O'Driscoll Clan Chieftains

Served 2007-2009

Bruce Driscoll

Past Clan Chieftain, Dave Driscoll of England, broke ground in 2005 as the first Chieftain to be "from away". On Sunday, June 24, 2007, he passed the O'Driscoll Chain of Office to the first North American to hold the honour: Bruce Driscoll of New Brunswick, Canada.

Born in Nova Scotia, Bruce's paternal line in Canada started with W. John Driscoll who was born in County Cork around 1819. No records have yet been found to prove his date of entry to Canada but on November 6th, 1861 he married Lydia Mathewson in Ellershouse, Nova Scotia. From there, the direct line to Bruce was from W. John to: Walter Stewart Driscoll, Clifford Walter Driscoll, Clifford Stewart Driscoll, to our current Clan Chieftain, Bruce Stewart Driscoll.

While Bruce's paternal heritage is 100% Irish all the way up the line, he is equally proud of his Acadian roots which so far have been traced all the way through his mother's family line back to 17th century France. Bruce and his wife Marilyn have one son, Dylan Bruce Driscoll, and one daughter, Shauna Lee Driscoll. Dylan and his wife Shirley are the proud parents of a daughter, Norah Ming Driscoll.

During Bruce’s term in office he:
- contacted many North American Driscolls to inform them of the Clan's existence and the annual Clan Gethering,
- made a trip to Newfoundland to the St. John's/Bay Bulls area where the first O'Driscolls settled in the 17th century,
- formed an editorial team to produce the first newsletters of the international O'Driscoll clan, and
- worked with his wife Marilyn to increase the North American Driscoll genealogical information available on their website: The Driscolls of North America.
Following the lead of Dave Driscoll before him, he continued to encourage as many families of the Driscoll/O'Driscoll surname to have one male member in their family line participate in the O’Driscolls of Cork DNA project, spearheaded by Colin Ferguson, to enable us to start connecting the O'Driscolls from around the world with the family lines remaining in Ireland.