The English Jesuit writer Edmund Campion after a visit to Ireland wrote the History of Ireland (1571) and described the inside of a law school at the time where junior brehons were trained ‘ I have seese them where they kept school, ten in some one chamber, grovelling upon couches of straw, their bookes at their noses, themselves lying flatte prostrate, and so to chaunte out their lessons by peece-meal, being for the most part lusty fellowes of trenty-five years and upwards’.
From Diaries of Ireland, an anthology, 1590-1987, Meliosina Lenox-Conyngham, Lippiput 1998.
Ó Súilleabhaín 1790-1837 was a Merchant in Co. Kilkenny, he was from Kerry where his father was a hedge school master as was Amhloiimh for a period. For many years he kept a diary in Irish, this is an extract on the election of Daniel O’Connell.
Tuesday 8th July 1828.
…Every window in town was filled with candles all a-light in honour of Daniel O’Connell who was elected in Clare County to be a member of the London Parliament.
After the rising of 1641 claims for compensation were submitted mainly from settlers of a Protestant background. They have now been digitalized at Trinity Collegehttp://1641.tcd.ie/
Included in the list are some from the Bantry area;
Letter February 1841 from Timothy O’Donovan Esq., J.P. from 1818, to Dr. John O’Donovan, Discussed family Debt to Friendly Protestants who Held Land as ‘Nominees’ after Civil War of 1641, Lieutenant Colonel Richard O’Donovan, of the Enniskillen Dragoons, last Acknowledged Chief of the O’Donovans, Contested claim of the Revered Morgan O’Donovan to Chiefdom and His Opinion of Person entitled ‘A Struggling Farmer’, James Donovan, Coolderrha, Myross Parish, Skibbereen.
Slightly edited
Lt Col Richard O’Donovan
Born Ireland 1768; Major in 6th Dragoons 19 December 1799; Lieutenant-Colonel 2 May 1800; brevet Colonel 25 July 1810; subsequently Major-General 4 June 1813; Lieutenant-General 27 May 1825; died Ireland November 1829.
O’Donovan’s Cove,
February 1st, 1841
Sir,
Your letter of the 18th last should not have remained unanswered for so long but I was waiting to obtain some additional information on the query pertaining to the family of O’Donovan, The late General Richard O’Donovan, Lieutenant Colonel of the Enniskillen Dragoons, was undoubtedly the Chieftain of the Clann or Sept of O’Donovan. He died at the family seat of Bawnlahan Barony of Carbery, County of Cork about 11 or 12 years ago. He was married to a Welch lady her name was Powell by whom he had no issue, he left his estate to his wife and upon her death which happened soon after she bequeathed it to her brother a Major Powell a Welch man in whom possession it is at the moment and this ancient seat and property is now in the possession of a Welsh man.
The title of “O’Donovan” was after the general’s death affected by a Protestant Clergyman Morgan O’Donovan, but the claim was not recognised by the members of the O’Donovan family.
I am descended from a branch of the House of O’Donovan, who were obliged to fly the County Cork in the Civil wars of 1641 who took refuge in Co. Limerick, a considerable tract of land was protected in trust by the intervention of “Nominees’ who behaved in those olden days with great and fidelity honour to my ancestors.
This seat seat of O’Donovan’s Cove sits in the Parish of Kilcrohane ..in the part of the Barony of West Carbery and County of Cork. It is my property by inheritance my younger brother, Doctor Richard O’Donovan who has an independent estate resides at Norton Cottage, Skibbereen, we are both in the Commission of The Peace of Co. Cork.
There are several respectable family of the anem who do not affix the “‘O” to the name.
I believe we are the two of the Sept of O’Donovan here the largest landed property in respect of the west of the county.
The most ancient document were in the hands of the late James Donovan, Esq., M.D., Clonakilty, I do not know if they are in the possession of his sons, one of whom is a barrister in London the other is the Clerk of the Crown for Co. Cork, they are my first cousins.
Bawnlahan the family seat of the Chief O’Donovan is near Skibbereen and is a respectable old residence and domaine.
With respect of the information as to who is the senior or head of the O’Donovan family at present, I cannot inform you. who it is . It is of little import as a matter of courtesy it would be conceded to me by the great majority of of the representative of the Clan but I am not satisfied as to the strict right of my claim, and I would not assent to it.
I believe a person of the name of James Donovan, of Coolderrha. Parish of Myross, Barony of West Carbery, now reduced to the position of struggling farmer, a person of excellent character is the eldest representative of the House of O’Donovan.
I have given you all in my possession in response to the queries in your letter.
I shall be most happy to meet you here to discuss when the pedigree of our ancient family over a glass of good wine.
Yours etc
To:
John O’Donovan,
21, Great Charles Street, Dublin.
Jack Attridge, Gearhameen, Durrus, West Cork, c 1920-50 with Skeleton of his Boat on Dunmanus Bay and Home Made Threshing Machine.
Courtesy St. James History.
The boat was built with timbers felled from around the Grain Store at Friendly Cove across the bay. Theyb were then floated across the bay to the Priest’s Gate, Gearhameen. The boat was probably a sand boat. The winch was installed but not the engine so it never went into service but would be representative of that type of craft.
Lieutenant General Richard O’Donovan of the Enniskillen Dragoons (c1764-1829), Chieftain of the O’Donovans, Bawnlahan, West Cork.
Extract 1841 from letter to Dr. John O’Donovan from Timothy O’Donovan, Esq., J.P, O’Donovan’s Cove, Durrus re Chieftainship of family:
The late General Richard O’Donovan, Lieutenant Colonel of the Enniskillen Dragoons, was undoubtedly the Chieftain of the Clann or Sept of O’Donovan. He died at the family seat of Bawnlahan Barony of Carbery, County of Cork about 11 or 12 years ago. He was married to a Welch lady her name was Powell by whom he had no issue, he left his estate to his wife and upon her death which happened soon after she bequeathed it to her brother a Major Powell a Welch man in whom possession it is at the moment and this ancient seat and property is now in the possession of a Welsh man.
The title of “O’Donovan” was after the General’s death affected by a Protestant Clergyman, Morgan O’Donovan, but the claim was not recognised by the family.
General Richard O’Donovan II, The O’Donovan of Clancahill, born 1764 or 1768, was the son of Jane Becher, daughter of John Becher, and Daniel V O’Donovan, The O’Donovan of Clancahill.
Gaining the rank of General in the service of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, O’Donovan fought in the Napoleonic Wars, in the Flanders Campaign and in Spain. He became an intimate acquaintance of the English Prince Regent, and saved the life of the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany during the retreat of the English Army from Holland.
O’Donovan held the Chiefship of Clancahill in 1778. He married a Welsh lady, Emma Anne Powell, daughter of Robert Powell, but they were without issue. Richard O’Donovan then overturned his father’s will and left his entire estates, including the Manor of Bawnlahan, to her family, to the immense displeasure of his own, it being the very last of the O’Donovan family’s by that time 600-year-old estates in Carbery still in existence. He died in 1829, but to this day is remembered with anger. The Chiefship of Clancahill then passed to the cadet line, descendants of Teige, younger brother of Donal III O’Donovan.
Technically the Manor of Bawnlahan was erected in the later 17th century by Donal IV, but it was a descendant of the earlier Manor of Rahine erected by Donal II, on lands conquered by his father Donal of the Skins from a rival sept, the O’Donovans of Sliocht Íomhair. Thus they had been in the possession of the greater family since the 13th century.
Notes
References
Burke, Bernard and Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke’s Irish Family Records. London: Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 5th edition, 1976.
Burke, Bernard and Ashworth Peter Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. London: Harrison & Sons. 9th edition, 1899. pp. 341–2
Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, Carberiae Notitia. 1686. extracts published in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume XII, Second Series. 1906. pp. 142–9
O’Donovan, John (ed. & tr.), Annala Rioghachta Eireann. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to 1616. 7 vols. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. 1848-51. 2nd edition, 1856. Volume VI, pp. 2459–60
O’Hart, John, Irish Pedigrees. Dublin: James Duffy and Co. 5th edition, 1892. p. 201
Some history about the Priest Leap Poem; Edward O’Connor was the school master in the National School at Dromore in the parish of Caheragh between Bantry and Skibbereen/Drimoleague from 1930s until his retirment in December 1951. He was the teacher of the boys class or grades 5, 6, 7, & 8 until the mid 1940s and then the students were mixed both boys & girls. One of his demands or requirments was that all of his students would learn the poem of the Priest Leap.
The Priest Leap Poem was found written in faded lined paper with an ink pin (from the school desk ink-well). This copy of the poem had been written by a former pupil of Edward O’Connor. So now you now know the family story on the Priest Leap. Attached is a video…
Rev. Alleyn Evanson, December 1829, Curate Schull, States 1,200 Protestants in His Parish and New Court Houses for Cork City and County About to Be Erected.
This was probably only a brief period for him to Minister. Most of his tie was as an unbeneficed clergyman managing his Estates in Durrus and Kilcrohane and acting as a Magistrate from Durrus Court, Gearhameen.
The Courthouses are presumably the ones which burnt down and were replaced by the present Courthouses in Washington Street, Cork.
West Cork History 