What are the key ingredients that make for a memorable Irish film? Well, a splash of drink, a smidgen of repression, at least one outburst of psychotic violence and a Hollywood actor with a cartoonishly bad accent are obvious prerequisites.
The courts of Skibbereen were just one of the sources of rich pickings for the colourful Somerville and Ross, writes fellow author and fan Martina Devlin A SKIBBEREEN fish dealer named Honora Hurley was just one among a host of lively West Cork people whose escapades and vib
Irish Roots: The History of the Tobins irishamerica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from irishamerica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tobin is not an indigenous Irish name, but the family can be regarded as having become completely hibernicized. Its Irish form, Toibín, is a gaelicized version of the Norman ‘St. Aubyn.’ Another interpretation is that the name was first called de St. Aubyn and the original bearers were from Aubyn, in Brittany, France.
According to the renowned Irish historian and genealogist, Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986), the family came to Ireland in the wake of the Norman invasion and by 1200 were settled in Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny, from where they spread to the neighboring counties of Waterford and Cork. They are still found in considerable numbers in those counties, though the name is relatively rare elsewhere in Ireland. The Tobins became so influential in Co. Tipperary that in medieval times, the head of the family was known as Baron of Coursey, though this was not an officially recognized title. According to Clyn in his annals, the fourteenth century Tobins were a turbulent sept