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Stephen O'Mara was born on 5 January 1884 as the second-youngest son of Stephen O'Mara, managing director of O'Mara's Bacon Factory. He entered the family business in 1903, when he travelled to Canada to work in the bacon factory established by the O’Mara family in Ottawa. In 1923, he became Managing Director of O’Mara Limited and created numerous employment opportunities by establishing bacon factories in Claremorris, County Mayo, and Letterkenny, County Donegal, in the 1930s. The three bacon companies were amalgamated in 1938 and formed into the Bacon Company of Ireland.

Throughout his life, Stephen O’Mara played a prominent role in both local and national affairs. When George Clancy, Lord Mayor of Limerick, and his predecessor Michael O’Callaghan were murdered by the British military forces in March 1921, Stephen decided to stand for election and became Mayor. He was re-elected in 1922 and in 1923 but resigned before the expiration of his term of office. Unlike his father and elder brother James, Stephen was opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty but in a conciliatory manner. He was prominently identified with the Sinn Fein movement after the Easter Rising. He was one of Eamon de Valera’s strongest supporters and a member of his Fianna Fail Party since its formation in 1926.

In 1921, Stephen O’Mara was selected to go to America as Special Envoy appointed by Dáil Éireann to the United States to oversee one of the country’s biggest fundraising drives to finance the first Dáil and was made Trustee of the funds. The funds-drive was terminated following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Considering himself as the exchequer to the Irish Free State, O’Mara refused to hand over the collected funds to the pro-Treaty administration which resulted in his imprisonment in 1922-1923. He had also been imprisoned for seven days in 1921 for refusing to pay a fine of £10 for non-compliance with a military summons.

The bulk of the money collected during the Bond Drive was left in various banks in New York and remained untouched for a number of years. In 1927, following legal action between the Irish Government and Eamon de Valera, a court in New York ordered that money outstanding to bond holders must be paid back. Having anticipated such a ruling, de Valera’s legal team invited bond holders to sign over their bonds to de Valera, for which they were paid 58 cents to the dollar. The monies so accumulated were used to launch the national daily newspaper, Irish Press. Stephen O’Mara served on the paper’s Board of Directors until 1935.

In 1932, Stephen O’Mara was once again sent to America on a mission involving the various consular and diplomatic offices maintained in the country by the Irish Government. Two years later, he was appointed a member of the Commission on Vocational Organisation, on which he served until 1943. In 1959, he was created a member of the Council of State following de Valera’s inauguration as President of Ireland. Stephen O’Mara died less than two months after his appointment, on 11 November 1959.

Stephen O’Mara married in 1918 Anne O’Brien, third daughter of Thomas O’Brien of Boru House, and the couple had an adopted son, Peter O’Mara.

James O’Mahony was born in 1888 in John Street on the north side of Cork city to Michael and Catherine O’Mahony. He was orphaned at a young age and started school on the south side of the city in South Presentation Convent. He began dancing in St Dominic’s GAA Club on the north side of the city and was friendly with Willie and Freddie Murray, well-known Irish dancers of the day. James O’Mahony was a barber by trade and worked in Midleton, where he met his wife, Mary Cunningham. In 1935, they moved to Castlemartyr, where James opened a barber shop. He also taught Irish dancing in Castlemartyr and around East Cork. He died in 1973.

Richard ‘Dick’ Cameron was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1929. He came to Ireland in the mid-1950s and was heavily involved in the folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s and instrumental in the establishment of the An Góilín Singers Club, founded by Tim Dennehy and Dónal de Barra in 1979. His warm baritone made him popular on the radio, where he hosted the Ballads of a Saturday series on Radio Telefís Éireann and appeared in many other folk music programmes. He died in Dublin in 1997.

In 1945 Michael Allott of Dublin married Helen Lucia Lloyd of Odellville, county Limerick. On the death of her father, Edward Locke Lloyd, in 1963, the Odellville property passed to the Allotts, who operated a dairy farm on the estate and were founders of the Munster Herd of British Friesians in 1945. They were also active members of the National Farmers’ Association (later the Irish Farmers Association), their local co-operative creamery committee at Glenwilliam and later the Golden Vale Cooperative Creamery Ltd.

The Allott family seat, Odellville, was built in the 1770s by John Fitzcharles Odell and passed to the Morony family through the marriage of Helen Mary Odell to Edmund Morony in 1860. Their elder daughter, Eliza Helena, married in 1884 her cousin, Henry Vereker Lloyd Morony, on whose death the property passed to his only child, Helen Mary Matilda Morony. The property passed to the Lloyd family through her marriage to Edward Locke Lloyd of Heathfield, county Limerick, in 1917.

The Odellville estate passed from the Odell to the Morony family through the marriage of Helen Mary Odell to Edmund Morony in 1860. Their elder daughter, Eliza Helena, married in 1884 her cousin, Henry Vereker Lloyd Morony. On his death the property passed to the couple's only child, Helen Mary Matilda Morony, who married Edward Locke Lloyd of Heathfield, county Limerick, in 1917.

The Monsells, of French extraction, were a plantation family from Dorsetshire, England, who had settled in Tervoe, county Limerick by the 1660s. Many of the early members of the family were prosperous merchants and landowners, most notably Samuel Monsell (d. 1735), a shipping merchant whose business extended from Ireland to England, France, Holland and Spain. Of his several sons, the eldest, William (1705-1772) became a lawyer. His second marriage in 1751 to Dymphna Pery (d. 1774), sister of Edmond Sexton Pery, MP and three-time Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, gave the Monsells not only a distinguished pedigree but considerable political influence. Their son, Colonel William Thomas Monsell (1754-1836), married Hannah Strettell of Dublin, whose father Amos Strettell was director of the Bank of Ireland. Their younger son, Thomas, became Archdeacon of Derry and was father to the noted hymnologist John Samuel Bewley Monsell and to the celebrated botanical artist Diana Conyngham Ellis née Monsell. Colonel Monsell’s elder son, William, was grandfather to and namesake of the distinguished politician William Monsell (1812-1894). His first wife, Anna Maria Wyndham Quin (1814-1855), whom he married in 1836, was daughter of the second Earl of Dunraven of Adare Manor, county Limerick, then one of the wealthiest men in Ireland. William Monsell was created 1st Baron Emly of Tervoe in 1874. The title became extinct on the death of his only surviving son, Thomas William Gaston Monsell (1858-1932), from his second marriage to Berthe de Montigny Boulainvilliers (d. 1890).

Hugh Lilburn was born on 6 November 1888 in Dromore, County Down into a farming family. In 1912, he emigrated to Australia, where he trained as an accountant and was actively involved in the Presbyterian church in Preston, Melbourne. On 25 December 1913, Hugh married Susan Stinson of Ballymoney, County Antrim (b. 18 February 1888), whom he had met in Ireland before emigrating, and who had travelled to Australia with her brother for the wedding. The couple had three children: Stewart, Jean, and Olive. The Lilburn family returned to Ireland in the early months of 1920 and initially settled in Dublin, where Hugh secured a position as an accountant with Craig Garner & Co. In November 1920, he moved to Limerick city to take over the auditing practice of C. W. Metcalfe & Co. In 1941, Hugh Lilburn and his colleague James Leslie Enright were made full partners and the company name was changed accordingly to Metcalfe, Lilburn and Enright on 23 May 1941.

Back in Ireland, Hugh Lilburn continued his strong association with the Presbyterian Church, serving as Honorary Treasurer of the Limerick Presbyterian Church from 1927 and as a ruling elder and clerk of sessions from 1928 until his death. He served as governor of Villiers school and was the author of Presbyterians in Limerick (1946). Hugh’s other interests included history and archaeology, and he was an active member of the Thomond Archaeological Society. Hugh Lilburn died on 27 November 1964, and his wife Susan on 15 October 1967.

Hugh Lilburn’s son, Stewart, was born in Melbourne, Australia on 13 January 1917. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and, like his father, trained as an accountant. In 1944, he joined Metcalfe, Lilburn and Enright and was made full partner in 1954, when his father took a less active role in the company. Stewart was also an active member of the Limerick Presbyterian Church, serving as its accountant and Honorary Secretary for a number of years. A keen and talented hockey player, Stewart represented Munster and Ireland on many occasions. In 1949, Stewart Lilburn married Florence Eva Armstrong (b. 13 September 1925) of Clontarf, County Dublin. The couple had three children: David (1950-2021), Hugh and Gary. Stewart Lilburn died on 26 July 1998, and his wife Florence on 21 April 2005.

Cornelius O'Callaghan (1740/41-1797) was an MP for Fethard between 1761 and 1785. In 1774 he married Frances Ponsonby. In 1785, he was created 1st Baron Lismore of Shanbally, county Tipperary. His eldest son, Cornelius O'Callaghan (1775-1857) was appointed Privy Counsellor of Ireland in 1835 and also held the office of Lord Lieutenant of county Tipperary from 1851 to 1857. He was created Viscount Lismore of Shanbally in 1806. Two year later, he married Lady Eleanor Butler, daughter of John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde. He was succeeded by his only surviving son, George Ponsonby O'Callaghan (1815-1898), as 2nd Viscount Lismore. The title became extinct upon the 2nd Viscount's death, his two sons having predeceased him. The family seat, Shanbally Castle, passed to his cousins, Constance and Beatrice Butler, daughters of the 3rd Marquess of Ormonde.