News

Ceann Fine, Derek Byrne will today serve at the Advent Carol Service at Christchurch Cathedral.

The service to mark the coming of the birth of Christ begins at 5pm and all are welcome.

Clan President, Derek Byrne, has been invited to meet Eric Byrne TD at the Dail (Irish Parliament) on Tuesday the 15th of November to discuss how Finte O’Broin and The Byrnes of Leinster might play their part in “Gathering 2013″, a governmental initiative to encourage a much needed increase in tourism to Ireland to help its ailing economy.

Derek will also discuss an initiative spearheaded by The MacGillycuddy of the Reeks which involves encouraging Irish people living abroad to ask for and promote the sale of Irish produce in their local shops.

This will be Clan President, Derek Byrne’s second official meeting with members of the Irish government since taking office, as he was part of a deligation from Clans of Ireland who met with senior civil servants from the Cultural Unit of the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs on the 6th of October to discuss governmental support for their work.

Robert Emmet Memorial 20 September 2011

The Robert Emmet memorial event took place at 6.30pm at St. Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street, Dublin 8.

Clan President, Derek Byrne laid a wreath in honour of his ancestor James Byrne who was executed on the 17th of September 1803 for his role in the Emmet Rebellion.

Derek Byrne, Clan President of Finte O’Broin, laying a wreath at the Robert Emmet Memorial, Dublin, on the 20th of September 2011.

The hour-long ceremony was arranged by Frank Connolly of the Robert Emmet Society, with Philip Emmet and other members of the Emmet family being present.

Robert Emmet fled to France in March 1798 on the run following the 1798 rebellion.  He remained in Paris to propagating the principles of the United Irishmen and became the centre of the revolutionary exiles.  In May 1803, having received from Napoleon a promise of French support for a rising, he returned to Ireland to mobilise the fragmented remains of the Society of the United Irishmen.  Settling in Rathfarnham, south of Dublin, he hired Anne Devlin, kinswoman to both Miles Byrne and the Ballymanus Byrnes, and an active nationalist, as his “housekeeper.”  The attempt to take the centre of power at Dublin Castle failed but is remembered as the heroic ‘Emmet Rebellion’ or ‘1803 Rebellion’.

The ceremony was also a personal opportunity for Derek to honour the memory of his ancestor James Byrne of Naas, a follower of the Byrnes of Ballymanus, Miles Byrne, and then Robert Emmet.  James Byrne was arrested in possession of a pike on the 23^rd of July 1803 and taken to Dublin where he was hung outside St. Catherine’s Church, Townsend Street on the 17^th of September.  Three days later Robert Emmet was also executed outside St. Catherine’s.

A plinth outside St. Catherine’s Church commemorates the bravery of Robert Emmet.  It was unveiled in September 1980 by Michael Mullen, General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union on behalf of the Dublin History Workshop.  Not only commemorates Robert Emmet but also James Byrne and the other men executed on that spot following the 1803 Rebellion.

Finte O’Broin is pleased to announce that Derek Byrne will be laying a wreath on behalf of Clan O’Byrne of Leinster at the Robert Emmet memorial plynth at St. Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street, Dublin on Tuesday the 20th of September.

Derek’s great, great, great, great uncle James Byrne was executed on the 17th of September 1803 for his part in the Emmet Rebellion and this will be the first time that his memory and bravery will be honoured.

The famous Myles Byrne of 1798 fame was entrusted by Robert Emmet to find men to fight in the 1803 rebellion. Support was to come from Napoleon Bonaparte but as the plans were foiled the date of the rebellion was brought forward leaving no time for Napoleon’s troops to arrive in time.

The plynth at St. Catherine’s Church stands on the very spot where Robert Emmet was hanged on the 20th of September 1803.

If anyone would like to attend this event please contact Derek Byrne for full details.

We are extremely honoured and delighted to announce that His Grace, Maurice Fitzgerald, 9th. Duke of Leinster, has agreed to become Patron of Finte O’Broin.

We are delighted to announce that we have been invited to meet with meet with Dr. Rafe Blaufarb, Co-chair of the International Napoleonic Society, to discuss working on a joint project about Myles Byrne who was a high ranking officer in Napoleon’s Irish Guard.

President of Finte O’Broin, Derek Byrne, has arranged to meet Dr. Blaufarb in London in September to examine how Finte O’Broin and The International Napoleonic Society can work together. This is a very exciting development for us which we are confident will result in a detailed account of the life of Myles Byrne.

In the mean time, our researcher, Edward Byrne Jnr. is working on collating as much information as possible on Myles Byrne and his family in Ireland before the 1798 Rebellion.

Please keep an eye of our news page for further developments.

Check out www.familytreedna.com for a Sizzling Summer Sale

Campaign to bury the remains of Charles Byrne at sea – details of this project will be released at a later date.

Charles Byrne (1761-83) (drawing by John Kay d. (1826), (courtesy of ookaboo).  An article by K.D. Reynolds in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’ relates details of the life of the giant, Charles Byrne.  He was born in the village of Littlebridge, Co. Londonderry.  His mother was Scottish.  Charles had at least one brother but was the only member of his family of abnormal size.  He was supposed to measure 8 feet 4 inches on his death but his actual height calculated from his skeletal remains was about 7 feet 7 inches.  He worked as part of a travelling exhibition led by a showman, and was one of a number of Irish giants who used the working name of O’Brien.  Charles was a sensation in London – the Haymarket pantomime of August 1782 being called ‘Harlequin Teague, or, The Giant’s Causeway’, in reference to him.  Charles, who lived in physical pain owing to his condition, was a heavy drinker and died in June 1783 at Cockspur Street shortly after finding that his life-savings of £700 had been stolen.  He had been desperately worried about his remains falling into the hands of anatomists and in order to avoid this he left instructions for his corpse to be buried at sea.  However the anatomist and collector William Hunter bribed the undertaker and Charles’ so called friends with £170 and stole Charles’ body.  Hunter subsequently boiled off the flesh in a giant cauldron and articulated the skeleton for display.  Denied a Christian burial – the remains of Charles Byrne have remained on public view ever since.

On 16^th January 2011 BBC 2 broadcast a documentary about Charles Byrne.  As Hunter had boiled down Charles’ remains preparatory to displaying his skeleton most of the bones were deemed useless for DNA testing, but, DNA was successfully extracted from two teeth.  The results showed that Charles had a mutated gene, the cause of a pituitary gland tumour.  The pituitary regulates growth and the tumour was responsible for Charles’ abnormal size.  It is now known that he was suffering from a condition called acromegaly, which can cause great physical pain, and no doubt must have a contributing factor in what must termed as Charles’ self-medication through drinking.  The gene mutation has been traced to five present-day families from counties Derry and Sligo, including that of Brendan Holland who has successfully identified a common ancestor between himself and Charles.  Despite the opportunity to study living DNA of acromegaly sufferers who are related to Charles, the Hunterian still will not contemplate giving the remains of Charles’ a decent burial in accordance with his wishes.

Michael Brennan of Co. Mayo, after watching an Open University programme in the 1980s about the life and fate of the giant, has led a campaign to have the wishes of Charles Byrne respected.  He has contacted the Hunterian, and representatives of the UK and Irish governments but the the museum continues to insist that the remains are of ‘active medical interest’.

Finte O’Broin is already in a position to give Charles a dignified and Christian burial at sea in accordance with his wishes – and will campaing to this end.  John D’Alton in his ‘Illustrations historical and genealogical of King James’ Irish Army List (1689)’ (Dublin, 1860), wrongly assumed that the Leinster O’Byrnes had been dispersed across Ireland and so he incorrectly believed that the Byrnes of Co. Derry (Londonderry) originated with the O’Byrnes of Leinster.  In fact the Burns and Byrnes of this county belong to the Muinter Birn of Co. Tyrone, from which clan descend most of the Byrnes, Burns, and Beirnes of counties Tyrone, Donegal, Sligo, Fermanagh, and Derry.  This grouping is defined as the Northwest Cluster of the Byrne DNA Project.

We are associated with the Byrne DNA project.

War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster, by Emmett O’Byrne.

Ranelagh, The Irish Warlord, by Charles Artaud Byrne.

The Byrne’s and the O’Byrne’s Volumes I and II, by Daniel Byrne- Rothwell.

Welcome to Finte O’Broin – The International Society of Byrne Clans Blog Page.

Finte O’Broin aims to preserve the history, culture, traditions and identity of the Byrne name and its variations in Ireland and abroad. We promote research, preservation, intellectual and academic activities associated with the name “Byrne”.

Within this blog page we’ll keep you abreast of our latest news