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Archiver > CountyCork > 1998-06 > 0897121790


From: Michael Ruddy <>
Subject: Re: O'Mahony/Mahony/Mahoney
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 1998 03:29:50 -0500


In regards O'Mahony, there was a John O'Mahony who was born in Clonkilla
on the banks of the Funcheon near Mitchellstown, Cork in 1819. Son of a
gentleman farmer, his grandfather supposedly horsewhipped the Earl of
Kingston, a powerful Landlord of Cork, for an insult and lived to tell of
it. He was reported to be descendant of the O'Mahony Clan Chieftans. John
was educated at Trinity College and afterward lived on a large farm at
Carrick on Suir which he was to inherit. He joined the Young Ireland
Rebellion of 1848 and after its failure, fled to France and thence to
America. His farm he deeded over to his sister and her husband when he
left. This sister had married into the Mandelvilles of Ballydine who
traced their ancestry to the Norman invasions of the 12th Century. In
America, John translated "Keatings History of Ireland" from the Gaelic to
English and had it published in NY. He founded several revolutionary clubs
and finally founded, with James Stephens, the Fenian Brotherhood in 1857.
He was a colonel in the NY State National Guard 99th Regiment during the
Civil War. He was president of the Fenian Brotherhood from 1857 until it
split up over the attacks on Canada in 1866. He died in a New York Tenement
in 1877. His body was taken back to Ireland and given a hero's burial at
Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin. I am interested in any information concerning
the Fenian Brotherhood and would welcome any who trace themselves to John
O'Mahony or his relatives to contact me to exchange data (as far as I know
he did not marry in the US)
Mike Ruddy
Searching Ruddy in Cork

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