Skip to main content

Donohill and O'Sullivan Beare


From the local signage

"for centuries Donohill was where the meal for the surrounding countryside was stored in a tower on the site of this fort. This precious grain was guarded by the O'Dwyers on whose land the fort was on. On their march to Leitrim, O'Sullivan Beare's soldiers, facing starvation, stormed the tower and succeeded in overpowering the O'Dwyers".

From Bantry Bay to Leitrum by Sommerville-Large pg 153

"There was one more sharp engagement before O'Sullivan reached the shelter of the hills. The O'Dwyers and the O'Ryans made a half-hearted effort to block the trail, but when the men from Beare advanced, they retreated "stricken with fear".


The picturesque graveyard across the road from the Motte where the famous Dan Breen is buried.


A really well researched and presented sign on the Beara Breifne way, I hope it is still in good condition.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hag Stones, are they an example of authentic Irish folklore or a neo-pagan import?

By Darkone CC BY-SA 2.0 The first time I ever heard of Hag-stones was this year. They are more commonly known as Adder stones and described on wikipedia as follows: " An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt ."  In Britain they are also called hag stones , [1] witch stones , serpent's eggs , snake's eggs , or Glain Neidr in Wales , milpreve in Cornwall , adderstanes in the south of Scotland and Gloine nan Druidh ("Druids' glass" in Scottish Gaelic ) in the north. In Germany they are called Hühnergötter ("chicken gods"). In Egypt they are called aggry or aggri . Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares , curing whooping cough , the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at ...

The Origins of the surname Ryan

NOTE: This is currently a work in progress and I ask for any feedback on what I have written. Ryan is one of the top ten surnames by population / number of people in Ireland. It would be nice if there was a simple explanation as to the meaning of the surname Ryan, unfortunately to my knowledge there isn't. The most likely explanation is that it goes back to a King or Chief of Idrone circa 900AD named Rian or Rien. It was around this time that the Irish began taking on surnames and it may be that it was after him his descendants began to be called, O or descendent of Rian. We are not sure how or when exactly the O'Mulryan name came about. It is likely that it means "descendent of the followers of Rian". However, this is not certain. We will see further down in this article that the genealogies suggest they are both descended from the same ancestor circa 900AD. Although other evidence does contradict this. Just what Rian means is not known for sure. Explana...

Ryan Family Nicknames

Over 500 individual Ryan Family nicknames - many with townlands associated with them. Click Here