In O'Brien's Dictionary these MacMahons and MacDonnells are given as branches of the O'Briens, the posterity of Brian Boru; and, therefore, of quite a different descent from the MacMahons, princes and Lords of Monaghan, and the MacDonnells, earls of Antrim, and the MacDonnells of Kilkee, county Clare, who were of the race of Clan Colla. Of West Carbery and Kinalmeaky in Cork, O Mathghamhna (O'Mahoney), chief of Uí Eachach, which later became Ivaugh comprising the whole peninsula in West Carbery. Mac Carthaigh (MacCarthy Reagh).O Mathghamhna (O'Mahoney), chief of Uí Eachach Mumhan.

Kilkee

Lysaght is placed in a district about Ennistymon and in the barony of Inchiquin, Clare. it belongs almost exclusively to West Munster, the great majority of Mahony and O'Mahony births being registered in Co. Cork, particularly in the area associated historically with the O'Mahony sept. Their principal territory comprised the modern barony of Kinelmeaky and extended to the sea, with a fortified castle called Rosbrian off the coast of south-west Cork. The name O Mathghamhna - in modernized spelling O'Mahuna - is derived from their ancestor Mathghamhan, whose mother was a daughter of Brian Boru. Mathghamhan is the Irish word for a bear. Matthews is rare as an anglicized form of O'Mahony, but not unusual in Ulster as a synonym of MacMahon.

The older form of this name - O'Bolan - is almost obsolete, though it is occasionally found without the prefix O. The usual modern form - Boland - never has the O, though entitled to it, the Gaelic original being O Beollain. There are at least two distinct septs of the name, one of the Uf Fiachrach line, seated at Doonaltan, (barony of Tireagh, Co. Sligo); the other being Dalcassian, of Thomond. The former may be distinct from that of Drumcliff, also in Co. Sligo, where O'Bolans were erenaghs of the church of Saint Columban. The Thomond sept is descended from Mahon, brother of Brian Boru: for this we have the authority of "An Leabhar Mhuimhneach", but MacFirbis traces them to another Mahon, less closely related to the great Brian...References to the name O Beollain occur occasionally in the Annals in early medieval times, but since the Anglo-Norman invasion. Present day representatives of these septs are chiefly found in north Connacht and in east Clare where the picturesque fishing village of Mountshannon on Lough Derg perpetuates the homeland of the sept in its Gaelic name Baile Uí Beolain (or Ballybolan). In the seventeenth century it was also numerous in Offaly.

About the yeare 1488, a division of Corcabaskin into two parts, East and West, appears to have been made between two branches of the family of MacMahon. Clonderalaw Castle was the principal residence of the chief of the Eastern portion of the territory, and the boundary of his country appears to have been conterminous with that which divides the barony of Clonderalaw from Moyarta at the present day.

In MacBrody’s Propugnaculum Catholiæ Veritatis it is stated that John, son of Conor MacMahon, of Knockalocha, by his wife Bridget Brody, daughter of “Darii” Mac Bruodin, of Mount Scot, was invited at the age of ten by his uncle Thomas MacMahon, who was living with the Earl of Arundel, to go over to England and live amongst the Earl’s pages. He was thence sent to Rome to study, and was there admitted into the Society of Jesus. He returned to England afterwards, and was hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1594. Brody in mistake states that this M‘Mahon was of Tuath-na-farna. Tuath-na-Fearna was the ancient name of the parish of Killadysert.

Killadysert Parish Abbey of Canon Island

Killadysert Parish; Abbey of Canon Island

In the Irish language this parish was called Disertmurtuile, and sometimes Tuaith-na-fearna, from the alder trees which, it would appear, had in olden times grown plentifully there. The old church resembled a monastery rather than a parish church of the usual character. It is firmly built, large in size, and has a square tower at the west end. Three holy wells are found in the parish; one on Lackanashinnagh, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; a second at Crovraghan called Tobar Bechain; and a third at Cooga named Tobar Ruadhan.

No festivals of those two saints are either celebrated or remembered in the parish. To the parish of Killadysert belongs the island of Inis-na-Canánach, or Canon Island, on which there is an abbey church of considerable size and in good preservation, founded in the twelfth century by Donald O’Brien King of Limerick, for Canons Regular of the Rule of St. Augustine. In a rental of the Crown Estate of 1577 the Queen was the owner of this abbey, of the island, of three other islands, viz. Inishoul, Inishcarker, and Inishtubrid; also of two-thirds of the tithe of Killadysert and of Kilchreest. In June, 1605, a grant was made to Donogh, Earl of Thomond, of these tithes, of the abbey lands, and a moiety of the abbey of Clare, and of the churches of Kilchreest, Kilmihill, Kilmacduane, together with other church lands and tithes in Clonderalaw and Islands. The grant was confirmed to him in 1609, and again in 1661.

Nothing of antiquarian interest remains in the abbey of Canon Island, except an inscription which cannot be deciphered. A little to the east of Canon Island is Inisloe (Inishluaidhe), upon which St. Senán founded a church; no remains of it now exist, and nothing to indicate his presence there except a large tree said to have been blessed by him. Inistubrid, upon which also he raised a church, is without a trace of such a building. Inisdadroum (Coney Island), shows the remains of two churches; one of these was founded by St. Brendan of Ardfert, about A.D. 550. The islands of Inishdadroum and Inishmacowney, in this parish, had each a castle, belonging in 1580 to Teige MacConor O’Brien, ancestor of the Ballycorick family of that name. Crovraghan also had a castle, now levelled to the ground, which was owned by him.

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