Annaghmore House

THE O'HARAS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY SLIGO, WITH 21,070 ACRES

CORMAC O'HARA (c1546-1612), of Collooney, County Sligo, married Una, daughter of _____ Gallagher, of County Galway, and had issue,

TEIGE, of whom hereafter;
Cormac, of Mollane;
Catherine; Annabella.

Mr O'Hara was succeeded by his eldest son,

TEIGE 'BOY' O'HARA (c1576-c1636), of Leiny, County Sligo, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1608, who wedded Sheela, daughter of _____ O'Rourke.

Mr O'Hara had issue, two sons, of whom the elder, Teige, of Collooney, born in 1612, died unmarried in 1634.

The younger son,

KEAN O'HARA (c1606-75), of Collooney and Annaghmore, County Sligo, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1665, succeeding his brother Teige in the family possessions, espoused firstly, Anne, daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, Knight, and widow of Richard, son and heir of Sir Lawrence Parsons, Knight, of Birr, and had issue,

ADAM, of Annaghmore;
CHARLES, died unmarried.

Mr O'Hara wedded secondly Rose, widow of William Crofton, daughter and heir of John Newman, of Dublin, by whom he had a son,

KEAN O'HARA, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1703, who succeeded to the family estates on the death of his two elder brothers without male issue.

He married Eleanor, daughter of Theobald Mathew, and sister of George Mathew, of Thomastown, County Tipperary.

Mr Kean O'Hara made a settlement to himself, for life, with remainder to his son and sons in tail male of the said estates.

By his said wife he had issue,

CHARLES, of whom presently;
Kean, of Kinsally, Co Dublin;
Adam.

The eldest son,

CHARLES O'HARA (1715-76), of Annaghmore, MP for Ballynakill, 1761-8, Armagh Borough, 1769-76, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1740, wedded, ca 1740, the Lady Mary Carmichael, eldest daughter of James, 2nd Earl of Hyndford, and sister of the Most Rev Dr William Carmichael, Lord Archbishop of Dublin.

By his wife he had issue two sons, the younger of whom, Captain William O'Hara RN, died unmarried.

The elder son,

CHARLES O'HARA (1746-1822), of Nymphsfield and Annaghmore, MP for Dungannon, 1776-83, County Sligo, 1783-1800, and one of the Governors of that county, wedded Margaret, daughter and heir of Dr John Cookson, of Yorkshire, and had issue,

CHARLES KING O'HARA;
Mary;
JANE FRANCES, of whom presently;
Charlotte.

The only son,

CHARLES KING O'HARA, of Annaghmore, born in 1785, who, by his will, devised his estates to his nephew, Charles Cooper, on condition that he should take the surname and quarter the arms of O'HARA.

Mr Charles O'Hara's second daughter,

MISS JANE FRANCES O'HARA, espoused, in 1810, Arthur Brooke Cooper, of Cooper's Hill, County Sligo, son of Arthur Cooper, of Cooper's Hill, by Sarah his wife, daughter of Guy Carleton, of Rossfad, County Fermanagh, and grandson, by Jane Cunningham his wife, of William Cooper, of Cooper's Hill, who was descendant of the same family as Cooper of Markree.

Mrs Cooper died in 1874, aged 94, leaving issue, two sons and four daughters,

Arthur Brooke, dvp;
CHARLES WILLIAM, of whom presently;
Margaret Sarah; Mary Jane Caroline; Jane Henrietta; Charlotte Anne.

Mr Cooper died in 1854.

The second son,

CHARLES WILLIAM O'HARA JP DL (1817-98), of Annaghmore and Cooper's Hill, MP for Sligo County, 1859-65, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1849, married, in 1858, Annie Charlotte, eldest daughter of Richard Shuttleworth Streatfeild, of The Rocks, Uckfield, Sussex, and had issue,

CHARLES KEAN, his heir;
Arthur Cooper, of Cooper's Hill;
Richard Edward;
William Henry;
Henry Streatfeild;
Alexander Perceval;
FREDERICK WILLIAM;
Errill Robert;
Charlotte Jane; Mary; Annie Frances; Emily Margaret; Jane Marian; Kathleen.

Mr O'Hara, whose patronymic was COOPER, assumed by royal licence, in 1860, the surname of O'HARA, in compliance with the testamentary injunction of his uncle, Charles King O'Hara, of Annaghmore.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

CHARLES KEAN O'HARA OBE (1860-1947), of Annaghmore, High Sheriff of County Sligo, 1886, Major, 3rd York and Lancaster Regiment.

Major O'Hara was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Sligo, from 1902 until 1922.

He was succeeded by his younger brother, Frederick William O’Hara (1875-1949), who in turn was succeeded by his son Donal Frederick O'Hara (1904-77).

Donal Frederick O'Hara passed on the estate to his eldest son, Dermot Charles O'Hara.

Durcan and Nicola O'Hara now live at Annaghmore.

Annaghmore House, Collooney, County Sligo (listed on Airbnb) has been the principal seat of the O'Haras since medieval times.

An earlier house on the site had been demolished by 1684.

Its successor was replaced by the present house of ca 1820, known in the 18th and early 19th centuries as Nymphsfield.

Annaghmore comprises a two-storey, three-bay centre, and an Ionic portico with single-storey, two-bay wings.

It was considerably enlarged about 1860-70 by Charles William O'Hara in the same late-Georgian style.

The wings were raised by a storey and extended to the rear, thus giving the mansion a side elevation as high as the front, and as long or longer.

Annaghmore remains the home of the O'Hara family today.

The former schoolhouse has been restored by the Irish Georgian Society and is available for rental.

First published in December, 2017.