Philip O'Sullivan Beare (c.1590-1660)

Born in Ireland, c. 1590; died in Spain, 1660, son of Dermot O'Sullivan and nephew of Donal O'Sullivan Beare, Lord of Dunboy. He was sent to Spain in 1602, and was educated at Compostella by Vendamma, a Spaniard, and Father John Synnott, an Irish Jesuit. He served in the Spanish fleet and was an advisor to the Spanish crown on Irish matters in the 1620s.

In 1621 he published his Historiae Catholicae Iberniae compendium, a patriotic history that highlights the role of his own family. It is a work that is not always reliable, but valuable for the Irish wars of the author's own day. He also wrote a life of St. Patrick, a confutation of Giraldus Cambrensis and a reply to Ussher's attack on his "History": both are included in his Patritiana Decas of 1629.

His unpublished works, extant in manuscript, include the Zoilomastix (c. 1625) which attacks Gerald of Wales and Richard Stanihurst (it also includes an important list of Irish flora and fauna with names in Irish, Spanish and Latin), and Tenebriomastix (c. 1630) (part of the debate over Scottish attempts to take over the Irish hagiographical heritage).

Works

• 1621, Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendium excusum a Petro Crasbeeckio, Ulyssippone [Lisbon]; edited by Matthew Kelly (Dublinii: apud Johannem O'Daly, 1850). 
  Table of Contents [PDF]
  This text is partially translated by Matthew Byrne, Ireland under Elizabeth (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker, 1903)
• 1629, D. Philippi O Sulleuani Bearri Iberni patritiana decas, siue libri decem, quibus de diui Patritij vita, Purgatorio, miraculis, rebusque gestis ... : Archicornigeromastix, siue Vsheri Haeresiarchae confutatio, descriptioque accessit, Matriti: ex officina Francisci Martinez.
• c.1625, Vindiciae Hiberniae contra Giraldum Cambrensem et alios. vel Zoilomastigis liber primus 2, 3, 4 et 5. et contra Stanihurstum, Uppsala (Universitet Bibliotek) MS H.248
• 1650, 7 junii 1650. Domini Philippi O'Sullevan Boerii, iberni Tenebriomastix, opus ... quo Pictorum praecipue Camerarii fabellis confutatis, etc. ...., Poitiers (La Médiathèque François Mitterand) MS 259(97).

— Margaret Lantry

Sources used in compiling this brief biographical sketch were: Dictionary of National Biography, The Catholic Encyclopedia, and The Oxford Companion to Irish History.

Work in progress at the CNLS

 
David Caulfield is studying for a Ph.D. and is working on the Tenebriomastix.
Denis O'Sullivan, a graduate of the Department, is translating the Zoilomastix. 
Publication of a translation of the Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendium is being investigated.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Manuscripts

1. 1618: A Briefe Relation of Ireland and the diversity of Irish in the same. Dublin, Trinity College MS 580, fol. 94r-98r
2. Proposiçion de la conquista de Irlanda par Don Philippe Osullivan Sr. de Pinalba. (17me siècle). Ministère des affaires etrangères, Republique française MS 142, fol. 228-233
3. c.1625: Vindiciae Hiberniae contra Giraldum Cambrensem et alios. vel Zoilomastigis liber primus 2, 3, 4 et 5. et contra Stanihurstum. Uppsala, Universitet Bibliotek MS H.248
4. 1650: 7 junii 1650. Domini Philippi O'Sullevan Boerii, iberni Tenebriomastix, opus ... quo Pictorum praecipue Camerarii fabellis confutatis, etc. ..... Poitiers, La Médiathèque François Mitterand MS 259(97).

Printed works

1. 1621: Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendium excusum a Petro Crasbeeckio, Ulyssippone [Lisbon]; edited by Matthew Kelly (Dublinii: apud Johannem O'Daly, 1850). (this text is partially translated by Matthew Byrne, Ireland under Elizabeth (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker, 1903))
2. 1629: D. Philippi O Sulleuani Bearri Iberni patritiana decas, siue libri decem, quibus de diui Patritij vita, Purgatorio, miraculis, rebusque gestis ... : Archicornigeromastix, siue Vsheri Haeresiarchae confutatio, descriptioque accessit, Matriti: ex officina Francisci Martinez.

Other

1. 1903: Ireland under Elizabeth, chapters towards a history of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth being a portion of the history of Catholic Ireland by Don Philip O'Sullivan Beare edited, with introduction and partial translation, by Matthew Bryne (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker)

Secondary sources

1. D'Alton, E. A. (1911) "Philip O'Sullivan Beare" in The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. Charles G. Herbermann, vol. 11, p. 348 (London: Caxton Publishing Company)
2. Anon. (1901) "Don Philip O'Sullivan; The Siege of Dunboy and the Retreat and Assassination of the O'Sullivan Beare" Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society 7 (28, 29), pp.76-96 (incl. port.), pp.103-123 (incl. map of area surrounding Dunboy)
3. Butler, W. F. (1925) "The identity of Philip O'Sullivan Beare 'the Historian'" Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, ser. 6, 15, pp.95-8
4. Byrne, Charles F. (1896-97) "Philip O'Sullivan Beare, soldier, poet, and historian" Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, ser. 2, 2, pp.392-97, 423-28, 457-67, 516-23; 3, pp. 26-30, 182-88
5. Carroll, Clare (1999) "Irish and Spanish cultural and political relations in the work of O'Sullivan Beare" in Political Ideology in Ireland, 1541-1641, ed. Morgan, Hiram (Dublin: Four Courts Press), pp. 229-53
6. Carroll, Clare (2001) "Custom and law in the philosophy of Suárez and in the histories of O'Sullivan Beare, Céitinn and Ó Cléirigh" in The Irish in Europe 1580-1815, ed. O'Connor, Thomas (Dublin: Four Courts Press), pp.65-78
7. Cunningham, Bernadette and Gillespie, Raymond (1995) "'The most adaptable of saints': the cult of Saint Patrick in the seventeenth century" Archivium Hibernicum 49, pp.82-104
8. Grosjean, Paul (1963) "Un Soldat de fortune irlandais au service des "Acta Sanctorum": Philippe O'Sullivan Beare et Jean Bolland (1634)" Analecta Bollandiana 81, pp.418-446
9. Gwynn, Aubrey (1934) "An unpublished work of Philip O'Sullivan Bear, Hiberni vindiciae Hibernicae contra Giraldum Cambrensem et ... Stanihurstum, a ms. in Upsala University Library" Analecta Hibernica 6, pp.1-11
10. Leerssen, Joep (1996) Mere Irish and Fíor Ghael: studies in the idea of Irish nationality, its development and literary expression prior to the nineteenth century (Cork: Cork University Press in association with Field Day). 2nd ed.
11. McKendry, Eugene (1997) "J. G. Sparwenfeld's contribution to Irish and Celtic material in Sweden" Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 49-50, pp.516-531 [with reference to the MS of the Zoilomastix at Uppsala, pp.526-29]
12. Mcgee, Thomas D. (1846) The lives of the Irish writers of the seventeenth century (Dublin: J. Duffy)
13. Morgan, Hiram (1995) "Faith and Fatherland" History Ireland (Summer), pp. 13-20
14. Morgan, Hiram (2001) "'Un pueblo unido...': the politics of Philip O'Sullivan Beare" http://www.ucc.ie/acad/classics/CNLS/lectures/Morgan_madrid.html. Lecture delivered in Madrid, March 2001
15. O'Connor, Denis (1902) "The retreat of O'Sullivan Beare to the North" Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th ser., 12 (October), pp.320-34
16. Ó Cuív, Brian (1997) "An appeal to Philip III of Spain by Ó Súilleabháin Béirre, December 1601" Éigse 30, pp.18-26
17. O'Doherty, Denis (1930) "Domnall O'Sullivan Beare and his family in Spain" Studies 19 (March), pp.211-26
18. O'Donnell, Thomas J. (1941) A transcription of notes towards an edition of the Zoilomastix of Philip O'Sullivan Beara M.A. University College Dublin. 3 vols.
19. O'Donnell, Thomas J., ed. (1960) Selections from the Zoilomastix of Philip O'Sullivan Beare (Dublin: Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission)
    Thomas Morrissey [review] Studies 51 (1962), p. 193-6
20. Walsh, Micheline Kerney (1990) "O'Sullivan Beare in Spain: some unpublished documents" Archivium Hibernicum 45, pp.46-63