Hello Marion, 14/May/2011

It's good to receive the message.

It could be that your grandmother Agnes was one of six sisters with no brothers?, or one of twelve sisters with no brothers?
There were two related O'Leary families in the Droumadrown part of Glengarriff to which those descriptions applied. I believe that those two sets of sisters were second cousins to each other.

If she was one of the six sisters, then I knew some of your 'first cousins once removed' some years ago - the Careys, Hourihans and O'Sullivan(Barry)s.

If she was one of the twelve sisters, then we are probably distantly related through my own male line. The mother of those twelve girls was supposed to have come from Eireneen on the Kerry side of the Cork/Kerry tunnel border, and to be a connection of my own paternal grandfather's parent who came from there too.
Also, if that's the case then one of your first cousins once removed runs the 'Patrick O'Shea' convenience store in Glengarriff village. Also, another one of them is named Connolly and is married to one of my Hurley first cousins in Bantry.

It's my understanding that there were several O'Leary family homesteads around the Glengarriff area, but that there are now very few left. Many of those families died out in the male line.
It's also my understanding that they were all the same O'Learys, and that the connections are not that far back - only about 150/200 years ago, but still difficult to trace.

There are hundreds of descendants of O'Learys around through female lines and with different surnames.
Many of them are not aware of their O'Leary descent.

My own descent from O'Learys is a distant one.
My gggm was O'leary, probably from Droumadrown.
She married my gggf Michael Hurley and they settled down in his place in Holly Hill/Droumgariff just about a mile up the road.
I don't know how many children they had.
Through their son Michael (Approx 1836-1913) they have well over seven hundred direct living descendants of which I am just one.
By far the majority of them are not aware of their O'Leary ancestry.

I wish that I could be more helpful than just providing these vague connections based on hearsay. Researching records is another matter aagin, and some are better at it than others.
For the record, I believe the hearsay. I got most of it in person by word of mouth from my maternal grandfather Jack Hurley (1886-1977)in Glengarriff in 1970.

Lots of good luck with your search!
Regards Michael O'Shea, London.