I immediately gifted my first copy of Gabrielle Ní Mheachair’s at-long-last book, Ó Meachair, The Story of a Clan, but have just received two more copies–one of them also about to become a gift. Now, my belated but hearty cheer to Gabrielle, whom I have had the pleasure to converse with a few times over the years as we were both doing research and I asked her advice. For a while I subscribed to the newspaper, Midwest Irish Focus, published by Pete Maher, of Missouri, especially to read her installments of “Tipperary Tales.” As a native Irish woman she knows of what she speaks and has captured the history of our clan perfectly. Those interested in things Maher will find this book to be a “must own.” Congratulations to Gabrielle Ní Mheachair Woeltje on this fine book, available from Amazon.com!

P.S. (August 7) – Having finished reading her book, I’ve sent a review to Amazon, now waiting approval. I would add here that it is an excellent, easy to read, book about very complex events that affected all the ancient clans. The Ó Meachairs (O’Meagher, Maher, etc.) served as perfect examples for her in-depth history, since, “it was one of the few clans in Ireland that had the good fortune to live under the ancient Celtic system until the middle of the seventeenth century.” Their history spanned, remarkably, to 1922 when those who had remained in the old barony of Ikerrin (the original seat of the Mahers in the northeast area of Tipperary) “were among the last to regain proprietorship of their ancient lands.”

©2015 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

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