A new book by journalist Marc O’Sullivan Vallig looks at the how Beara’s community and its descendants have left their mark all around the globe.
An endless fascination with Co Cork’s most westerly peninsula was what drove Marc O’Sullivan Vallig to complete his new book, People of Beara: From Dunboy to Waterloo.
‘In Beara, no matter how deep you dig, there’s always some new story to investigate,’ he says.
Marc’s first book, People of the Sea: A Maritime History of Beara, was launched in 2020, and featured a selection of interviews with fishermen, boat owners, agents, dealers, search and rescue personnel and others associated with the sea.
People of Beara is more diverse, he says: ‘It features interviews with local authors, artists and scientists, and a major rock star, amongst many others.’
Marc, who hails from Eyeries, is a visual artist as well as a writer and journalist.
His work has been shown at the National Gallery of Ireland and the Royal Hibernian Academy, and People of Beara features his portrait of the 17th century chieftain Dónal Cam O’Sullivan Beare on the cover.
The new book opens with an interview with Dónal Cam’s successor as chieftain of the O’Sullivan Beare Clan, Kelly Sullivan from Waterloo, Iowa.
‘Kelly is the first woman to hold the position,’ he says.
‘She’s the granddaughter of Al Sullivan, one of five brothers who perished when their ship, the USS Juneau, was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the South Pacific in November 1943. The five were descended from emigrants from Adrigole, who left for America during the Famine.
‘The American navy named a ship in their memory, the USS The Sullivans. Kelly is the ship’s sponsor, and she was on board when it visited Berehaven in 2003.’
The brothers’ story also inspired the Hollywood blockbuster Saving Private Ryan.
Kelly is one of a number of people of Beara descent that Marc interviewed for the book.
‘The best-known is probably Duff McKagan, the bassist in Guns ‘N Roses. We had a long chat on Zoom earlier this year. ‘Duff has a great interest in his local ancestry. His grandfather was John Valentine Harrington (Causkey) of Foildarrig, Castletownbere.
The family had a pub and store in Castletownbere, on the site of what is now the AIB. Both his parents died young, and John Valentine emigrated to America in 1904. His uncles were mine captains in Butte, so he probably went there first. He fought in France in WWI, and eventually settled in Seattle. Duff has fond memories of knowing him towards the end of his life, when he worked in a chocolate factory and always had treats for his grandchildren.’
Another Beara descendant who has found success in the US is Kathryn D Sullivan, an oceanographer and astronaut who holds three Guinness World Records.
One is for being the first woman to descend by submarine to the Challenger Deep; another for being the first individual to visit space and the deepest point in the ocean; and the third is for being the individual who has travelled the greatest vertical distance within the Earth’s atmosphere.
‘Kathryn is one of a number of scientists featured in the book,’ says Marc.
‘James Lovelock is another. He wrote his ground-breaking book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, in Adrigole in the 1980s. Sadly, I never got to meet him. He died on his 103rd birthday in 2022.’
Also featured is the marine scientist Susan Steele. ‘Susan is a daughter of Norman and Veronica Steele, who founded Milleens Cheese and did so much to encourage the artisan food industry in Ireland. She’s worked in the marine sector all her life, and now serves as the executive director of the European Fisheries Control Agency.’
Featured also are interviews with local artists Sarah Walker, Tim Goulding, Charlie Tyrrell, Cormac Boydell and Rachel Parry.
‘They’re all people I got to know through Beara Arts Festival, which I helped found in the early 1990s,’ says Marc. ‘Every town in the country has an arts festival, but we had one of the first rural arts festivals, and I’m still incredibly proud of all we achieved. I think the artistic community in Beara will be talked about in years to come as one of the most vibrant in Europe.’
Marc was also keen to shed light on Beara’s literary tradition. He interviewed the American academic Christopher Boettcher on his biography of the Castletownbere-born author Standish O’Grady, and Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail on her biography of Pádraig Ó Laoghaire, an Irish language scholar and author from Inches, Eyeries.
‘We’re so fortunate to have Meidhbhín, whose family are from Eyeries, doing such an in-depth study of a local author. Not many people have read O’Grady or Ó Laoghaire in recent times, but both were seminal figure in 19th century Irish literature, and both had a huge influence on those who came after them.’
Marc’s book also features interviews with Mary Bartels, whose late father, the broadcaster Micheál O’Hehir, settled in Eyeries in his later years, and Eileen Murphy of Castletownbere, whose late husband Connie was a stalwart of the Beara Historical Society.
‘Connie published a book called The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Beara Peninsula in 2014,’ says Marc.
‘He’d walked every inch of the Beara peninsula, mapping historical and archaeological sites that no one else was even aware of. Connie passed away in 2018. He was a great loss to Beara, but we’re blessed that he left such a valuable record after him.’
Marc’s favourite interview was, he says, with James Sheehan of Ballaghboy, who operated the cable car to Dursey Island for 23 years from 1969.
‘James told me all about his times seine fishing in Garnish in the 1940s, and his years labouring in England. He’s a mine of information. He’s 96 now, and still as sharp as a pin.’
Marc was also delighted to catch up with Mike Dwyer from Inches, Eyeries, who chairs the Boston Beara Society in Massachusetts.
‘Mike has lived in Boston since the late 1960s, but his heart has always been in Beara,’ he says. ‘He’s done more than anyone to open up connections between Beara and Butte, Montana, where he’s spent weeks at a time exploring its links to local families in Eyeries and Allihies.
‘I lived in Boston for a spell in the mid-1990s. I was pretty wet behind the ears when I arrived, and Mike and his wife Sheila helped me get on my feet, as they did for so many others. And for that reason, I dedicated the book to the two of them. In Beara, you get used to people coming and going; ours is truly an international community.’
• Marc O’Sullivan Vallig’s People of Beara: From Dunboy to Waterloo, Iowa is published by Beara Tourism. The book is available at local retail outlets, as well as on Amazon.
