Cú Chonnacht Ó Cianáin, d. 1615, was a rymer or chronicler to Rory Maguire.

He was apparently the first man racked in Ireland, the instrument being used most severely upon him during an interrogation into a bungled insurrection in early summer 1615. On 31 July of that year, he and five others were condemned to death in Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, and he is believed to have been hung shortly afterwards.

He is also described as a yeoman

Yeoman

Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...

 of Moygh, a place somewhere between Ballymoney

Ballymoney

Ballymoney is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,021 people in the 2001 Census. It is currently served by Ballymoney Borough Council....

 and the Bann

Bann

Bann may refer to:*Banns of marriage*River Bann, in the north of Ireland*River Bann, in Wexford, Ireland*Bann, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

. He was a brother of Tadhg Og Ó Cianáin.

The surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

 Ó Cianáin

Ó Cianáin

Ó Cianáin was the name of a Gaelic-Irish Brehon family. They were originally erenaghs of the parish of Cleenish, Lough Erne, but who had served for several centuries as historians to Mag Uidir of Fear Manach ....

 is now generally rendered as Keenan

Keenan

Keenan is a male Irish name which means "ancient, distant". Keenan is an Anglicisation of the Irish name Cianán which is a diminutive of Cian...

.

Sources

• The Learned Family of Ó Cianáin/Keenan, Nollaig Ó Muraíle
  Nollaig Ó Muraíle
  Nollaig Ó Muraíle is an Irish scholar. He published an acclaimed edition of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh's Leabhar na nGenealach in 2004. He was conferred with the honour of admittance to the Royal Irish Academy in 2009.-Life and career:...
  
  , in Clougher Record, pp.387–436, 2005.
• Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Éirinn from Ráth Maoláin to Rome: Tadhg O Cianáin’s contemporary narrative of the so-called ‘Flight of the Earls, 1607-8, Nollaig Ó Muraíle(editor), Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2007. ISBN 978-88-901692-1-2