a leading portrait painter in Dublin for almost forty years. The Family Crest of the Designer