O’Sullivan Clan

Chateau du Gravier (also known as ‘Dunderry Chateau du Gravier’) is a nineteenth century renaissance castle outside of the village of La Guerche sur L'Aubois, Cher, France.

It is the residence of the O’Sullivan MacCragh, the senior sept of the O’Sullivan clan.

The O’Sullivan clan is an ancient family. It emerged from the nearly impenetrable mist of prehistory as the ruling class of a small, wandering tribe of warrior Celts now called the ‘Gaels’. It seems most likely that the tribe originated in the Fertile Crescent, immigrated to the steppes of the Caucasus Mountains, fought and pillaged its way across southern Europe, and finally settled in its own “promised land”, the island of Eire.

It is universally agreed upon, by all credible annalists and historians, that the O’Sullivan clan represents the most senior bloodline of the Gaelic families. The senior tribe, and royal family, of the Gaelic Celts in Ireland was known as the Eoghanacht (pronounced Owen-noct), the descendants of Eoghan (pronounced Owen). The most senior branch of the Eoghanacht was the O’Sullivan clan. The O’Sullivan MacCragh, in turn, was the most senior sept of this illustrious family.

The significance of this can only be appreciated by comparing the status of the old Irish aristocracy with that of the rest of Europe. If the Irish had followed the English system of royal descent by primogeniture, and if Ireland had maintained its independence from England, an O’Sullivan MacCragh would be king of Ireland today. (Or an O’Sullivan MacCragh would have been beheaded by an angry republican mob in the aftermath of the French Revolution!)

Due to the peculiarities of the Irish Laws of Tanistry, however, no one named O’Sullivan has ever been a king. The use of surnames did not evolve until about the tenth century AD. By then the O’Sullivan clan was subservient to the cadet MacCarthy clan, which was in turn subservient to the even more junior O’Neill clan.

Finghin, king of Munster circa 600 AD, was an ancient ancestor of everyone named O’Sullivan and was the last person to sit on a throne in the line. About 400 years after Finghin had reigned over the southern half of Ireland, his great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, Eochaid, assumed the name Suileabhann (Sullivan) and thus a clan was born.

The O’Sullivan family can boast the oldest recorded, non-regnant, royal bloodline of western civilization. Its noble blood has christened the battlefields of the world for thousands of years. The family has produced paupers and kings, priests and pirates, scientists and wizards. It has fought its many battles with both pen and sword. It has survived the hazards of prehistoric Europe; the Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires; the Dark Ages; the plagues; the Vikings; the Anglo-Normans; Queen Elizabeth; the Cromwellian holocaust; the penal laws; the potato famine; and two world wars.

One branch of the O’Sullivan MacCragh sept of Cappanacush Castle, County Kerry, Ireland, later acquired Dunderry Castle (Dun Daire, Fort of the Oak Wood) in the village of La Guerche sur l’Aubois, near Nevers, France.

Many other noble families of Ireland settled in Catholic France after losing their estates in Ireland:
*O’Connor: Chateau du Bignon-Mirabeau
*O’Mahony: Chateau de Pont Bellanger
*O’Kelly Farrell: Chateau La Soriniere
*Walsh: Chateau de Serrant
*Hennessy: Chateau de St. Brice
*Phelans: Chateau Phelan-Segur
*O’Byrne: Chateau La Houringue
*Lynch: Chateau Lynch-Bages
*MacCarthy Reagh: Chateau St. Gery
*MacMahon-O’Sullivan Beara: Chateau Sully

In addition to the nobles, in the seventeenth century there was also a large immigration of Irish soldiers to the continent romantically known as ‘Les Oies Sauvages – The Wild Geese’. These men formed the various regiments of the Irish Brigades and fought valiantly for their adopted French homeland. Variations of Irish surnames can still be found throughout France as a result of this exodus. The Leaders of the Regiments of the Wild Geese that fought for France were:

*Colonel William Stanley: 1596-1604
*Colonel Henry O’Neill: 1605-1610
*Colonel John O’Neill: 1610-1628
*Colonel Hugh O’Donnell: 1632-1638
*Colonel Hugh O’Donnell: 1632-1638
*Colonel Owen Roe O’Donnell: 1633-1642
*Colonel John Barry: 1636
*Colonel Patrick Fitzgerald: 1639-1641
*Patrick O’Donnell: 1643-1647
*Colonel Dermot O’Sullivan Mor: 1646-1647
*Colonel John Murphy: 1646-1659
*Colonel Dudley Costelloe: 1653
*Colonel Charles Cary Dillion: 1653
*Colonel Richard Grace: 1658
*Philip O’Reilly: 1655-1660
*Colonel George Cusack: 1656-1662
*Colonel Louis Farrell: 1658-1660
*Colonel James Dempsey: 1660-1662
*Colonel Theodore O’Meara: 1660-1664
*Colonel John Murphy: 1667-1669
*Colonel Denis O’Byrne: 1673-1686
*Charles O’Sullivan of Nantes was the grandson of an Irish emigrant who was sent to the guillotine for being a royalist. His brother John, a respected fencing master, was also tried but found to be innocent.

References

Sullivan, Gary (2007). "History of the O’Sullivan Clan". Statesboro: Gold Stag, 3-4; 197-200. ISBN 978-0-6151-8013-7