A NEW book, The Untold Story of the O’Sullivan Beare by Michael Hall is a comprehensive account of one of the most famous family lines on the Beara Peninsula, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Michael, a former lecturer in engineering at Technological University Dublin, says he first started delving in the story of the O’Sullivan Beare after meeting his wife in 1983.
‘My wife’s father was from Castletownbere, and when I first started visiting the area with her, I looked for books and information on the Beara peninsula.
I had obviously heard of O’Sullivan Beare, but all the published work was on Donal Cam, and the Siege of Dunboy, it was only when I started to seriously research the family that I came across more information on other branches of the family,’ he explained.
When Michael retired four years ago, he started to compile his 40 years of research into a book.
Michael’s book casts new light on Dónal Cam’s eventful life, his alliance with the northern chieftains and their defeat at the Battle of Kinsale, the destruction of his castle in Dunboy in June 1602 by Sir George Carew’s forces, and later that year, his long march to Leitrim with a band of his followers, before his eventual exile and death in Spain.
The book also features extensive research on Dónal Cam’s successor, and cousin, Dónal Crón O’Sullivan Beare (c1601-1674) and also gives an in-depth account of Berehaven during that era.
‘Back then, Berehaven was a dynamic place. Most people seem to think the O’Sullivan Beare ended with Donal Cam after he was killed in Spain in 1618. But the O’Sullivan Beare family would go onto rule for nearly a century after his death.’
Having studied Latin for his Leaving Cert, Michael said it came in useful when researching his book.
‘A lot of the older papers on the O’Sullivan Beare are in Latin, and you really need to know where to look for them, so Latin proved a huge help to me,’ he said.
With the amount of research Michael has collected on the family, he is already planning a second book.
The Untold Story of the O’Sullivan Beare is published by the Beara Historical Society and will be launched by the author and documentary maker Christy Kenneally at the Sarah Walker Gallery in Castletownbere on Saturday December 7th at 5pm.
