Attending an O Driscoll Clan Gathering weekend at the end of June each year is a significant experience for all who bear any form of the name Ó Drisceoil, O Driscoll, Driskell or Driskill. People with these and other forms of the O Driscoll surname around the world most likely have their ancestral connections, stretching back over several centuries to a specific part of County Cork, Ireland. Clann Ó Drisceoil, or the O Driscoll Clan, have, for some 1,500 years, been anchored in the ancient district of Corcu Loígde, now known as Carbery, in West Cork. Today the area around Baltimore and the islands of Cape Clear, Heir and Sherkin is accepted as being the heart of the ancestral homeland of the worldwide O Driscoll family. For Map of Ó Drisceoil / O Driscoll held lands c. 1600

A successful Clan Gathering of the O Driscolls took place at Baltimore in 1961, and was revived some twenty-five years later in 1986, going on to become, yearly since then, a four-day event, taking place during the last weekend of June. It is during this gathering that clan members choose their chieftain, who coordinates the affairs of the clan and hosts their ceremonial events for a period of two years. As the choosing of the modern-day O Driscoll Chieftain is not based on historical descent, any person descended from someone who bore the name Ó Drisceoil / O Driscoll is eligible to be chosen and to hold office for two years.