FROM BEARA TO BREIFNE TO SANTIAGO : THE FLIGHT OF THE MUNSTER NOBILITY.

Adrian Ó h-Éalaithe

The Beara-Breifne Way is an initiative by the the Heritage Council, Fáilte Ireland, County
councils and community groups to retrace the retreat of Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare from West
Cork to Breifne, Co.Leitrim. A part of the way runs through my parents farm in Ballingeary, West
Cork, located on the Slí Mhuscraí Gaeltacht (Muskerry Gaeltacht Way) stretch of the way. Though
the story of O' Sullivan's march is one of the epics of Irish history, and is well known in his native
West Cork, little is known of his life as an exile in Spain and his involvment in the founding of the
Irish College at Santiago de Compostela. As I currently reside in Santiago, I thought it might be
interesting to retrace his steps and research his involvment in the Irish College.

The seventeenth century in Ireland was to mark the final chapter in the history of the Gaelic
clan order in the country. The Nine Years War in Ireland (1594-1603) was fought between the
Elizabethan English forces and the Gaelic Irish Chieftians led by Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eoghain and
Hugh Roe Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill. The rebellion all but collapsed in the south of the country
after the defeat of the Irish and Spanish forces at the battle of Kinsale in 1601, and the Irish nobles
scattered. The last rebel stronghold in the south was Dunboy Castle near the town of
Castletownbere on the Beara peninsula. It was the seat of Gaelic clan leader Donal Cam O' Sullivan
Beare (Chief of Dunboy). An army of 5000 Elizabethan soldiers led by George Carew, Lord
President of Munster, supressed the resistance on the 18th of June 1602, in what was to be one of the
last battles of the conflict, after 11 days of siege. After the fall of Dunboy, O' Sullivan led a
campaign of guerrila warfare around West Cork until, faced with starvation and overwhelming
odds, he left Glengarriff, Co.Cork with 1000 followers on a flight to the castle of his ally O' Rourke
in Leitrim, passing through the harsh winter landscapes of counties Cork, Limerick, Tipperary,
Galway and Roscommon. After a fortnight of marching, and numerous skirmishes and raids along
the way, O' Sullivan and less than 50 surviving members of his followers entered the temporary
safety of O' Rourkes castle in Breifne, Co. Leitrim. Here O' Sullivan sought to join forces with the
northern Gaelic chiefs to fight the English, but his efforts failed when the Earl of Tyrone (O' Neill)
sued for peace, though he was to be later betrayed by the English and was forced into exile in Spain
in 1607, in what became known as The Flight of the Earls. O' Sullivan, rather than make any pact
with the English fled to the safety of exile in Spain.1

1 A more thorough account of O' Sullivan's retreat is given by his nephew Philip O' Sullivan in Compendium
Historiae Catholicae Iberniae (1621). See also: Somerville-Large, Peter, From Bantry Bay to Leitrim,London, 1980.
 So what attracted the Irish exiles to Spain and in particular to Galicia? O' Connor, in
Elizabethan Ireland, maintains that : “The ties of a common ancestry, friendly feeling due to
centuries of trading, and the intercourse resulting from Irish pilgrimages to the relics of St. James at
Compostella, in conjunction with the geographical position of the two countries, con tributed to a
feeling amongst the disaffected Irish that the Spaniards were their natural allies against their
powerful enemy.” (O' Connor, p.142). Galicia had remained largely untouched by the moorish
invasions and its' shared celtic background with Ireland may have made it the closest to home for
the exiles who had lost everything in their native land. The most important of all the exiles to reach
Galicia was Donal Cam O' Sullivan Beare, who arrived with a large following.2 Travelling over land
through France and northern Spain, O' Sullivan finally reached Galicia in the year 1604 where he
was welcomed by the Count of Caracena, governor of Galicia.

The Irish in Spain took an active role in deciding their own fate. Though some may have
romanticised the story of the Irish in Spain, their experience and attempts at integration cannot have
been so easy. Some of the Spanish nobility were even jealous of the special treatment afforded to
the newly arrived emigrés. However, one must also admit that the Irish in Galicia may have taken
advantage of the Milesian myth to elicit a positive response from Philip III. Indeed the O' Sullivan
clan claim descent from the mythological followers of Milesius who were the first Celts to colonize
Ireland. They had migrated from Galicia and conquered the previous residents, the Firbolg and the
Tuatha De Danann. Ostensibly the response from Madrid was positive, and the Irish were given a
warm welcome on the Iberian Peninsula, with the setting up of Irish Colleges and the granting of
titles and estates.

Though the Irish emigrés may have believed that they were in Spain ender temporary exile
until they could re-group on the Iberian peninsula and return to Ireland with a force of Spanish
assistance to retake their titles and estates, I believe that the Spanish never foresaw this eventuality.
While many may have romanticised the Galician-Irish relations over the centuries, the reality is that
the tragic catastrophic history of Ireland was in the seveenth century transferred to Spain, and of
particular interest is the flight of the Munster nobility to Galicia. Spain, I believe, felt an obligation
towards the emigrés due to their shared history of trade and military alliance in the Catholic-
Protestant wars. The Irish cause was I believe lost in the eyes of the Spanish after the disasterous
defeat at the battle of Kinsale. Indeed many Irish on the Iberian peninsula subsequently claimed to
have helped Juan de Águila at Kinsale in order to elicit sympathy from the Spanish Crown. All
possibilities of returning to Ireland with Spanish military aid had faded by the end of the seveenth
2 For a list of those who arrived in Galicia with Donal Cam, see : Kerney Walsh, Micheline, 'O'Sullivan Beare in
Spain: some unpublished documents', Archivium Hibernicum, xiv (1990), pp.46-63
century as the emigrés became, by necessity, integrated in to Spanish society, with many recieving
financial support and end even titles and honours from the Spanish crown, in what may have been
an attempt at pacifying the patriotism of the Irish at a time when Philip III was in negotiations with
James I of England. Indeed Donal Cam himself was honoured with the knighthood of the Military
Order of Santiago, and his standing as leader of the O' Sullivan clan and Count of Bearhaven was
officially recognised by Philip III.

However, the patriotic activism of the Gaelic nobility did not wane on the Iberian peninsula.
They recognised that the reconquest of their native land was to be a long drawn-out struggle, and
that their sons should be educated in the old Gaelic traditions so that they might continue the
struggle. The young nobility were also to be educated in the science and arts as part of a Catholic
education, while conserving their sense of Gaelicness. The future heirs of the Gaelic estates were
probably destined for military service in the eyes of Donal Cam, while others saw the Irish College
as a means of pretecting Catholocism in Ireland and as a revival of the golden age of Celtic
Christianity. This I believe was the view also held by Philip III.

The Irish College at Santiago de Compostela was founded in 1605 in Rua das Hortas under
the supervision of the Irish priest Eugene MacCarthy, one of those who had accompanied
O'Sullivan on his flight from Ireland.3 MacCarthy was probably elected as the first rector of the
College to preserve the Irish language and traditions amongst the first students of the College who
were all members or relations of the O' Sullivan clan. Indeed as Patricia O Connell in The Irish
College at Santiago de Compostela 1605-1769 says :

“Given the centuries-old connections between the Celtic realms of Galicia and
Ireland, it is not without significance that the dawn of the seventeenth century,
when Gaelic civilisation was about to collapse, Galicia and especially Santiago de
Compostela would provide sanctuary, shelter and support for numerous Irish
refugees and a centre for the preservation and promotion of education and culture
for their compatriots – the Irish College at Santiago.” (O Connell, p.28)

In the beginning, the Irish College exclusively educated the sons and relations of the
noblemen of the Beara peninsula, and the students were free to chose any profession they wished

3 The college was initially housed in rented accomodation on Rua das Hortas,and subsequently in other
locations,until 1616 when the then rector, Richard Conway SJ, rented the premises on Rua Nova (44). The
royal crown, which can still be seen on the building today, indicated Royal protection for the College and its
students.
and not destined exclusively for the priesthood. However, a controversy was later arise between O'
Sullivan and Irish jesuits based in the province at the time. The controversy arose around the issue
as to whether or not to convert the Irish College into a seminar (as was the case with the other Irish
College's on the peninsula at the time), to train students for the priesthod and the Irish Mission,
whereby students were destined to return to Ireland as priests to conserve and spread Catholicism
throughout the country. Meanwhile the emigrés believed the College was founded specifically as a
gift from Philip III and was exclusively for the education of the sons and relations of the Irish
persecuted, exiled, executed or imprisioned by the Elizabethan forces. They saw it as the last
salvation and hope for the Gaelic clan order and their territorial claaims. O' Sullivan was supported
by Father Eugene MacCarthy and the students of the College while the Jesuits had the backing of
Philip III and other influential figures such as the Duke of Lerma (his chief minister), the
archbishop of Cashel, David Kearney and Patrick Sinnott (Master of Grammer at the University of
Santiago).

Though the controversy raged for years, the College was officially taken over by the Jesuit
Order in 1613, and the first twelve student of the College were expelled as they refused to sign an
oath which was the norm in other Jesuit-run Irish Colleges. The twelve students were either related
to or were followers of Donal O' Sullivan, and some would have made the epic journey from Beara
to Breifne with him. Their names and most of their ages appear in correspondence between
O'Sullivan and Patrick Sinnott, and these documents are today preserved in the Russell Libray at St.
Patrick's College, Maynooth:
Carlos Carty (22)
Florencio Carty (20)
Cornelio Driscol (15)
Dermetrio Driscol ( 20)
Dionisio Driscol
Felipe Holland (21)
Buecio O' Sullivan (18)
Daniel O' Suleban (20)
Diego O' Sulyban
Felipe O' Suliban (23)4
Richardo Sinnott (25)5
Edward Sweetman (24)

4 This is Philip O' Sullivan, nephew of Donal Cam and author of the Compendium Historiae Catholicae Iberniae
(1621).
5 Brother of Patrick Sinnott, Master of Arts of the University of Santiago de Compostela at the time.
 But why was the Irish chief so against the Jesuit Order running the Collage, especially given
their prestige at the time as educators in the eyes and in the eyes of the Spanish Crown, and given
that they were in the “vanguard of the forces ranged against the Lutherans.” (O Connell, p.130).
The significance of the Jesuit take-over may have been overlooked or at least underestimated by the
Spanish monarchy. The take-ever signified a turning point in the history of the Irish in Spain for O'
Sullivan and his followers. The Jesuit Order were viewed with suspicion by many of the Irish
nobility as they believed they were attempting to disrupt the traditional Gaelic Order and
furthermore, to a certain degree believed them to be loyal to the English Crown. This idea was re-
inforced by the fact that many of the Irish Jesuits, though belonging to the Catholic faith, were from
the Pale or from the English towns of Munster and south Leinster and had little or no knowledge of
the Irish language and the old gaelic traditions. Despite this, the Jesuit take-over of the College was
to have a positive impact on Ireland, as it produced a steady stream of clerics who returned to
Ireland to keep the Catholic faith alive during Penal times. The newly ordained clergymen returned
to Ireland in disguise and led a secret double life, celebrating underground masses on mass-rocks or
wherever they could do so with relative safety. However the students were discouraged from
speaking Irish in the College, a travesty for the language in the eyes of O' Sullivan, though
admittedly English was by then the predominant language in most cities and towns in Ireland. So
the seventeenth century not only heralded the death toll for the old Gaelic clan order, but also for
the widespread use of the Irish language in Irish society. This probably served to further infuriate
O`Sullivan and his followers as they had, during the battle of Kinsale, tried to finally rid Ireland of
the last vestiges of English rule and influence, and yet were now betrayed in exile by the practices
of the Jesuit Order. The bitterness of the controversy is evident from the correspondence between
Donal O`Sullivan and Patrick Sinnott, Master of Arts of the University of Santiago. Two
documents, of particular interest regarding the controversy over the Irish College, are now held in
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and are reproduced in an article by Patricia O Connell; The Irish
College, Santiago de Compostela: 1605-17676 . The first is a report on the Irish College and its
students, written by Patrick Sinnott and signed the 28th December 1612, in which he argues for the
Jesuit takeover of the College (or Seminary as he calls it) based upon what he claims is the
degeneration of the centre due to a number of factors.

Sinnott begins by claiming that the college, which he refers to as a seminary, had lost its
purpose and since its founding only two students had become clerics while most students went off
to war or followed other walks of life which he believed conflicted with the aims of the centre. He

6 In Archivium Hibernicum. Vol 50 (1996), pp 19-28.

then criticises the then rector Fr.Eugene MacCarthy by attributing these facts to his supervision and
education of the students, furthermore claiming that the students lack order, law and rule. This he
claims leads them to have no respect for authority of for the rector. The Jesuits were seen as the
great educators at the time, and Sinnott, himsdelf a member of the Order, also criticises the
functioning of the curriculum by claiming that the studies are disorderly with no time set aside
outside class for discussion of the issues and classes of the day. This he claims leads to students to
waste their time on such trivial pursuits as playing the guitar of fencing, both of which they excel
in. The College, a seminary in Sinnots view, also lacks an emphasis on spiritual exercise and prayer
which he says is voluntary. It is interesting to note that Sinnott also speaks of his brother, a student
in the College, and claims that he is also dissatisfied with the overall running of the centre.7

The other document of interest in this prolonged controversy a is letter from Donal Cam O'
Sullivan to Admiral Diego Brochero y Anaya (Protector of the Irish), in which he gives an account
of the Irish College at Santiago de Compostela. The letter is undated but was written sometime
between 1610 and 1613.8 In it, O' Sullivan refutes Sinnotts's claims that few left the College to
practice as clergymen, and goes on to list those who have done so. Sinnotts's arguments were
probably unfounded in O' Sullivans eyes as he believed that the College was a centre for both
clerical and lay students, and was specifically set up for the sons of the exiled or killed Irish nobles
in recognition of the alliance between the Spanish and the Gaelic chiefs. Though O' Sullivan agrees
with Sinnott's assertion that there was no particuar order or constitution in the College, but argues
that this had no detremintal effect as proved by the numerous well educated scholars, loyal to His
Majesty of Spain, who graduated from the centre. He concludes by stating that the students of the
College are sons of knights and gentlemen who serve his Majesty of Spain and defend the true faith.

Despite O'Sullivan's protests and the refusal of the students to sign the Jesuit oath, the
College was officially handed over to the Jesuit Order on the 26th of April 1613, and the students
were expelled for their refusal to sign the oath. The College remained in the hands of the Jesuit
Order until their expulsion from Spain in 1769 at which time the college was merged with the Irish
College at Salamanca.
The English, ever fearful of the return O' Sullivan to Beara with reinforcments, had him
murdered in Madrid in 1618 by the double agent and friend of O' Sullivan, John Bathe.

7 Richardo Synote (Sinnott) was one of the twelve students expelled from the College by the Jesuits in 1613 for
refusing to sign the oath prescribed in all Colleges run by the Jesuit Order.
8 A partial transcription of this letter can be found in O Connell, Patricia; The Irish College, Santiago
de Compostela: 1605-1767 [1 In Archivium Hibernicum. Vol 50 (1996), pp 19-28.]