The O'Byrne (gaelic form: O'Broin) family derives its name and descent from Bran,son of Maolmordha, King of Leinster whose death at Cologne is recorded by the Four Masters under the year 1052. The original patrimony of the family was Ui Faolain, which comprised the Northern half of present County Kildare; but they were driven thence by the Anglo-Normans soon after the invasion, and forced to take refuge in the mountain fastnesses of Wicklow, where they became very powerful and were long the terror of the invaders of their ancestral home. At the head of the Wicklow clans they maintained, for a period of three hundred years, incessant warfare with the foreigner, whom they defeated in many a fierce engagement. Their country, which was called Crioch-Branach, comprised the entire barony of Newcastle and portions of those of Arklow and Ballinacor. This last belonged to the Gaval Rannall, or Ranelagh, a junior

Though by no means a common surname in the United States, Byrne, or O'Byrne, ranks as the seventh most common surname in Ireland. Many Byrnes immigrated to America during the famines of the 1840's, as did many other Irish families. What is not commonly known, however, is that there is a small branch of Byrnes in France as well. This was a result of the bounties placed on the heads of many Byrnes by the English crown. During the early to middle 18th century, France welcomed the Irish freedom fighters with opened arms. Descendants of these exiled patriots can still be found in France today. Some of them had even risen to the ranks of French nobility.Woulfe's "Irish Names and Surnames," P. 444