Daniel MacCarthy Glas Collection- Descriptive List

Descriptive list of the Daniel MacCarthy (Glas) Collection

and tribulations of Denis' life, and are an invaluable historical source on one of the leading Irish cultural figures of the 19th century.

Daniel’s correspondence also includes letters from several individuals who discuss the dire impact of the Great Famine in west Cork. In letters written by Bartholomew Rochford of Ardcahan, near Dunmanway, County Cork during “Black ‘47”, the worst year of the Famine, Rochford says that “… there is scarcely a person over 50 years living at present, through the means of the pestilence, which prevailed in this country during the last season …” [ PR70/B/562]. Rochford opens another letter [PR70/B/563] to Daniel w ith the following plea: “I have to disclose to you a very serious thing. At present, the difficulty which I have laboured under within these last twelve months is very serious. The failure of the Crops of this country drove many a noble family from their homes and the dire pestilence which followed was more so, many a gentleman in this country was cut off by it. I, myself & family was seized with the distemper, of which we all thank God recovered, but having lost an immense sum of money by doctors, since March last, of which also a very dear brother of mine was cut off – it brought me under adverse circumstances, so much so, that I at present rely on your generosity, to remove the embarrassment.” Father John Keleher of Dunmanway, County Cork wrote to Daniel on 20 July 1853 regarding the improving, but still precarious, situation of the potato harvest: “The prospects of the harvest are at present very good. The potato blight has very slightly been eradicated, the chances of a good crop are better than they have been for years at this season. I need not add how precarious the crop has become. Should it be a good one a very great improvement of the country must be the result. The condition already is b etter than it has been for some time.” Jane Leslie, of Kincraigie, Courtmacsherry, County Cork wrote to Daniel on 26 May [?1880] and recalled the Great Famine and her efforts to relieve some of the distress in the local community: “I was married in 1847 – I came to [Courtmacsherry] just after the Famine & saw the painful effects of it … My sisters sent me some money from India & as the worst part of the Famine was over I began a work in flax & wool both to help & to raise the crushed energies of the people …” One document in the archive is of immense cultural and historical significance: a 1784 family pedigree of the Gaelic prince Jeremiah MacCarthy (‘Diarmuid an Duna’) compiled by famous poet - schoolmaster Seán Ó Coileáin [John Collins] of Myross, County Cork [see PR70/D/1/1]. Ó Coileáin was known as the last bard of Munster, who, it is said, could recite much of the ancient history and genealogies of the region. This unique document, written in a combination of Irish and English, is one of very few original manuscripts that we know of in existence from Ó Coileáin or indeed any other Gaelic scholar from the period. Written on parchment, the pedigree bears a wax seal of John Butler, Catholic Bishop of Cork, later Baron Dunboyne. The pedigree has been subject to a detailed process of transcription and interpretation by Dr. Cornelius Buttimer, formerly of University College Cork. This pedigree helped to locate a missing “link” in Daniel MacCarthy’s own family pedigree and solved the mystery of who the father of Daniel’s great -great-grandfather, Cormac Glas, was. Daniel described the find as “historic” [see PR70/C/4/16], as it was a mystery that some of the leading Irish historians and genealogists of the day – John O’Donovan and Richard F Cronnelly – had been unable to solve. This p edigree, along with letters received from renowned genealogist, Eugene “Old Root” MacCarthy, proved to Daniel that Felim, by whom the sept lands were forfeited after the Battle of the Boyne, was Cormac Glas’ father. John Windele, an antiquarian and collector from Cork city, recognised the historical significance of the Jeremiah MacCarthy an Duna pedigree and copied it for