Clan O'Leary Gathering 1996

This was the first time such a Gathering had been attempted, and it was a cheerful and happy crowd which descended on Creedon’s Hotel and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the lovely surroundings of ‘Uibh Laoghaire’, the ancient home of the O’Learys.

There are supposed to be about 40,000 O’Learys scattered around the world today. Luckily only 200 or so made this pilgrimage, and this was quite enough for the organisers to cope with. There were 17 from the UK, 16 from the USA, 11 from New Zealand, 6 from Australia and 3 from South America. The remainder came from all over the island of Ireland, and mainly of course from Co. Cork. The event was spread over the three days of the weekend.

On the Friday evening the attendees registered, there were a few brief speeches of welcome from the organisers, some refreshments, and much mingling amongst the assembled company. This was the most encouraging feature of the whole weekend, the mixing of different cultures, and different dialects, all finding no difficulty in making contact with others from across the globe, and their only common interest, their family name.

On Saturday there was more serious work to be done. A thought provoking lecture from that well known expert on local history, Diarmuid O’Murchadha on the theme of ‘The History of the O’Leary Family’ was followed by a talk from Tom O’Leary, the Genealogist, on ‘Tracing your O’Leary roots’. The party then travelled to Gougane Barra on buses, and were given a guided tour of the area by Con Murphy from Ballingeary. The formal dinner was at Creedon's Hotel, with 100 sitting down for a splendid meal, a cheerful message from Boston given by Joe O’Leary, and a presentation to Neilius O’Leary from Derrynabourka who is 100 years ‘young’ this year, and an evening of music and song.

On Sunday there was a walk to the old Church and to Carrignacurra Castle, which was headed by O’Leary Pipers, and greeted and blessed by Bishop Buckley. The talks at these places were given by Rodney O’Leary of Bristol and Peter O’Leary of Tirnaspideoga. In the afternoon there was a Mass held in the old Church Cemetery with 6 Fathers O’Leary concelebrating with our Parish Priest, Father Cotter. Finally there were speeches of farewell, and by early evening our guests were on their way home, exhausted perhaps, but happy.

It was an informal but successful event. There is every intention to hold it again next year, but with a different theme and different historical events.