O’BEIRNE

 Though the pronunciation of this name is very similar to O’Byrne there is no connexion between the two septs.  O’Beirne belongs almost exclusively to Connacht.  One branch,

allied to the MacDermots and the other leading Roscommon families, in the 13^th century displaced the O’Monahans as chiefs of a territory called Tir Briuin na Sinna between Elphin and Jamestown on the Co. Roscommon side of the Shannon, and they appear as such in the “Composition Book of Connacht” (1585); and in 1850 there was still an O’Beirne of

Dangan-I-Beirn in that territory.  The other branch possessed territory in the adjoining county of Mayo, north of Ballinrobe.  At the present time O’Beirnes are chiefly found in Counties Roscommon and Leitrim.

While no O’Beirne has left a lasting mark on the history of Ireland several distinguished themselves in the service of France in the 18^th century. The sept has produced one or two interesting characters who may be mentioned here. Thomas Lewis O’Beirne (1748-1823), though reared a Catholic (his brother was a Parish Priest in Co. Meath), became Protestant Bishop of Meath in 1789; and Henry O’Beirne (b. 1851), an Irish emigrant, was well known in America on account of his writings about the Texas Indians, among whom he settled permanently.

(taken from “Irish Families”, by Edward MacLysaght, 1957 Hodges Figgis & Co.)

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