Part I. Topography of Thomond Chapter 5. Ui Cearnaigh; Ui Conghaile; East Corcabaskin

East Corcabaskin. Corcabaskin divided into two parts; Clonderalaw Castle; References made to East Corcabaskin in Annals of the Four Masters; John MacMahon, a Jesuit, hanged in England

About the year 1488, a division of Corcabaskin into two parts, East and West, appears to have been made between two branches of the family of MacMahon. Clonderalaw Castle was the principal residence of the chief of the Eastern portion of the territory, and the boundary of his country appears to have been conterminous with that which divides the barony of Clonderalaw from Moyarta at the present day. The following references are made in the Annals of the Four Masters to East Corcabaskin:—

A.D. 1483.—Mahone O’Griffy, bishop of Killaloe, died and was honourably interred in the Monastery of Canon Island in Corcabaskin.
A.D. 1568.—Brian Oge MacMahon, son of Brian, son of Turlogh, son of Teige, died; and Teige, son of Murrogh, son of Teige Roe, son of Turlogh, son of Teige assumed his place.
A.D. 1581.—David Purcell (of Ballycalhane, parish of Kildimo, Co. of Limerick), being in rebellion, set out one day from the borders of Kerry in the county of Limerick in a cot, with sixteen men, and came to Scattery Island, where they stayed that night. As soon as Turlogh, son of Teige Roe, son of Murrogh, son of Teige Roe son of Turlogh viz., the son of MacMahon of East Corcabaskin, heard that David had passed by him, he launched a vessel upon the Shannon in the early part of the night and sailed with his followers in pursuit of the strangers. They took David prisoner on Scattery Island, and brought him and his men to Baile mic Colmain (Colmanstown). On the following day David’s men were hanged on the nearest trees, and he was sent to Limerick, where he was immediately executed.^[9]
A.D. 1589.—Teige-an-Duna, the son of Donogh, the son of Murtagh, the son of Donogh the son of Brian Ballach, ancestor of the family of Tuath-na-Fearna, ^[10] i.e., of East Corcabaskin and of Sleocht an Bhalaigh, died.
A.D. 1594.—Teige, the son of Murrogh, the son of Teige Roe, the son of Turlogh, the son of Teige MacMahon, Lord of East Corcabaskin, died, and his son Turlogh Roe assumed his place.
A.D. 1599.—Murtagh Cam MacMahon, son of Conor, son of Mahone, son of Thomas, from Cnoc-an-Locha, in the territory of East Corcabaskin, died in March of this year.

In MacBrody’s Propugnaculum Catholiæ Veritatis it is stated that John, son of Conor MacMahon, of Knockalocha, by his wife Bridget Brody, daughter of “Darii” Mac Bruodin, of Mount Scot, was invited at the age of ten by his uncle Thomas MacMahon, who was living with the Earl of Arundel, to go over to England and live amongst the Earl’s pages. He was thence sent to Rome to study, and was there admitted into the Society of Jesus. He returned to England afterwards, and was hanged, drawn, and quartered, in 1594.^[11]