Page 4 - O Mahony Society Newsletter NOV 2025_Neat

Collins' life during the Easter Rebellion, the 1919 election, the War of
Independence, and the Civil War. I learnt a great deal. I was particularly
keen to see the newspaper cuttings about Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor
of Cork, as my grandmother Kate O'Mahony proudly told me how she sang
Irish rebel songs outside Brixton Prison in London when McSwiney was on
hunger strike, before he died there in 1920.

Linda was one of several who tried on the women's traditional Kinsale
cloaks, which contained hidden pockets for hiding weapons. Helen and Joe
Mangan and I, however, were born-again kids, driving in the replicas of the
armoured vehicles in which Collins was fatally ambushed.
From the Michael Collins Centre, Linda then drove us to the memorial at
Béal na Bláth, the exact spot where Michael Collins was shot, and whose
detailed geography had been explained to us earlier by Tim Crowley.
From there, we drove to the charming town of Clonakilty, filled to the
rafters with a festival but almost drowned out by a sudden deluge. We
ate, and we survived!

In the late afternoon at Coolcower House, I attended a hybrid face to
face and online Annual General Meeting of the Society (including the
presentation of the latest O Mahony Journal by William O’Mahoney
Badzmierowski from his home in the USA). Following that, in brilliant
midsummer sunshine, we all gathered on the terrace for an extended
session of conversation, cocktails, and beer.
It was a good opportunity to meet people I had not met up to then, and
I was particularly pleased to meet several with considerable knowledge
about O Mahony DNA. This is definitely an area of growing interest, and
I have made some startling discoveries recently through my first cousin
Larry O’Mahony taking the Big Y 700 test through Family Tree DNA, and
registering the results with the O Mahony Surname Project run by the
Society. I sincerely hope the numbers getting tested will increase.
The clan dinner followed, combining good food, excellent conversation,
and real camaraderie. A wide variety of O Mahony memorabilia raffle
prizes were offered, for which the winning tickets were picked by the
youngest members present. I was lucky enough to win a beautiful Muintuir
Mhathúna tee shirt made by Council member and fellow attendee Catherine
Carbino Goulah. This annual highlight was followed by a brief address from
historian, genealogist, and OMS Council Member Michelle O’Mahony O
Driscoll. At that point, the ‘party pieces’ could begin!
I managed to record several of them on my phone, but not the one with me
and my cousin Robert O'Mahony (who joined us from Lewes in East Sussex)
singing 'The Castle of Dromore', which features the very last of the
Mahony castles. I followed on with a song commemorating John O’Mahony
(1815 -1877), the founder of the Fenian Brotherhood - and I just about
managed to remember most of the words of “My Old Fenian Gun.” This was
a memorable evening, making, and I hope keeping, new good friends.
On the morning of Sunday 15 June, the day of the O Mahony Clan Rally,
I spent some time exploring Macroom. A 15th century McCarthy castle
burnt during the Confederation Wars in 1641, it was then reoccupied by
the McCarthys but sold in the 18th century. The new house built in the

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