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O'Mahony of Grangecon & Kerry, Ireland

O'Mahony of Grangecon & Kerry, Ireland

Posted: 25 Feb 2005 2:04PM GMT
Classification: Biography
Surnames: O'Mahony - de Lacy - Goold
O’Mahony of Grangecon

by Turtle Bunbury

Based on Burke's Irish Landed Gentry, 1959.

The O’Mahony’s claim descent from Sabha, daughter of Biran Boru, High King of Ireland, by her marriage to Kean, 12th Lord of Kinealmeaky and Iniskean. The family take their name from Sabha and Kean’s son Mahony, Lord of Kinealmeaky, and it was Mahony’s son Brodchon O’Mahony who first bore the surname after the general assumption under the law of Brian Boru (when was this law passed? What do we know of Kinealmeaky?).

Prior to the accession of Henry VIII, the family played a (what sort of a?!!) role in Co. Kerry, intermarrying with the O’Connell, O’Sullivan, McCarthy and O’Donoghue families. What battles did they fight?! In 1536 Tiegue O’Mahony Murtagh signed a treaty with Lord Deputy Sir Leonard Grey. He subsequently served as Seneschal of Desmond under the Earl of Desmond. His wife Honora was a daughter of Dermot O’Sullivan Beara by his marriage to Lady Eleanor FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald, Earl of Kildare (which Earl? First marriage with Normans?).

The O’Mahony’s of Grangecon descend from Tiegue and Honora’s seventh son Donogh. During the late Elizabethan Age, Donogh’s sons allied with Desmond in his war against the English colonists and many were either killed or sought exile in Spain and the Netherlands. Donogh’s great-grandson David Mahony settled at Knockavony, Co. Kerry and had six sons. His son Cornelius succeeded but died in the winter of 1722 and was buried at Brosna. By his marriage to Mary FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald Knight of Glin, Cornelius had a son David.

David was born in 1712 and succeeded his father when he was just 10 years old. In 1743 he married Catherine, daughter of Pierce de Lacy of Dromada, Co. Limerick, by his wife, Annabella, daughter of Robert Goold of Knocksaun, Co. Cork. Pierce was a General in James II’s army and Colonel of a Regiment. The de Lacy family “gave so many distinguished generals and diplomatists, the Generals and Counts de Lacy, to Austria, Russia and Spain”. David lived at Carrigeen, Co. Kerry, and The Castle, New Castle, Co. Limerick. He died in 1779 leaving two sons, Cornelius (who dsp) and Peirce.

The second son Peirce was born in 1750 and succeeded at the age of 29 to The Castle and also lived at Woodlawn, Co. Kerry. He was a JP for both Counties Kerry and Limerick. By his first wife, Catherine Sheehy, daughter of Bryan Sheehy of Gardenfield, Co. Limerick, he had three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Bryan, was an Officer in the Irish Brigade, afterwards incorporated into the British service. He was killed in action at the storming of the Guadaloupe. The second son Captain Cornelius O’Mahony served with the 45th Regiment, married Mary, daughter of Francis Arthur and died without issue. The third son Philip died unmarried in Paris. The only daughter Mary married Captain Philip Hunt of Loughborough, Leicestershire and had issue one son.

After Catherine’s death, Peirce married secondly on 21st February 1792 to Anna Maria, daughter of John Maunsell of Ballybrood House, Co. Limerick, by his marriage to Catherine, daughter of Dr. Thomas Widenham. John Maunsell died the year of Anna Maria’s wedding. By this marriage, Peirce had two further sons, Peirce and David, before his death in 1819.

The younger son David was born on 22nd February 1795. In October 1824 he married Margaret, daughter and co-heir of William Perry of Gambonstown, Co. Tipperary. He settled at Grange Co, Co. Wicklow, and dsp in 1845. The elder son Peirce Mahony was born on 19th December 1792. On 10th January 1815 he married Jane, only daughter of Edmund Kenifeck of Seafort, Co. Cork. He succeeded to Woodlawn and Kilmorna in 1819 and was variously JP and DL for Kerry, as well as MP for Kinsale and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died in February 1853; Jane died on 16thh July 1860. They had issue two sons and a daughter.

The second son, David Mahony, MA, was born on 14th January 1820 and succeeded his uncle and namesake at Grangecon aged 25 in 1845. He was variously DL, JP and High Sheriff (1868) for Co. Wicklow. He died unmarried on 3rd August 1900, aged 80. The only daughter Maria was married on 10th January 1844 to Lt-Col Francis William Johnstone of Alva, and died on 24th May 1901. Francis died on 9th August 1888. They left two sons and three daughters.

Peirce and Jane’s eldest son, Peirce K Mahony was born on 4th October 1817. He lived at Kilmorna and Gunsborough and was JP and High Sheriff (1844) for Co. Kerry. On 15th November 1839 he married Jane, 3rd daughter of Robert Gun Cuninghame, DL, of Mount Kennedy, Co. Wicklow. Peirce K predeceased his father by three years and died aged 33 on 21st July 1850.

Upon his death in 1853, Peirce Mahony was succeeded by his eldest surviving grandson, 11-year-old George Philip Gun Mahony of Kilmorna and Gunsborough, Co. Kerry, JP, HS (1876), MA Oxford. George was born on 14th May 1842 and died unmarried on 14th September 1912. The male representation of the family duly devolved upon his nephew Dermot, the second and youngest son of George’s brother Peirce.

Peirce Charles de Lacy Mahony was born on 9th June 1850 and educated at Oxford University (MA, BL) and the RAC Cirencester (Gold Medallist). He adopted the name of O’Mahony and was a JP and MP for Parnell’s Party from 1886 until the split in 1892. On 24th April 1877 he married Helen Louise, only child of Maurice Collis, MRIA (of medical family?) by his wife Martha Jane, daughter of Richard Montgomery. She gave him two sons before her death on 26th July 1899. Peirce succeeded his uncle David at Grangecon in 1900. On 17th December 1901 Peirce married secondly his cousin Alice Jane, daughter of Lt Col. Francis Johnstone. She died on 29th June 1906. Peirce died on 31st October 1930.

His eldest son Peirce Gun O’Mahony, MRIA, barrister, was born on 30th March 1878 and lived at Kilmurry, Castle Island, Co. Kerry. In 1903, he married Thel Tindall, younger daughter of JJ Wright, MD, of Malton, Yorkshire. He was appointed Cork Herald of Arms in 1905, a position he retained until his implication in the controversial Theft of the Crown Jewels in 1910. He died aged 36 of gunshot wounds in the lake at Grangecon on 26th July 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the Great War. His widow Ethel died on 6th July the following year.

Upon the death of Peirce O’Mahony in 1930, his only surviving son Dermot Gun O’Mahony succeeded as “The O’Mahony of Kerry”. He was born on 2nd April 1881. On 26th March 1913 he married Grace, daughter of James Ledger Hill of Bulford Manor, Bulford, Wiltshire, by whom he had two daughters, Helen and Pam. Dermot was a member of the Irish Free State Parliament for Co. Wicklow from 1927 – 38 and attended the Empire Parliamentary Conference in London in 1937. He travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia (sheep farming, presumably with his Maunsell cousins in Queensland), Chile, East Africa and Patagonia (where he was an early pioneer in the Santa Cruz region).

His eldest daughter Helen Mary Patricia de Lacy O’Mahony was born on 18th July 1915 and married, on 12th June 1939, to Lt Col. Richard (“Dick”) Kennett Page, MC, RA, of Grangecon, eldest son of Kennth Wyborn Page of Burseldon, Hants. Their son Richard David Page was born on 26th January 1949, married Sarah and is father to Dermot, Hannah (who married Andy) and ___. Their daughter Kerry Grace de Lacy Page was bornm on 5th October 1946, married Robert Pocock and is mother to Iva and Clare.

The younger daughter Pamela “Pam” Grace O’Mahony was born on 3rd May 1922.

Kilmorna was destroyed by fire in 1921 and the estate sold.



Re: O'Mahony of Grangecon & Kerry, Ireland

Posted: 13 Aug 2012 5:08PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: O'Mahony
Fascinating, have linked this family into my family tree and it is all so interesting!
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