O'Nolan History of a People

<p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This history of the O'Nolans would not have happened but for a series of peculiar events. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Prior to 1920 Fr. John O'Nolan who was Parish Priest of Kirkcubbin in the north of Ireland decided to write a history of the O'Nolan Clan.</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> He himself had Co. Carlow roots and in the course of correspondence was called cousin' by the O'Nolans of Ballinrush Myshall Co. Carlow. During his quest for information about the Nolan sept he visited Co. Carlow quite frequently.</span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> However he died in the 1920s and the work was never completed.</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>His manuscripts and letters were passed on to Fr. Swayne P.P. of Clonegal a noted scholar for completion and possible publication but he was unable to find the time to finish the work before he passed away. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The manuscripts in an old brown worn suitcase were given to a professor in Newbridge College Mr. Matthew Nolan B.A. and upon his death in 1977 they came into the possession of his daughter Mary FitzSimons (nee Nolan).</strong><strong> <img src=//:0 height=2 width=275> </strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A cousin of Mary FitzSimons </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Brother P.J. Kavanagh had read my book <em>In the Shadow of Mount Leinster</em></strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and felt that I might be in a position to bring the work to fruition because of my knowledge of the period and because of my treatment of the Kavanagh material. He wrote to me in 1996/97 and urged me to get in touch with Mary FitzSimons. I did this and was given custody of the material without promising anything other than to look at the documents.My first job was to sort out the papers and I found out that Fr. Nolan <img src=//:0 height=1 width=1>had in fact written about 15 or 16 chapters dealing with the history of the sept beginning with the origins of the O'Nolans in prehistory and coming right up to the 17th. century.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Still undecided I contacted </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Sean Nolan the then Chieftain of the Clan Nolan</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> the late Tom Nolan of Slyguff Mary FitzSimons and my friend Jim Nolan of Ballinrush. Through a contact called </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dr. Eric Klingelhofer an American professor of History</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> I got to know </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dr. John Nolan also an American professor of History </strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>who was planning to honeymoon in Ireland. We all met in Bunclody in January of 1998. All present urged me to undertake the work and the members of Clan Nolan offered their full support.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I feel the book is a special tribute to Fr. Nolan who must have spent such a huge amount of time in compiling and working with the data in those days when <img src=//:0 height=1 width=1>computers had not even been dreamt about. </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Without the input from all those people this book would not have been written. </span></p><p><br></p>