A history of the O’Leary name and its connections to the parish of Inchigeelagh, Co. Cork. Uibh Laoire, otherwise known as Inchigeelagh, is the third largest Parish in County Cork. It contains the two large villages of Ballingeary and Inchigeelagh. The Parish lies along the upper reaches of the River Lee, and stretches from Keimaneigh to Toons Bridge

In ancient times the Tribe who occupied most of Carbery,  from Kinsale to Bantry in Co. Cork, were Erainn people called the Corcu Loigde.  Towards the end of the 2^nd.c. AD this Tribe produced a king called Luy Maccon who became High King of Ireland for a period of 30 years ended in 212 AD.  His eldest son continued to rule over the Corcu Loigde and his descendants were the O’Driscolls.  Luy’s  5^th. son, Fothac Canaan, founded a family which became one of the sub-kings under the O’Driscolls, and eventually took the surname of O’Leary.  As a Tribe they were known as the Ui Laoire long before the introduction of surnames.  These Ui Laoire were chieftains of the Tuath Ruis or Tuath in Dolaich, which covered an area of about 40 sq. miles around the City of Rosscarbery.  Their main Residence was the ringfort of Burgatia, and nearby they founded a Monastery which later became a well known seat of Learning, a University, and a Bishopric.  The Diocese of Ross was upheld at the Synods of the 12^th.c. and the O’Learys became the Hereditary Wardens of the Monastery and University.

All this comfortable lifestyle was shattered in the 12^th.c. due to the upheavals caused by the arrival of the Anglo-Norman invasion.  The powerful Norman Lords swept across the Country seeking the best land and seizing it.  These included the Desmond FitzGeralds and their supporters who targeted the lands of Limerick County.  This caused the families of O’Collins and O’Donovan to forsake their ancient territories in Limerick and seek their fortunes further South in Carbery, invited there by the O’Mahonys who at that time were at war with their distant cousins the O’Donoghues.

The final outcome of all these upheavals was that the O’Collins and O’Donovans moved down to Carbery, the O’Donoghues moved up to Glen Fesk and Killarney, and the O’Learys moved up to Uibh Laoire where they have remained ever since.  With then came many of their followers including the Twomeys, Cronins and Lynches who had all been natives of South Carbery.

These events, according to John O’Donovan in his History of the O’Donovan Clan, took place in 1196.  It certainly must have been about this date and after the Invasion by the Anglo-Normans which started in 1169.  It is probably reasonable to accept the 1196 date since we have no other evidence for or against.

The groundwork for this move took place several years earlier.  The O’Mahonys and the O’Donoghues were descended from the same tribe, the Ui Eachach, a branch of the Eoganachta of Cashel.  They had come down from Cashel in the 6^th.c. and had divided the territory of North Carbery between them; the Cineal Aodh (O’Mahonys) taking the Eastern portion around modern Kinelmeaky and Kinelea, with the Cineal Laoire (O’Donoghues) holding the Western portion from about Coppeen to Drimoleague. 

The territory of the Cineal Laoire was known as Uibh Laoire.  This name was given to the whole of the North West part of Carbery and it included of course our Parish which was later to be known by the same name.

Sometime in the 10^th.c. a sub-king of the Cineal Laoire called Srufan gave three Tuatha to his kinsmen in the West when he retired from the World into a Monastery.  These three Tuatha were our own Parish which has ever since been internally divided into three parts, i.e. the Inchigeelagh area, the Ballingeary area, and the area South of the Shehy Mountains, or Coolmountain in Carbery.  In total it is about 40,000 acres in size.

The two Carbery Clans lived in peace for about 500 years but came to blows after the battle of Clontarf in 1014.  They fought a battle at Maghcliath which was  won by the O’Mahonys.  The O’Donoghues fought on for many years, but eventually decided to move, gave up their territory of Uibh Laoire and moved to Glen Fesk.

The O’Learys from Rosscarbery had meanwhile started to occupy the lands along the River Lee which had been given to them by Srufan.  By 1196 the O’Learys had completed their move to the new and much smaller Uibh Laoire by the River Lee.

In the 12^th. and 13^th.c., the position changed again when the great McCarthy families took over the Baronies of  Carbery (McCarthy Reagh) and Muskerry (McCarthy Muskerry).  These moves made huge inroads into the O’Mahony and other territories, but left the O’Learys more or less unscathed in their mountain retreat now called Uibh Laoire.

The period between 1200 and 1600 was one of consolidation for the O’Learys in their new home in Uibh Laoire. Their new kingdom was contiguous with the present Parish of the same name.  It contains 118 Townlands which have mostly retained their names over the period. 

Changes to the shape of Uibh Laoire.

In 1490 a new Parish of Kilmichael was established which was formed to accommodate a sub-tribe of the O’Mahonys.  This was made up of territory taken from Macloneigh, Kilmurray and Uibh Laoire.  The Townlands lost from our Parish at that time included Clonmoyle, Cooldorrihy, Cusduff, Deshure, Kileanna, Mamucky, and Shanacashel.

At a later time, a branch of the descendants of one of the McCarthy Mór families settled in Aharas just north of Ballingeary village and this part of the Parish, including fifteen Townlands,  remained McCarthy occupied up to 1640.  These  Townlands were Augheras, Gorteenakilla, Keamcorrovooly and all those to the north-west of that area. These lands were owned and occupied by the McCarthys but for historical reasons the territory was still included in the O’Leary Country.

A third reduction in the power of the O’Learys affected those in Carbery of the Coolmountain area, and included the eleven Townlands in the Shehy Mountain area.  These by 1600 had come under the influence of a branch of McCarthy Reagh called the Sliocht Feidhlimid who lived in Togher Castle closer to Dunmanway.  These Townlands  were largely occupied by  McCarthys, but the lands were still included in Uibh Laoire.

The result of these losses meant that O’Leary ruled effectively over a kingdom consisting of the remaining 92 Townlands.  Under Brehon Law, these were allocated to himself, his family and his followers at the time of each election of a new Chieftain.

O’Leary was now himself subject to a liege lord who was McCarthy Muskerry of Blarney and Macroom Castles.  This powerful overlord provided protection to his subject Chieftains who included, as well as O’Leary, the MacSweeneys, O’Mahonys, O’Longs, O’Herlihys, O’Healeys and O’Cremins.  There had of course been many others such as O’Murphys, O’Flynns and O’Begleys, but these had been suppressed and overrun by the rapacious McCarthys.

We read that O’Leary had to pay annual charges to McCarthy which amounted to 24 beeves and £7.2.3d of English money; two days and nights refection in the Parish every quarter; and a payment of £4.9.0d every time a new Chieftain was elected.  In practice these became a payment to McCarthy’s Tanaiste who resided at Carrignamuck.  They may sound severe but in fact were much less than those imposed on families like the Barretts, and which eventually drove those families into extinction as landowners.

By 1600 the McCarthys had accepted Surrender and Regrant, and this applied to their subject Chieftains as well.  This fact did not seem to alter the age-old traditions of the O’Learys and a new Chieftain, Donchadh was elected in the old style in 1600 following the death in battle of Amhlaoibh.  The lands were redistributed, as before, according to the Brehon Law practices.

But meanwhile the Authorities in Dublin had other ideas.  In 1604 Amhlaoibh was adjudged to have been killed in rebellion and the O’Leary lands were confiscated.  The Dublin Authorities gave these lands to Thomas Hibbots and John King, who in turn sold on to Edward Beecher,  and then to Thomas Gofton.  Richard Boyle and later Sir Geoffrey Galwey  acquired them but by 1636 the latter had become a mortgagor and the lands were back in the hands of the O'Learys.  In truth, they had occupied the lands all the time, and the various comings and goings in Dublin were purely paper transactions which caused no serious problems to the O’Learys except that monies had to be paid to these legal parasites.

In 1638 Donchadh died and the newly elected Chieftain was his nephew, Donal macArt.  A redistribution of land took place as was traditional, and this was the last election to be held.  After this date English Law prevailed.

In 1641 the O’Learys came out in favour of the Royalist Party and as a result their lands were confiscated by the Cromwellians.  In 1660 when the King was restored, all the O’Leary lands were granted to Muskerry McCarthy, and the O’Learys became their mere tenants.  Exactly the same families occupied the land, but they paid their rent to McCarthy.

The O’Learys joined in the Williamite War in 1689 and in the subsequent land settlement all McCarthy’s and therefore O’Leary’s, lands were confiscated again and given to the Hollow Sword Blade Company of London in settlement of debts owed to them by the Government.  They sold on to Misters Massey, Edwards and others in 1703.

The next period of land ownership was that most disgraceful experiment established to subject a Nation to the will of it’s stronger neighbour.  Together the Penal Laws and the Landlord System were used for this purpose.  For some 200 years between 1703 and 1900,  there were a series of Protestant Landlords who ruled over their Irish Tenants in a vain effort to break their resistance.  Some like the Masters, Boyles, Barters, Pynes and Brownes were living in their comfortable houses amongst their impoverished tenants.  Others like the Baldwins, Law, Orpen, Townsend, Burns  and Pope were Absentees who used Agents to collect their rents.  Some were good landlords and looked after their tenants.  Others, sadly, were not.  In most cases the actual ownership of the Freehold was in the hands of great Lords who lived elsewhere, like Lords Devonshire and Riversdale.  The actual Landlords who were visible to their tenants, themselves held on long leases from these Freeholders. 

Finally between the years 1880 and 1910 the British Governments of the time tried a new approach which was known as “Killing Home Rule by Kindness”.  As a result of the various Tenant Ownership Laws such as the Wyndham Acts, the land came back again into the ownership of Irish tenants, and the Landlord class largely disappeared from the scene.

This brings us to the present times, when the inhabitants of most of Ireland are Free and Independent, and subjects of a Democratic Republic.  The lands of the Parish of Uibh Laoire are almost entirely owned by Farmers of Irish extraction, who work them and live in them.

In this sense, Uibh Laoire with it’s History of troubles over the past millennium, is typical of most rural Parishes in Ireland.

The O’Leary Castle at Carrignacurra near Inchigeela village was renovated in the 1990’s by the late Mr. Maxim Gormanov and is a fine example of a 16^th Century Tower House The other two castles at Carrignaneela and Dromcarra are in ruins.

Maire Bhuí Ní Laoire (1774-1845).
One of Ireland’s premier female poets, Maire Bhuí composed her songs and poems solely in Irish. She lived near Gougane Barra about 3 miles west of Ballingeary village. Maire Buí is best known for her poem “Cath Ceim An Fhia” (The Battle of Keimaneigh), an account of a skirmish between up to 400 Whiteboys and British forces near her home in 1822. Here’s an account of the Battle in Irish http://homepage.eircom.net/~sosul/page6.html and another article concerning Maire Bhuí http://homepage.eircom.net/~sosul/page94.html

General Daniel Florence O’Leary.  (1801-1854).
Born in Cork of Inchigeela stock, Daniel Florence went on to become aide-de-camp to General Simón Bolívar, the Liberator of five countries in South America. He fought in Bolívar’s campaigns from 1819-1826. Read more about him at http://www.leevalleyireland.com/general_daniel_florence_.htm

Art Ó Laoire.
Art O Laoire was 26, a Captain in the Hungarian Hussars, a Regiment of Empress Marie Therese's Army of Austro-Hungary when he was murdered near his native Macroom in 1773 by a local Magistrate, Abraham Morris. He was immortalised in ‘Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoire’, (The Lament For Art O’Leary), which was composed by his wife, Eileen Dubh Ní Chonaill. (more at  http://homepage.eircom.net/~sosul/page56.html )

An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoire
.  A major figure in the Gaelic revival at the end of the 19^th Century, Fr. Peadar Ó Laoire is best known for his books ‘Mo Sceal Fein’ and ‘Seanda’

Michael O’Leary VC  (1888- 1961)
A native of Inchigeela, Michael won the Victoria Cross for bravery in the field of battle at Cuinchy, France, on February 1^st 1915 while serving in the Irish Guards in the British Army. Read more at http://homepage.eircom.net/~sosul/page98.html and http://www.leevalleyireland.com/michael_o_learyVC.htm

Fr. Arthur O’Leary (1729-1802)
Known as The Apostle of Toleration, Fr. O’Leary was a well known but contentious figure in his life time. Ordained in France due to the Penal Laws, in 1772 he founded the first Catholic Church in Cork City since the Reformation at Friary Lane. His fame as a liberal preacher who opposed the unchristian and bigoted remarks of anti-Catholic churchmen. He is buried in Old St. Pancras churchyard in London. 

John O’Leary
; Born in Tipperary in 1830, John O'Leary became involved in revolutionary politics as a student, and was arrested in 1865 for his publications during the Fenian troubles. He was sentenced to 20 years in exile, and when he returned to Ireland, established himself at the centre of liberal nationalist circles in Dublin until his death in 1907. He is remembered in W.B. Yeats’ poem ‘September 1913’, with the memorable line “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone/ it’s with O’Leary in the grave”

  Find out more about Ballingeary and Inchigeela at http://www.leevalleyireland.com