O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher, and Upper Blackwater in Ireland, by Albert Eugene Casey
If your ancestors came from north-west Cork or east Kerry, the area known as Sliabh Luachra, you should certainly consult Albert Casey's huge compilation of genealogical material from the area. It is impossible to define the boundaries of Sliabh Luachra exactly but its heartland would lie in the country between Abbeyfeale, Castleisland and Millstreet. The barony of Duhallow is in this area.
The State Library of South Australia has 15 volumes of the work and the range of material included is extraordinary. There are transcriptions of parish registers, reprints of Smith's histories of Cork and Kerry, a reprint of an edition of the Annals of the Four Masters, transcriptions of gravestone inscriptions, copies of marriage and death notices from newspapers and Casey's own speculations on the origins of the Celts and on the relationship of people on the west coast of Ireland to other European peoples. It must be said that Casey's theories are very peculiar and at variance with current thinking in ancient history and anthropology.
O'Kief, Coshe Mang .. has a number of faults. Much of it is printed in a typeface which is very small and quite difficult to read without magnification. The records included in it are copied from the originals and errors will almost certainly have occurred during the transcription process. It is arranged rather haphazardly; records from one parish may be dispersed in different volumes. Despite these faults it is an extremely valuable resource for any one from the Sliabh Luchra area. Sliabh Luachra means 'the rushy mountain' in English.
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