The name Curran seems to have been derived independently from several different surnames in Scotland and Ireland: Curwen, Ó Currain, Ó Currain, Mac Corraidhin, Ó Cuirin. Descendents of each of these families have sometimes changed the spelling of their name to Curran or Curren.

 

The Curwen family is descended from Maldred, an elder brother of Duncan I, the King of Scotland who was murdered by MacBeth in 1041. Both Duncan I and Maldred were sons of Beatrix, daughter of Malcolm the Second (d. 1040), son of Cenneth (d. 994), son of Malcolm the First (d. 858), son of Donald (d. 903), son of Constantine (d. 878), son of Cenneth MacAlpin (d. 854), son of Alpin (d. 834), son of Eochaidh, son of Aodh Fionn, son of Donart, son of Donald Breac, son of Eochaidh Buidhe. Thus, although the Curwen family intermarried with the English and has been associated with Cumberland in England in recent centuries, they were apparently all Scots during the first millenium. Since the Currans in our family came from Ulster and Scotland, it seems more likely that they had the same distant Scottish ancestors as the Curwen family rather than being descended from any of the Irish clans listed above.

 

The first Scottish Currans in Ulster were most likely among the Protestant English and Scottish settlers "planted" in the early 17th Century to displace the earlier Irish. The objective, of course, was to maintain a steady flow of income from the colony in Ireland without the great cost of constantly suppressing rebellions. It worked for a while, but then some Protestant settlers became rebels. This was inevitable since the cause of the rebellions lay in England, not in Ireland.

After the insurrection of 1798, the Protestant attorney, John Philpot Curran¹⁷ (1750—1817), defended almost every prisoner, including the two Protestant leaders, Wolfe Tone¹⁸ and Napper Tandy.  Robert Emmett was devoted to Curran's younger daughter, Sarah (1781—1808).