Ímar Ua Donnubáin

A longer account was fortunately preserved by Edith Anna Somerville, a native of the area,[4] in the late 19th or early 20th century, who visited a local storyteller or seanchaí living by the lake.

says he.Burke's preparations are described: the carving of a spear of mountain ash and forging of a grapple to fasten to it, then the picking of a spot for the battle, and finally the choosing of the finest of O'Donovan's three swords, the first two of which break when tested.

He gave her three strokes of the sword, and he on her back...The Serpent has her head and neck cut off, and proceeds to swim madly about the now bloody lake, eventually sinking down to the bottom dead.

Curiously, the ancient goddess of South Munster, Clíodhna (Cleena), has beneath Lough Cluhir one of her several palaces in the country, according to the Storyteller.

Whatever arrangements Cleena and Ivor might have are not discussed, but approaching four centuries later one of his collateral descendants, the formidable Donal III O'Donovan, is called the Dragon of Clíodhna in a Gaelic praise poem celebrating his accession to the lordship of Clancahill in 1639.

In his Leabhar na nGenealach, Duald Mac Firbis is careful to mention that both Tadhg, Cathal's other son, and Gilla Riabach held the overlordship of the family,[11] which included a decentralised (as a result of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland) but not inconsiderable petty kingdom underneath the broad overlordship of the MacCarthy dynasty in that time,[12] and so dependent on a positive association of Ivor with Gilla Riabach in some manner, this could be taken as evidence of the status the Sliocht Íomhair once held.

It is thought the Danes of Oxmantown requested the assistance of Wexford to ensure the Jewish community could migrate in total though Anglo-Norman controlled land to establish a settlement in Gaelic O’Donovan territory.

In March 1291 the Cistercian Abbey recorded; Ímar Ua Donnubáin lord of the Sliocht Íomhair arrived to collect the foreigners having made offerings of much silver.

Coverage of Munster affairs in general in the Irish annals is to be found very limited today because of large gaps in the surviving manuscripts and the total loss of many others.

Anglo-Norman documents and church records are all that remain to be turned to, and while these preserve the occasional mention of a member of the family, nothing of its structure, political or internal affairs is offered.

The Sliocht Íomhair do in fact appear in late 16th to early 17th century English surveys of the "O'Donovan country", but only as a tiny remnant no longer in possession of their once thought to be considerable lands, with their castle(s) already in ruins.

The Sliocht Íomhair and their head [An] Íomhar Ó Donnabháin were the leading supporters of the branch which by 1560 appeared to have won, represented by one Diarmaid an Bhairc, whose epithet "of the Barque" means "born at sea" and who presumably had some close association with Ivor's family.

Captain Conolly, in company with Donnell na gCroiceann [Donal of the Skins] O'Donovan, O'Leary, and their party, took the near way from Drimoleague to Ross, through the parish of Drinagh, and on his arrival found Diarmaid an Bhairc inaugurated, with the rod of justice in his hand, in the presence of Mac Carthy; wherefore he sternly demanded of Mac Carthy the reason, and, without waiting for a reply of any kind, ran Diarmaid an Bhairc through the body, who instantly expired.

The castle of Gortnaclough was also stormed, taken, and partly destroyed, and its lands taken by O'Donovan, &c. &c...Of primary importance is the precise lineage of Diarmaid an Bhairc, whose associations, like the Sliocht Íomhair, are maritime.

[14] The reasons for the Sliocht Íomhair's involvement and support of him are also not preserved, and so noting their ancestor Ímar's central importance in the beliefs of the greater family, a variety of explanations have been suggested.

The one with the strongest support, entertained by John O'Donovan and his followers, is that what Collins found himself reporting was simply the garbled memory of a war between Clann Cathail and the Sliocht Íomhair, who importantly were regarded as a "collateral branch" themselves of the former.

The often numerous septs of Gaelic, Norse-Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman families were commonly distinguished from one another by various terms, often colour, e.g. Donn (dark) or Rua (red), but in this case the adjective Daill means blind.