Wkstkopp — Fortified Headlands and Castles in Western Co. Cork. 263 



in Berri (Kilkeran, in Clerri or Cape Clear), Kilcholy (Kilcoe), a Kilkyth 

 (perhaps Kilfach' or Kilfaghnan), Micruss (Myross). Evidently the deanery 

 stopped at Kilcoe. The four peninsular parishes, Schull and Kilmoe in 

 Ivagha, and Durrus and Kilcrohane in Muintervara, are unnamed, but those 

 at Beare are all given. All seems to imply the inaccessibility of the place; 

 even the careful portolans pass it by. 



The very incorrect Mahony pedigree in the Herald's Office says that 

 Carew granted Ivagha to Mahony ; this is a mistake, or exaggeration ; even 

 Camden in 1586 only says " ample estates," and this is based on the moderate 

 and perfectly credible note in the Carew mss. that when Dermod Mahon 

 married a daughter of Carew, the latter gave him Innisfoda or Long Island 

 and Callowchraghe, both near Schull. It is also quite conceivable that this 

 was merely a transfer of nominal rights which Carew had never been able to 

 win into reality. 



Sir Bichard Cox, in " Carberiae Notitia," gives the branches of Mahony 

 as Mahon Fune in West Carbery and Mahon Yerer (an Iarthair), whose 

 chief castles were Ardinter and Three Castle Head and Ballydivlin. 1 



The only one of these later chiefs of general interest was Finghin 

 OMathgamhna, who died in 1496, 2 atBossbrin Castle. Whether contact with 

 foreign merchants helped to widen his interests or not, he was " intelligent, 

 polished, and erudite, and learned in the history of the world in the east and 

 thither," chief of Fun Iarthair Mumhan ; he was " the general supporter of 

 the hospitality and learning of West Munster, the most learned man of his 

 time in Latin and English." Much of this panegyric refers to his extant 

 work, the translation of Sir John de Mauudeville's Travels ; but we can 

 endorse the praise of the obituary — "widening of his horizon over the world." 

 The existing copy was made by Donald Fihelly in Kilcrea (Cillcreidhe) Abbey, 

 on Maundy Thursday, 1475. 3 Probably some visitor to Finghin's ports opened 

 that fascinating melange of fact and fiction to him. He died, and after his 

 death there arose a struggle for the succession. Conor Fionn, son of 

 Conor Cabaiec, the chief, who died in 1473, opposed his uncle Domnall of 

 Dunbeacon Castle, and was the first " Mahon Finn." His son, Finghin, had 

 a castle at Cruachan. or Crookhaven ; and of his three brothers, Finghin Caol 



1 Cork H. and A. Journal gives " Carberiae Notitia, vol. xi, p. 142. 



2 Ann. Loch Ce, Ulster, and Four Masters. See also for his book, MS. Series 

 R.I. Acad., 1870, p. 60. Revue Celtique, vii (1886), p. 66. 



5 Dr. Todd read the date 1472 ; it is more probably 1475. It gives the author's 

 descent as Finghin, son of Dermod, son of Donall, son of Finn, son of Dermod. It was 

 translated at Rossbrin Castle, farther up Roaringwater Bay than Schull, and outside our 

 limits. See view, Cork H. and A. Journal, xv, p. 188. 



