Ninth
Annual O’Leary Clan Gathering. September
2004.
As in
previous years, Creedon’s Hotel in
Inchigeelagh hosted the ninth annual
Gathering of the O’Leary Clan in September
2004.
It was a smaller meeting than usual,
with about thirty members of the Clan
turning up from various parts of the World
to celebrate over the weekend of September
17/18/19th. but all agreed that it was a
very successful one.
It was noted that the number of
Americans attending was much smaller than
usual and this was put down to a combination
of two factors.
One, that the dollar rate is very
poor for Americans at the moment.
And two, that there still remains a
distrust of flying and an understandable
worry amongst Americans following the
terrorist attacks of three years ago.
The
theme this year was General Daniel Florence
O’Leary the 150th. anniversary of whose
death occurred this year.
Daniel was the son of a butter
merchant in
Daniel eventually became a general in
Bolivar’s Army and his friend and confidant
as well.
After the War of Liberation was
successfully concluded, he had a second
career as a diplomat in the British service
in
On
the the Friday evening there was a Reception
and welcoming speeches from the Committee.
This was followed by Refreshments and
an address by Michael Manning, the Manager
of the
The
rest of the evening gave all the attendees a
good opportunity to meet and get to know
each other and exchange information on
Family Trees and Genealogical matters.
On
the Saturday morning we first had our Group
Photograph, taken this year in the
Inchigeelagh Cross, and a copy of which
appears alongside this article.
We
then had a talk on the life of Daniel
Florence O’Leary.
The subsequent bus tour took us to
various places associated with him,
including the family home in Acres near
Dunmanway, and the home of his father,
Jeremiah O’Leary in
These
buildings have been beautifully restored by
funding from Cork County Council, the
Ireland Fund, Dairygold and Kerry Groups,
and other sponsors, and are well worth a
visit.
The
Saturday evening
was given over to the annual dinner,
where as usual we were very well looked
after by Joe Creedon and his staff
in the hotel.
This was followed by music and
entertainment much of it provided by craic
amongst our members.
On
Sunday morning we feared the weather
forecast was not good, so we decided to
abandon our usual outdoor Mass in the
We
then held the annual Clan meeting at which
much was discussed and debated.
We finished up with an enlarged
committee to improve the efficiency of our
administration, and some of our old friends
including Eugene O’Leary,
We
are looking forward to next year which will
be our tenth successive Clan Gathering.
One of the first duties of our new
and enlarged committee will be to select a
suitable theme for this special event.
The date will be some time during
September 2005, and many of our regular and
frequent attendees have promised to be
there.
Look forward to a great Gathering in
2005.
Another Project which we are hoping to push
further during next year is known as the DNA
Project.
Our small pilot scheme this year has
been very promising, and we now intend to
widen the terms in a number of directions.
This will be another challenge to the
new management, but they have been given a
flying start by our hard working member from
Photo of O’Learys who travelled to Inchigeela for the Gathering
from left to right.
Tony
Kenny, Killarney; Sally O’Leary,