Carbery, or the Barony of Carbery, was once the largest barony in Ireland, and essentially a small, semi-independent kingdom on the southwestern coast of Munster, in what is now County Cork, from its founding in the 1230s by Donal Gott MacCarthy to its gradual decline in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His descendants, the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty, were its ruling family. The kingdom officially ended in 1606 when Donal of the Pipes, 13th Prince of Carbery chose to surrender his territories to the Crown of England,[1] however his descendants would maintain their position in Carbery until the Cromwellian confiscations, following their participation in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
Its modern descendants in name are the baronies of Carbery West and Carbery East, but Carbery once included territories from several of the surrounding baronies as well. To the north/northwest it shared a long and shifting border with the Kingdom of Desmond ruled by the rival MacCarthy Mor dynasty, and to the east/northeast an also shifting border with the vast Earldom of Desmond.
However, despite its small size in comparison to its neighbors, Carbery was one of the very wealthiest principalities in Ireland. This wealth came not, for the most part, from its predominantly rocky lands, but from its numerous excellent harbours, and greatest proximity to France and Spain. Some of the eastern portion of the principality was however quite fertile. The MacCarthys Reagh were reported to have the greatest income of all the Gaelic princes in Ireland. Only the Earls of Desmond, who were intermittently able to force the MacCarthys to pay them tribute in order to avoid continual harassment,[2] were wealthier.
Finally, Carbery is fortunate to be particularly well documented for a medieval Irish principality, the sources being diverse and fairly copious.
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Some of the seeds of the later kingdom appeared around the year 1200 with the arrival in the region of the O'Donovans, a family both closely allied and subject to the MacCarthys Reagh from the 13th century onwards.[3] This was probably in the person of Amlaíb Ua Donnubáin, slain in 1201 near the region by William de Burgh and the sons of Domnall Mór Ua Briain. The latter person had forced the majority of the family out of their native County Limerick (Uí Fidgenti) in 1178,[4] and in 1197 Gerald FitzMaurice, 1st Lord of Offaly appears to have ended any hopes they had of returning.
But the region was still ruled by the powerful Eóganacht Raithlind in the form of the O'Mahonys, and to a lesser but still notable extent by the even more ancient Corcu Loígde in the form of the O'Driscolls. The O'Donovans being in a debated condition at this time, and their success in gaining substantial territories from these princes on their own uncertain,[5] it would take Donal Gott MacCarthy and his sons to make the conquest decisive and effect major expansion. From the O'Mahonys and O'Driscolls the Normans had already gained very significant territories, and they were also attempting to claim overlordship in the region but their success in doing so is debatable. Most of the Gaelic population did not recognize them and the situation was too chaotic. Another important family of the area were the O'Learys of ancient Rosscarbery, close kin to the O'Driscolls, but they retired northwards to Muskerry some time around the year 1300.
In any case, it was probably under these circumstances that the initially small territory acquired its new name,[6] derived from Uí Cairbre, the sept or people of the O'Donovans,[7] although a few alternatives were suggested by Canon John O'Mahony in his monumental History of the O'Mahony Septs.[8] Notably the O'Donovans are found raiding Norman lands alongside Fínghin Mac Carthaigh, King of Desmond in 1260, only a year before his incredible victory at the Battle of Callann, in which they are also believed to have been at his side.[9] They were aided by him in 1259 in Carbery itself in a struggle against the O'Mahonys,[10] whose people had somehow slain their ancestor Crom Ua Donnabáin some years before. Unfortunately the result was that an O'Mahony prince was also slain, and more territory probably taken from them, with the death of Crom likely used as a pretext. The first great gains appear to have been made by Finghin's father Donal Gott over two decades before in the 1230s.
The O'Driscolls, watching from their sea-kingdom on the sidelines, cannot be demonstrated to have been involved in this unfair war on their ancient neighbors the O'Mahonys, who little more than before this time had been the most powerful princes in all the south of Munster. The two and their ancestors had privately shared the region from the 5th or 6th century AD, in Late Antiquity.
Expanding in the north/northeast direction, the MacCarthys would go on to recapture for the Gaels a significant amount of land from the Normans, demolishing a multitude of their castles, occupying others, and building a considerable string of their own. They would expand the territory of Carbery to 500 square miles (1,300 km2) or greater.
The history of Carbery for the next three centuries is almost entirely the history of the MacCarthys Reagh. The O'Mahonys refused to accept their overlordship for some time and continued with their own affairs, for the most part the subject of another history. The O'Driscolls remained and grew increasingly active on the sea, having dealings with many, but again that is the subject of another history for a long period. The O'Donovans grew content with their new lot and special status awarded them by their overlords, and soon fell into such lazy disorder they are not even noted in the records for a great time.
The O'Driscolls were Ireland's greatest seafarers and thus were Carbery's most capable pirates, for which they are noted in the sources. But the O'Donovans also had some seafaring capability, and are noted for at least a little piracy as well, for which one, along with his O'Driscoll accomplices, was killed in 1551, by the O'Driscoll lords themselves in fact.[11] The MacCarthy Reaghs, on the other hand, had less if any need for it, while the O'Mahonys appear to have had some distaste for it.
Leading among the remaining Gaelic families of great note in Carbery were the O'Crowleys, a military family of Connacht origin, an offshoot of the princely MacDermots of Moylurg.[12] They were of verifiable princely extraction and in 1597 were named as the only other lords (freeholders) under the MacCarthys Reagh after the above mentioned families.[13] Initially brought to Carbery in a war with the Kingdom of Desmond to the north in 1283, they first found themselves in hostile territory. But later they became close vassals of the MacCarthys and were listed among the "followers, cosens and kinsmen" of the famous Florence MacCarthy in 1594. He had charged them to keep his castle of Timoleague for him while imprisoned in the Tower of London. Later they were the leading supporters of his brother Dermod Maol MacCarthy and for this were condemned to have their lands wasted in 1602 by Sir George Carew.
Carbery was also blessed to have a branch of one of Ireland's greatest bardic families of all time, the Ó Dálaigh, or O'Dalys.[14]
The Ó Coileáin (Anglicised: O'Collins, Collins), of County Limerick origin and cousins to the O'Donovans above, are also noted in Carbery, but not as lords or great landholders, although a number were in military service. The majority of them are believed to have belonged to a junior sept of the Uí Choileáin princes of the Uí Chonaill Gabra, who had managed to hold some of their lands in western Limerick for several centuries in spite of the Normans.[15] It is not precisely known when this junior sept arrived in Carbery but it is believed they followed the O'Donovans.
Michael Collins, believed his family were descendants of the Uí Chonaill Gabra.[16] They belonged to the minor landed gentry of Carbery, and were situated in the right place, very near to O'Donovan country, for this to be quite plausible.