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“The Geneal Geologist” |
CreativeGraces.net This synopsis reviewed and
fully updated by “The Geneal Geologist”, November 2017 Almost
eighty per cent of the SULLIVANs / O'SULLIVANS in Ireland today belong to the
counties of Cork and Kerry, and my wife’s ancestry contains several them.
They became very numerous and powerful, dividing into many branch septs of
which O'Sullivan Mor and O'Sullivan Beare were the most important. The former
had his principal castle at Dunkerron on the shore of Kenmare Bay, the latter
was lord of the modern baronies of Beare and Bantry. Donal O'Sullivan Beare
(1560-1618), hero of the siege of Dunboy was famous for his hazardous march
to Ulster after the disasters of the Battle of Kinsale and the capture of
Dunbly (see also LOWNEY). His
nephew, Philip O'Sullivan Beare (1590-1660), was a soldier in the Spanish
army, but is better known as a historian: his Historiae Catholicae Iberniae
Compendium recounts the events of the Elizabethan wars as told to him by his
uncle and other participants. Depending
on location, O’SULLIVAN septs may have adopted other nicknames and suffixes
to distinguish themselves, and some of these may have changed to local
surnames, for example: O’SULLIVAN Laune = LOWNEY,
and O’SULLIVAN Boig or Bouge = BOOHIG or BOUGE Families
1 & 2: The SULLIVAN / O'SULLIVAN
(Beare) Family of Filane, Castletownbere Head of the family is John
SULLIVAN (1806-70, possibly s/o Michael SULLIVAN) & Mary
SHEEHAN (1810-1878, possibly d/o Timothy SHEEHAN) of Ballusky
& Ardnasciach / Ardnaskeagh in Filane West, a township east of
Castletownbere, who married in January 1834, my wife’s 3xGGPs. Their known
children: · Hanora
SULLIVAN (1835); · Mary
SULLIVAN (1837) = John (Jack) LOWNEY of
Ardnasciach in 1860 Castletownbere (my wife’s 2xGGPs). In 1901 & 1911 the
family is recorded as being resident in the Scart, Curryglass, just east of
Filane; · Catherine
SULLIVAN (1840-1914) = Timothy SULLIVAN
(1840-1905, s/o Daniel SULLIVAN & Catherine LEARY) in 1865. The family
were also in Curryglass in 1901 and in 1911 (Derreeny); · Michael
SULLIVAN (1843-1925) = Mary CARTY (1843) of
Clonakilty in 1864 Clonakilty: o
1865-1876 baptisms for early children
not found; o
Mark SULLIVAN
(abt 1876) = Bridget TWOMEY in 1901 Castletownbere and inherits the
property at Filane East. Children: § Michael
Bernard SULLIVAN (1903); § Mary
Ann Elizabeth SULLIVAN (1904); § Anthony
Patrick SULLIVAN (1906-1960 Queens, New York); § Mark
SULLIVAN (1907); § Catherine
SULLIVAN (1908); § Martha
Mary SULLIVAN (1910); o
Cornelius SULLIVAN
(1878) of Filane East; o
Richard SULLIVAN
(1880); o
Teresa SULLIVAN
(1883); · Margaret
SULLIVAN (1846-1913) = John MURPHY (c1830 -
bef1911) of Fuhur in 1871 Castletownbere. Couple raised their family and died
at Fuhur; ·
Cornelius SULLIVAN
(1850-1915) – no marriage found; John “Jack” LOWNEY,
above, my wife’s 2xGGF, was the s/o Timothy
LOWNEY
(c1800) & Mary SULLIVAN
(c1805) of Ardnascaich. Mary, his mother, is probably of the same family that
Jack married into.
The son of above couple, John
“Jack” LOWNEY, a
coachbuilder and carpenter of Clonakilty, Co. Cork, my wife’s GGF = Ellen
SULLIVAN (1860-1934 d/o Daniel SULLIVAN & Catherine “Kate” SWANTON)
of Kilmore, Whiddy Island, Bantry Bay in 1890. It is not clear if the Whiddy
SULLIVANs had any relationship with those in Filane to account for the
marriage. Despite numerous SULLIVANs in the 1901 Irish census on Whiddy
Island there is no matching Daniel (who witnessed the marriage in 1890 and
was presumably deceased). Family of Daniel & Kate SULLIVAN at Kilmore: ·
Ellen
SULLIVAN (1860-1934); ·
Margaret
SULLIVAN (1864); ·
Christopher
SULLIVAN (1866) = Mary/Maria LEARY; ·
Michael
SULLIVAN (1869-1937); ·
Elizabeth
“Lizzie” SULLIVAN (1872); ·
John
SULLIVAN (1874-1940) = Mary A O’BRIEN – Settled in Portsmouth, Rockingham, New
Hampshire, USA; There are few other specific
references to SULLIVANs on Whiddy Island in Bantry records – only 4
marriages, no baptisms: ·
Kate SULLIVAN
of Whiddy (d/o John SULLIVAN) = Daniel SHANAHAN of Whiddy in 1877; ·
John SULLIVAN
of Whiddy (s/o Daniel SULLIVAN) = Anna DRISCOLL of Whiddy in 1876; ·
Margaret SULLIVAN
of Whiddy (d/o John SULLIVAN) = Denis LEARY of Whiddy in 1875; · Anne
SULLIVAN of Whiddy (d/o Denis SULLIVAN) = Floren
BURKE in 1879; Family 4: The SULLIVAN / O'SULLIVAN & BRIEN Families of Ardfield &
Rathbarry / Rosscarbery, County Cork Abigail SULLIVAN
(bef 1788) = Daniel BRIEN (record suggesting a flax grower) sometime
before 1809 in Cork, Ireland: Their only known child Johanna BRIEN
(1809 Ardfield & Rathbarry) = Jeremiah FITZPATRICK in 1833 Ardfield; Family 5: The Family of O'SULLIVAN Bouge / Boig (Clonakilty) One
of the local sept suffixes or nicknames that can be phonetically recorded as
BOIG, BOIGE, BOGUE, BOUG, BOUGE, BOUGUE, BOUIGE, etc. as examples. The name was
popular amongst O’SULLIVANs in the Middle Ages and is translated to Boethius.
The BOOHIG and BOOIG surnames, unique to Cork, derive from it. The first
person to take the name O'SULLIVAN as a surname was Buadhach O'SULLIVAN, the
great grandson of Buadhach Atha-cra and 3rd Great Grandson of the progenitor
Suilebhan. Hart claims that Buadhach O'SULLIVAN, took a wife from Macedonia
and that the branch became Vera-O’SULLIVANs. ("Irish Pedigrees" by
O'Hart (1892)). BUADHACH, genitive -aigh, Buagh, (Boetius), Victor;
derivative of buaidh, victory; formerly a favourite name among the
O’SULLIVANs. "Irish Names and Surnames" by Rev. Patrick Woulfe
(1923). In this area of West Cork, the nicknames that distinguished
O'SULLIVANs include: Bán (white or fair haired), Bouige (victorious), and
Rácagh (thin/stringy). My
wife’s 3xGGF, Peter O’NEILL (farmer
at Reenroe) married Mary BOUGE aka
SULLIVAN sometime prior to the start of records at Darrara church, Clonakilty
in 1809. Both families appear to be connected to burials at Kilnagross near
Shannonvale, outside of Clonakilty. In 1840, Peter erected a gravestone at
the church to his wife and one of their daughters. In Darrara records, for
baptisms of the couple’s children, Mary was generally recorded as SULLIVAN,
but once as BOUGE in 1813 (with Cat
BOUGE, sponsor). It could have been Mary who erected the gravestone for James SULLIVAN alias BOGUE of
“Knockey” (Knockskeagh) at Kilnagross. Knockskeagh is close to Reenroe. The outline above is indicative only and not
necessarily fully correct or complete. It should be used for guidance only. |
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