Eoghan Ó Néill makes time and place come alive, writes Brendan Ó Cathaoir. Following on Gleann an Óir (1988), his new book further enriches our heritage. The Golden Vale of Ivowen: Between Slievenamon and Suir (Geography Publications, €38.09) collates an impressive body of source material which would otherwise have gone unrecorded.
While focusing on the author's distinguished ancestry, it transmutes the chronicle of his family's 800-year association with south Tipperary into the story of a region. This 600-page hymn in praise of sept owes more to the epic narrative tradition than to modern historical research.
Although justifiably proud of the service rendered by his forebears, Col Ó Néill is not afraid to rattle a skeleton in the family cupboard. In 1745, for instance, an in-law, tired of listening to stories about O Neill exploits while surrounded by penury, tossed a genealogical manuscript into the fire. She had already sold boots and silver spurs of the great Eoghan Rua O Neill, presented to her husband's great-grandfather after the Siege of Clonmel 100 years previously. According to oral tradition, she was taken out and drowned.
Siege of Clonmel
The colonel recalls the part played by his ancestors in resisting Cromwell. Aodh Buí of Ballyneill, his sons and followers, joined Aodh Dubh O Neill's Ulster army during the Siege of Clonmel in 1650.
The author is tolerant to the point of condescension towards Cromwell, perhaps because of the heavy casualties which Aodh Buí helped to inflict on his forces. "Cromwell was a man of his word; he made his intentions, however ruthless, crystal clear . . . he excused excesses on the grounds that he was doing the Lord's work." Echoes of Osama bin Laden and every other blood-thirsty fundamentalist throughout history.
Col Ó Néill makes an interesting etymological observation. After the Ulstermen withdrew, local people buried those who had fallen in a place known in Irish as Uaigh na nUltach. In the Déise dialect the word Ultach is pronounced "owltach", easily confused with alltach, a giant. "This was rendered into English by some uneducated clerk as Giant's Grave."
He contends, furthermore, that the attacks on the Cromwellian forces had a lasting effect on the people of Ivowen, sustaining their self-respect during the centuries of suppression which followed. He identifies a community of interests between the people and landholders of "the old stock" who survived in the Suir Valley.
It remained a centre of learning and music. There were sufficient farmers of means and culture to support scribes, poets and school masters. In other words, this part of Ireland was never fully conquered or anglicised.
1848 rising
Perhaps there was method to Young Ireland madness in attempting to start an insurrection in south Tipperary. On the other hand, no determined effort was made to halt food exports along the Suir during the Famine. The colonel, whose grandfather was involved in both movements, considers the Young Irelanders were potentially more formidable than the Fenians; in this region possibly, but hardly throughout the country.
The author, belonging to a Catholic gentry family who valued education for its own sake, clings to romantic notions about his class. His family were exceptional, however; the Catholic propertied classes produced few rebels. Survival was paramount. Tipperary had the second highest number of conversions to the established church during the 18th century.
Following the Cromwellian confiscation, the O Neills of Ballyneill were transplanted to Connacht. But the stonewall countryside of Galway was a cold place after the rich lands of the Golden Vale. Leaving one son behind as a rapparee on the Slieve Felim mountains, Aodh Buí went to the Continent where he had several connections. In Rome he was received by the Pope, who presented him with a rosary. The family made their way next to Spain. They returned to Ireland after the restoration of Charles II in the vain hope of recovering their ancestral lands. They settled first in Carrick-on-Suir and by the end of the 18th century had become "respectable" farmers on the Bessborough estate.
In "the year of liberty", 1798, Hugh O Neill trained a group in the glens below Lisronagh. He led arms raids on local big houses but found most guns had been removed to Clonmel for security.
After one of the raids, an accomplice drew a decanter of whiskey from under his frieze coat and said: "I wasn't wasting time anyhow." Applying harsh military discipline, this irascible O Neill warrior shot him dead.
Next day he set out for Wexford and fought at Vinegar Hill. He escaped afterwards to France, thus avoiding the carnage at Carrigmaclear on the slopes of Slievenamon, when leaderless insurgents were massacred: "Ar Shliabh na mBan an lá úd, mo chráiteacht, ba dhubhach ár scéal/Ins na carraigí dá gcarnadh, is a lán againn ag luí insa bhfraoch."
Legacy of Patrick O Neill
The author lingers lovingly on the legacy of Patrick O Neill (1765-1832), who like himself devoted a significant part of his life to promoting the Irish language. He discovered eight volumes of manuscripts in the National Library belonging to this O Neill, who was a miller, farmer, poet and polymath. He expanded this section of his book into a literary history of the region.
Although The Golden Vale of Ivowen is diffuse in parts and in need of editing, cumulatively it is a fitting monument to a truly noble family. While Eoghan Ó Néill's stamina wavered understandably by the time he reached the Young Ireland/Fenian period, he proves that enthusiasm is the best antidote to the ageing process.
This labour of love is embellished by John Hackett's magnificent photographs. There have been more scholarly Geography Publications, such as the late Seán Ó Lúing's Celtic Studies in Europe and other Essays, but none more splendid.