EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

'''Bernard Burke, ''A genealogic and heraldic dictionary of the lande d gentry of Great Britain and Ireland'', Londra 1863, p. 962:''' Th e O'Mahonys were, in early times, powerful chieftains in Munster, an d had estensive estates along the sea coast of Cork and Kerry. Opposit e Horse Island, off the former county, was their castle of Rosbrin, bo ldly erecteod on a rock over the sea; and its proprietor, in the tim e of Queen Elizabeth, availing himself of the natural advantage it pos sessed, led a life of such successful piracy, that Sir George Carew, w hen Lord President, waa obliged to demolish it. Smith says, "There wa s an ancient Irish Chronicle, called from this locality, the 'Psalte r of Rosbrine' whioh oontained a genealogical account of the O'Mahonys . In the manuscript of the Lambeth Library, is a note of the names o f all the plow-lands belonging to the O'Mahone Fione, in Disagh, a par t of West Carbury;" also, "the division of the territory of Iveagh (th e Peninsula of Mizen Head), a part also of Carbury, among the O'Mahony s". This O'Mohony Fion, according to O'Gorman's MSS., was Sovereign Pr ince of Rathlean, and next lawful heir to the crown of Cashel. From ol d family documents, lt appears that the ancestors of the present Richa rd Mahony, Esq. of Dromore Castle, held for a long period the office o f Seneschal of Kerry, even down to the period of the Commonwealth; o n the 25th March, 1639, MacDermot O'Mahony was confirmed as high sheri ff of Kerry, by letters patent from Charles I. Not long after, the Mah onys true to their allegiance, suffered fine and confiscation, and fin ally sought, in foreign climes the distinction denied them at home.