On Being Noble

According to Encarta, the proclaimed World English Dictionary, the definition of the word noble is:

1: "having excellent moral character: possessing high ideals or excellent moral character;
2: aristocratic: belonging or relating to an aristocratic social or political class
3: relating to high moral principles: based on high ideals or revealing excellent moral character."

With that being said, I believe the fall of the Irish clan system of government and their leaders, the O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Sullivans, et al, are perhaps due to the the failure of the Irish people themselves.

Ask the Irish and most, if they are being honest and/or knowledgeable, will tell you the Irish are a jealous of another's success. Perhaps this comes from having been divided against ourselves. We certainly didn't need the English to do it but they saw this flaw in our character and exploited it.

In reading Beara to Breifne, edited by Donal O Siodhachain, I was surprised to learn of the attacks on Donal O'Sullivan Beare as he fled Dunboy Castle in Castletownbeare. One usually thinks of the English being the sole cause for their 600 year rule of Ireland. To read of the attacks on O'Sullivan by other Irish clans was an education.

Were these attacks a case of the "have nots" wanting to be "haves?" Or was it because of the wealth of the English and the 'thirteen pieces of silver" they always seemed to have to compensate their Irish informer and cement their power in Ireland?

Perhaps it the abject failure of clan leaders to stay in touch with their own people. Did they ensconse themselves in relative richness and luxury while the populace did not share in the wealth? Were Irish agrarian families too large for this to be possible?

Some years back I met James O'Sullivan of Castletownbeare. He had traveled with his daughter and son-in-law to Staten Island, New York for the commissioning of the new U.S. Navy Fletcher-class destroyer, USS The Sullivans. He was there by invitation because he was The O'Sullivan Beare. Who made the late James the O'Sullivan Beare you ask? He assumed the title as it had been vacated and no one was holding it. In my mind's eye that made him a true clan leader. It wasn't wealth or good looks or social standing or his personal lobbying. It was the re-assumption of a title for which no O'Sullivan had claimed AND the apparent acknowledgement of the O'Sullivan Beare clan for him to possess the title.

Bringing that knowledge back home here to Ohio got me thinking. If James had assumed the vacated title in Ireland, and no one had assumed and/or created the title in America, I would do it.

Since my grade school years I had always yearned for knowledge of where we had come from. I have spent a lifetime (I'm currently 68 years old) seeking my genealogical roots, beginning with the Sullivan line. It has naturally expanded to learning about the history of our family both here in the U.S., in Ireland and in lands before Ireland.In the process, being a Sullivan in America has defined me. And I am grateful that it has.

To be of noble birth, in my book, is to honor those who I am a part of and therefore are alive in me. I know of no foul or evil deeds of any of my Sullivan/O'Sullivan ancestors. Perhaps they are there but I am not aware of any. I am not a saint nor do I pretend to be. I'm not the author of "Patrick was a Saint, I ain't!" but it is a favorite I like to use.

Being a third-generation Irish-American Sullivan, I spent many years trying to be somebody I wasn't. Perhaps it was due in part to spending the 7th through High School grades in a Hungarian neighborhood in Cleveland. It was only when I belatedly recognized and accepted my Irishness, and perhaps that which is "noble" in my ancestry, did I accept who I am.

I do not hold myself to be better than anyone else. However, I am nobody's fool either. I am a lifelong seeker of knowledge of the Sullivan/O'Sullivan lineage and continue to build on it.
y leadership as The O'Sullivan in America.

I invite the reader and members of the International O'Sullivan Clan and others to opine.