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CASTLETOWN BEARHAVEN: Almost 2,000 people with the last names O’Sullivan and Sullivan travelled from around Ireland and the world to meet in County Cork on Saturday, in the largest ever recorded gathering of people with the same surname.
Guinness World Records representatives verified the milestone at the event in the picturesque southwestern town of Castletownbere. “With a total of 1,848 the O’Sullivan clan are the new Guinness World Record holders, congratulations!” an official told a cheering crowd.
The feat knocked another common Irish family name — Gallagher — off the top spot won in 2007 with a gathering of 1,488 participants in County Donegal, northwestern Ireland. The surnames O’Sullivan and Sullivan are commonplace in County Cork and southwestern Ireland.
Many from the large international Irish diaspora also arrived to bolster the numbers, presenting passports as proof of their name. “Where I come from in Boston, there’s plenty of us Sullivans, but this is unbelievable,” said Kevin Sullivan, 75, looking around at the crowds filing through a primary school where the event was coordinated.
