Pat Herlihy's early 1970s article

THE H E R L I H Y F A M I L Y

A General History compiled by Patrick Herlihy,

member of the Irish Ancestry Research Society.

INTRODUCTION

At first it was just a vague interest in a family name that meant “Prince of the West”. And for a long time information came so gradually that it hardly seemed worthwhile. But as the story locked together it became clear that there was something our of the ordinary here. Ireland’s history is more fragmented that England’s and less. No Romans broke the Iron Age Celtic culture and no Anglo-Saxons brought a Dark Age to the country. There are pockets of land in Ireland which have apparently escaped disruption since the beginning of time. (Yes, a charge of slight exaggeration might be relevant here!) Then there came the realisation that Irish surnames developed far earlier in Ireland than in England; l they began in the 10th Century and were widespread in the 12th. There were several other interesting facts too - most of my aunts and uncles were teachers and civil servants and there seemed to be a concern in the family for a good education (even beyond the obvious need to have a good education to move on in an immigrant family). On the other side was the “knowledge” that Irish records were virtually non-existent - what did exist were burnt in a fire during the 1916 uprising. But, incredibly, the story continued to emerge into a justifiable and fascinating account. I am certain that what follows would sound very different if told by a soldier or a business man, for as a teacher I have found echoes of my own preconceptions in the episodes I have heard. But most of the Herlihy’s I have met have been gentle giants with a sharp way with words and do not seem to have changed much from descriptions of our ancestors in the 17th Century. It may not be so wrong after all.

THE HERLIHY FAMILY

Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne in Gaelic) is the area where the Herlihy’s lived in the early years and up to the 17th Century. It is set in a valley cut deep into the hills behind Macroom and is closed in, to the North by the Derrynasaggart Mountains. (The modern road from Cork to Killarney travels through Ballyvourney but must cross the mountains by a long high pass.) As the valley of the Sullane river passes south east there is much rough country between Ballyvourney and Macroom. In very early times travel must have been difficult in and out of this enclosed area and it is easy to see why this is one of the places where the Irish Chieftains remained in control when much of Eastern Ireland and the coastal areas were taken over by the Norman Welsh and later English invaders from the 12th Century onwards.

So how far back can we see? Several waves of Celtic invaders with iron weapons entered south west Ireland in the 6th - 1st Century Before Christ and became rulers of the peoples they found already in the country but did not slaughter them. Eventually a dynasty known as the Eoganacht developed in Munster with Erainn vassals. The followers of Eogan were most likely from the last wave of invaders and it is not too clear who the Erainn were. They were possibly one of the earlier waves of Celtic invaders or could be some of the pre-Celtic peoples. Now there are several prehistoric remains in the Ballyvourney area. On the slopes of one of the mountains overlooking the townland is a dolmen (a slab of stone supported by others - the central part of a tumuli or burial mound) known as Dermot and Grania’s bed. To the south east near Carrigaphooca Castle is another. And “St Gobnait’s house” is now thought to be the remains of an iron smelting operation. The dates of all of these are unknown but suggest a long history of occupation by the Iron Age Celtic people and possibly by the early Neolithic people before them. The ancient Irish annals refer to the Muscraige as one of the groups of people in south west Ireland. Ballvourney is in the Barony of Muskerry and we presume that whoever lived and was buried in these early graves were (on however small a scale) part of the Kingdom of the Eoganacht or one of the many vassal tribes.

The name of the Dolmen on the slopes of Mount Mullaghanish is an imaginative link with the great story cycle of Finn McCool whose band of heroes hunted and adventured across Munster before St Patrick and his followers modified the thoughts of the people with the Christian ideal. The name evokes the most beautiful love story of the whole story cycle - and the saddest; a joy and melancholy not too far away from the story of our Irish family. The changes of the grave being that of Dermot and Grania are slim; there are many other last resting places for these two all over Ireland and I think the story may be older than Finn legends, older than the Eoganacht and older than the Celtic settlement of Ireland.

The early Celts were cattle herders and horse riders with a great love of hunting and fighting but also of poetry and prophecy. Each group valued independence and the larger groupings were flexible. But in the 5th Century Christian ideas began to take over from the pagan chivalric way of life and a courageous sanctity began to be added to the Celtic character. There is a shrine in Ballyvourney of St Gobnait (of St Abban) - one of the early Christian saints and the family has long been associated with this sacred place. The family are known as the erenaghs (or guardians) of the shrine and many are buried near the old church. Modern pilgrims still pause at “the tom of the three priests” or “tomb of the three brothers” who are said to be members of the family. The number of persons in the tomb varies a little according to the person who tells the tale and appears to increase in relation to the piety of the informant. But the family did provide large numbers of Parish Priests for the townland and one became the Bishop of Ross, attended the Council of Trent and later died in the Tower of London in 1580. Surprisingly perhaps what is developing is not an account of rough and savage tribesmen waging guerrilla war against invaders but of a family associated with scholarship and piety, though I imagine that some of the holy men could also wield a sword and there is one mention of a Herlihy accompanying O’Sullivan Bere in his incredible march to Ulster after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.

Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649 and smashed resistance from the Irish chiefs. It is at that point that the Herlihy family lost the land that they had held previously to landlords set up by Cromwell. Perhaps it would be better to say Herlihy “families” for ten persons with the name Herlihy owned land on County Cork when the Civil Survey of 1654 was taken. After the Irish were dispossessed and in the bleak time that followed, ideals were kept alive by song and poetry. We have several songs composed by the Herlihy’s of Ballvourney and these give a glimpse of life in these times and also a window back into the past.

Before Cromwell, the family was known for its learning and poetry and local legend claims that the family was in the area before St Gobnait’s time. Certainly one of the songs claims this and also an ancestry from Eugene Mor and the Erainn. Festivals of poetry were held at the home of the Herlihy’s at Ballvourney - a house with the name of Tigh na Cille (The house of God’s Servants) and Eogan O’Reilly was one visitor. David, son of Patrick, was the owner of Tigh na Cille when the Cromwellian confiscations took place and although the new landlord, Colthurst, appears to have been a reasonable man David was eventually banished deeper into the mountains into Kerry near Kenmare. From there he composed a haunting song regretting the passing of the hospitality that used to be dispensed at his house and expressing sorrow that he could no longer help the members of his family who remained in the Ballyvourney area. He was still alive at the beginning of the 18th Century. His son Father William continued as Parish Priest for a few years after the confiscations but he was himself eventually removed from office and followed his father into exile.

Many of the family (or families) may well have stayed on in the Ballyvourney area under Colthurst but the next 100 years must have been hard times with increasing pressure from England to outlaw the Irish ways and customs and to circumscribe their religion. The clear story of our branch of the family begins in the Nohavaldaly parish area on the north west borders of County Cork on the opposite and northern side of the Derrynasaggart Mountains. At the same time the move was made from Ballyvourney to this area and it may not have been much before 1800.

William Herlihy had a farm in Nohaval which was divided between his sons Patrick (Pad) and James Jeremiah (Jim Jer). Pad’s son William had a daughter Katie who married Humphrey Moynihan whose son died on the farm in 1975 when the farm was sold to the Land Commission for redistribution. Jim Jer had thirteen children by, at least, two wives. The oldest son, William, settled in America in Chicago and the youngest son Jim moved to Deptford in London, England. The two farms must have supported the families during the famine times and into the confusions that followed but just before the Irish land war was finally concluded and farmers began to purchase the land from their landlords, just at the eleventh hour before Ireland moved into relative peace after the hardships of centuries.
Jim Jer was evicted from his farm and ended his days in a cabin near the churchyard where he is buried and where there is a monument to his brother Patrick who “died 2 February 1879 aged 82”. But the family had gathered enough money together to send its sons and daughters out to start a new life and to found new lines.

In the same general area as William’s farm in Nohaval there are several other farms where Herlihy’s have been in residence for some time. In Inchibeg near Rathmore is a farm where relationship is thought to be through John, a brother of Pad and Jim Jer. In Knockagree is another farm from which branch comes Bishop Donal Herlihy of Ferns and there is a marriage connection at least here. But one member of our family makes this branch to come from one of three brothers who moved into the area together at some unknown time in the past. The main difficulty lies in the magic number three for there always seems to be three brothers in all tales - is there not a tomb of three brothers at St Gobnait’s shrine? Nearby, at Gullane Dennis Herlihy claims that the farm has been in Herlihy hands for “150 years” and that there were “three brothers” who took land in the area after being “evicted from the castle down there” (Ballyvourney). We have no known link with this family. No doubt there are many farms in parts of south west Ireland where a similar tale is told.

CONCLUSION

This is a strange and romantic account with not much that can be tied to specific dates and people. But I have no doubt of its accuracy. I found it to be very rare that an oral tradition has been wrong whenever it can be checked. There is just no reason why people would embroider the facts told them by their parents or grandparents - all they might do is to forget. Up to 1980 there has been some link with the farmhouse and persons of the past. If I wait a few years more, there may be no memories to suggest even where to begin to look as modern small family groups scatter across the world. If we are to have some idea of our family history in the near past (and farther back) we need two things. We need to put down any wisps of memories or ideas from the past (eg Dennis Herlihy’s mention of the link with O’Sullivan Bere) and it would be fascinating to know where old established family farms are situated - there may well be some links with estate managers or landlords. If you can help with either suggestion please send a letter or get in touch. Obviously we will quickly go beyond the boundaries of Nohavaldaly Parish but a thousand hints go to make up a legend and I would like the legend to be more detailed than it is at the moment.

PATRICK HERLIHY 1970's