The poetry of Kerry-born Aodhagβn ╙ Rathaile (1670-1728) is regarded as being in the front rank of Irish literature, but of him it was said that he was a "wounded snob rather than a patriot". Planters and upstarts and apostates had replaced the Gaelic chieftains he longed to serve, but he must serve and survive.
In August 1727 The Kenmare Manuscripts noted "Allowed Egan O'Rahilly, when his only cow was appraized last winter, by Thomas Curtayne, for composing songs for Master Thomas Browne and the rest of his Lordship's children as per song appears as voucher. . . At John Rierdane's prayer and request: £1 10s 0d." Songs in English no doubt, instead of the powerful Mac an Cheanna∅, Cabhair n∅ Ghairfead or Vailint∅n Br·n.
This latter poem was named for the English-educated Sir Valentine Browne, a man that had bitterly disappointed Aodhagβn, unlike Valentine's predecessor, Sir Nicholas Browne (d.1720), who had been an old patron of ╙ Rathaile.
In 1588 the monastery of Innisfallen and other lands round Killarney were granted to Valentine Browne, ancestor of the later earls of Kenmare. An inquisition at Killarney in 1619 before John Crosby, Bishop of Ardfert, found that Sir Nicholas Browne, knt., late of Malahiffe, deceased, was seized in fee of lands in Onaght I Donoghoe, except the Abbey of Innisfallen, including its precincts and gardens.
In 1595 a total of 120 acres and the island property were granted to Captain Robert Collam, Esq., of Dublin, "To hold for ever by the name of Cullam's vale".
In 1587 Collam had been granted the site of the house of the Friary of the Trinity in Adare, Co Limerick, and land in the burgage of Adare, while four years before that he had been appointed custodiam of Dunmoylan and Cloineiskeraghan (?) in Co Limerick. In 1599, along with Captain Francis Barkley he was appointed to execute martial law in Co Limerick. One might add that one of the Bishop Crosby's daughters was married to a man named Collum.
As early as 1270 , according to the Irish Exchequer Payments 1270-1446, one Richard Colum had been paid £36 16s 8d for five tuns of wine to provision the castles of Rinnadown, Athlone and Roscommon.
The Co Limerick book of The Civil Survey informs that William Callum, Irish Papist of Lissamota (Lissawoata in the Survey, more accurately representing the Irish Lios an Mh≤ta, "the enclosure of the mound"), had over 900 acres in the Co Limerick parishes of Lissamota, Kilmoylan and Rathronan. Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows the holdings of persons named Collum in the northern half of the country. John Collum, Bellview, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, had the largest holding in Ireland, the 5,945 acres there, as well as 1,902 acres in Co Donegal, and 377 in Co Cavan. Also in Co Fermanagh were the 1,543 acres of James Collum, London.
Mrs Eliza Collum, also of Enniskillen, had 1,157 Co. Sligo acres, and the Reps. of William Collum, MD, London had 2,741 Co Longford acres. There were smaller Collum holdings in Cos Dublin, Derry, Tyrone and Leitrim.
Current telephone directories contain 48 Collum entries, mainly in Cos Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, with 19 north of the Border. Seβn de Bhulbh's Sloinnte na h╔ireann/Irish Surnames says that Collum is the same as Mac Collum, from first name Colm (a dove). Only Woulfe's Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall lists Columb as an alternative spelling of this name, though it has 18 entries in the telephone directories, strongest in south Ulster and the adjoining north Leinster. Donegal-born priest and writer, baptized Owen Columb (1917-1981), used Eoghan ╙ Colm as the Irish form of his name.
Faithleann is a name attested in the early pedigrees of the Eoghantacht and Dβl Cais. One so-named, the son of Aodh Damhain, seventh century king of West Munster, founded a medieval religious house on an island in the Co Kerry lake, Lough Leane.
This 27-acre island was ever after known as Inis Faithleann, "the island of Faithleann", anglicized Innisfallen.