Domhnall Cam Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara (1561-1618) was a soldier, nobleman and the last Gaelic Chief of the Name of the Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara clan of County Cork. During the Nine Years’ War, Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara would fight alongside Aodh Ó Neill and Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill against the English, with military assistance from the Spanish Crown. A letter by Ó Súilleabháin swearing fealty to the Spanish Crown was intercepted by the British and ensured that if captured, he would be executed for treason. Following the final defeat of Ó Néill at the Battle of Kinsale in 1602, Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara vowed to continue the Gaelic resistance against English rule via guerrilla warfare, maintaining control over large swathes of the Beara Peninsula in Cork. This position however rapidly being untenable, Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara and 1,000 of his followers began a 500-kilometre march from Cork to rendezvous with Ó Néill on the shores of Lough Neagh, an event best known in Irish history as O’Sullivan’s March. Pursued by the English at every turn, Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara reached County Leitrim, with only 35 men, the rest having fled, been killed or captured. Following the Treaty of Mellifont, Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara went into exile in Spain until his death in 1618, murdered at the hands of an English assailant whilst leaving Mass at the Plaza de Santo Domingo in Madrid.
Writings
Domhnall Cam Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara’s Address To His Followers (1603)