The fact that they hide the name normally hints at a little bit of scandal in the family.
Dennigan in Longford is normally an Irish Traveller name, or tinker / intenerant / gypsy to use the colloquial if racist expressions.
Many try to hide such origins.
A smilimlar sounding name is Duignan, also spelled Degnan, Dignan and Ive seen it spelled both as Dignan and Denigan, hence posting this...
And if its Duignan there may be a reason to keep a tad schtum about the name. All the family were very decent people. But... there is always one!
Basically, the Duignans came to the Leggah / Ballinamuck area from Leitrim, and they continued to marry into Leitrim families.
One Francis Duignan married an Ann Grey from Mohill in Leitrim circa 1871 and their eldest daughter was known as Mary Ann Duignan. The name was also spelled Degnan.
This girl was known to the world as Chicago May - and when you read HER story you will see why the family denied being Duignans, if that was there name!
Its a pity as the family was well got in Longford and highly respected. Our dawsie was just one bad apple in a good barrell...
Ive done a piece on her, and just finished reading Noal O Faoilans book "The Story of Chicago May"
http://www.writingsinrhyme.com/index.php/chicago-mayI'm not the only poet as I call myself to write on her, the occultist Alistar Crowley wrote a weird epic poem about a woman who was a lover and yet who repelled him, and he called the character Chicago May even though it wasnt about our girl as such. Why? I dont know!
Our connection is that a Kate Hourican married a Thomas Duignan, and what he is to her father Im unsure, cousins of some sort...