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Macnamara (Doolin)
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This branch of the Macnamara family was established in the barony of Burren, north county Clare, at the beginning of the 18th century by Bartholomew Macnamara, born 1685. Bartholomew’s eldest son ,William Macnamara, settled at Doolin, parish of Killilagh, in the neighbouring barony of Corcomroe, following his marriage to Catherine, daughter and heiress of Francis Sarsfield of Doolin. John Sarsfield was granted over 1,400 acres including Doolin in 1679/80. Later generations of the Mcnamaras married members of the Stamer and Finucane families so that by the time of Griffith’s Valuation Captain Francis Macnamara of Doolin had a large estate in the baronies of Burren and Corcomroe, mainly concentrated in the parishes of Carran (Burren) and Killilagh, Kilmacrehy and Kilmanaheen (Corcomroe), including the town of Ennistymon. In the 1870s the estate of his two sons, Henry Valentine and William James Macnamara, amounted to 15,246 acres and their great uncle, Admiral Sir Burton Macnamara of Tromra House, owned 732 acres in the county. This county Clare family owned a house on about 20 acres near the town of Galway from the early 19th century. In the 1870s the representatives of Major MacNamara of county Clare owned 19 acres in county Galway. Ennistymon House became Macnamara property as a result of the marriage in 1798 of William Nugent Macnamara and Susannah Finucane. Susannah was a daughter of Anne O’Brien of the Ennistymon family. This Macnamara family has now died out in the male line but the 20th century female members included an author and Caitlin, the wife of Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. The house at Doolin was burnt in the 1920s. The Stacpoole Kenny collection in the National Library of Ireland contains records relating to John Macnamara of Moher, a younger brother of William Nugent Macnamara and to his wife, Louisa Macnamara of Rock Lodge. John Barrymore Macnamara may have been his son. Some lands owned by John McNamara close to Fanore were sold in the Encumbered Estates Court in 1856. They were purchased in trust by Mr. Clay.
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