Notwithstanding its very English appearance Cummins is a Gaelic Irish surname quite distinct from the English
Cummings and Cumming, though sometimes the original O Coimin takes those forms as its anglicized synonyms. Indeed
the number of variants in English is considerable - Commons, Comyns, Kimmons, commane and even MacSkimmins are
recorded by the Registrar-General as being used as interchangeable with Cummins. O Coimin is first found in
Connacht: the family were erenaghs of the church of St. Cuimin Fada, and the parish of Kilcummin on the western
side of the Bay of Killala is named after them. The form Commons is now the most usual in Co. Mayo. It is a name
about which much confusion is inevitable. It appears as O Comain in Munster, whence come the majority of present
day Cumminses (also called Commane) now found in Counties, Tipperary and Cork. There they are sometimes called
Hurley, through a mistranslation, caman being the Gaelic word for a hurley-stick. In some parts of Ulster the form
in Irish is Mac Coimin, which is of long standing, for a deed relating to land in Co. Armagh, dated 1264, contains
the name of Patrick MacCumyn. To add to the complexity the name Comyn, an Anglo-Norman, was Archbishop of Dublin
from 1182-1213.
In one form or another the name appears in the roll of distinguished Irishmen from a very early date. In the sixth
century, long before the introduction of surnames, St. Common, pupil of St. Finian, went from Ulster as missionary
to Connacht and founded Roscommon and other monasteries in that province. Cormac O Cuimin, or Comon (1703-1786),
was one of the many blind bards and shanachies of the eighteenth century. Another famous poet of that era was
Michael Comyn (1688-1760), of Kilcorcoran, Co. Clare. His son Michael Comyn (b. 1704), emigrated to France where
he was accepted as one of the nobility of France (descendants of Wild Geese of the name we were also enrolled
amoung the nobility of Spain) and his grandson, John Frances Comyn (1742-1793), was guillotined as an aristocrat
during the French Revolution, while David Comyn (1853-1907), another Clareman, was particularly active in the
movements which led up to the formation of the Gaelic League. Some families of Comyn came to North Clare as
papists transplanted under the Cromwellian regime from east of the Shannon, but the Inquisitions of earlier in the
seventeenth century provide that families of the name were already well established in the county before that
period. William Cumming (1769-1852), famous as a portrait-painter, was an Irishman who lived and worked in
Ireland.