[sic, -o- gairid] "The name may perhaps be older than the Anglo-Norman settlement; I have not found the name Ronan, however, in the genealogies of the ruling families of the district. In the Anglo-Norman period the place seems to have been a centre of some importance. There was a castle here in 1655; this was probably where Alexander McDonnell lived in 1523 (CI[nq.], c. 1566); he was a captain of the Earl of Kildare's galloglasses. The entry of 1394 concerning Janico Dartas suggests that the manor here was then already old. It is probable that the original castle was built in the thirteenth century, and that it was used later as a defence post for the English settlements in the district.