Mary O'Donnell (sister of Hugh Roe)

Mary O'Donnell
Máire Ní Domhnaill
Mary O'Donnell; Máire Ní Domhnaill
Died	1662
Spouse(s)	Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan (m. 1593; sep. 1598); Teigue O'Rourke (m. 1599; died 1605);
Father	Hugh McManus O'Donnell

Mary O'Donnell (Irish: Máire Ní Domhnaill; died 1662) was a Gaelic Irish noblewoman of the O'Donnell clan of Tyrconnell.

Family background

Mary was a daughter of Hugh McManus O'Donnell,^[1] Lord of Tyrconnell and chief of the O'Donnell clan.^[2] Mary's siblings included Hugh Roe,^[1]^[3] Rory, Manus, Cathbarr, Nuala and Margaret.^[3]

Marriages

Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan

In June 1593, the O'Cahan clan, principal vassals of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, acknowledged Tyrone as their lord.^[1] Around the same time, Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan (son of the O'Cahan clan chief) married Mary.^[1]^[4] O'Cahan and Mary had a son (named Rory Oge O'Cahan) and a daughter.^[1]

From 1593 to 1603, Tyrone and Hugh Roe were the principal leaders of an Irish confederacy which opposed English rule in Ireland. This war is known as the Nine Years' War.^[5]

In 1598, O'Cahan succeeded to the O'Cahan chieftainship^[6]^[1] following his father's death.^[7] By that same year, Hugh Roe had divorced his wife Rose (Tyrone's daughter),^[8] which caused major tension between Hugh Roe and Tyrone.^[9] O'Cahan renewed his alliance with Tyrone by leaving Mary^[1] and marrying Rose.^[1]^[6]^[10] It seems O'Cahan was never formally divorced from Mary which created enmity between him and his new father-in-law.^[11]

Teigue O'Rourke

Teigue O'Rourke was captured by Hugh Roe in early 1598. O'Donnell forced Teigue to marry Mary, in order to formalise an alliance and antagonise Teigue's brother Brian Oge, who had defected from the confederacy.^[12]^[13] They had two sons named Brian and Hugh.^[14] Brian was the eldest.^[15]

In contrast, Francis Martin O'Donnell believes that Mary's sister Margaret was the woman married to Teigue O'Rourke.^[16] In 1922, Paul Walsh stated that the woman married to Teigue was neither Mary nor Margaret, but another sister of Hugh Roe.^[17] However by 1929, Walsh identified Mary as Teigue O'Rourke's wife.^[13]

Teigue died in 1605 and was buried in Creevelea Abbey. Mary presented a chalice (now preserved in St Aidan's Church, Butlersbridge) to the monastery in his memory.^[18]

Post-war

Following the end of the Nine Years' War in 1603, various British politicians attempted to undo Tyrone by harnessing a land rights dispute between Tyrone and O'Cahan.^[19]^[20]^[21] George Montgomery, the Protestant Bishop of Derry, encouraged O'Cahan to leave Rose and return to Mary,^[22]^[1]^[21] who he was apparently never actually divorced from.^[11] Montgomery wrote to Chichester on 4 March 1607: "the breach between [O'Cahan] and his landlord [Tyrone] will be the greater by means of [Tyrone's] daughter, his reputed wife, whom he has resolved to leave, having a former wife lawfully married to him."^[4] In 1607 O'Cahan repudiated his marriage to Rose and married another woman^[14] named Honora.^[1]

Mary did not take part in the Flight of the Earls in 1607.^[23]

Mary's son Brian O'Rourke was made a ward of court.^[14] During this time, the Crown was sending the sons of Gaelic Irish lords to Dublin or England to be re-educated as English gentlemen.^[24] Brian was sent to university, admitted to the Middle Temple, and ultimately imprisoned in the Tower of London.^[14]

Mary was assigned a proportion of 1,600 acres for the duration of her life. In 1631, Viscount Gormanston and another individual had a patent for the estate on her death.^[25]

Mary died in 1662.^[23]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Clavin, Terry (October 2009). "O'Cahan, Sir Donnell Ballach". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006536.v1. Archived from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
^ O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "O'Donnell (Ó Domhnaill), Sir Aodh mac Maghnusa". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006332.v1. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022.
^ ^a ^b McGettigan 2005, p. 36.
^ ^a ^b Walsh 1930, p. 38.
^ O'Neill, James (2017). The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-754-9.
^ ^a ^b Walsh 1930, p. 37.
^ Pollard, p. 344.
^ Walsh 1939, p. 361. fn. 5.
^ Morgan 2002, p. 8; McGinty 2013, pp. 43–44.
^ Morgan, Hiram (October 2009). "O'Donnell, 'Red' Hugh (Ó Domhnaill, Aodh Ruadh)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006343.v1. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
^ ^a ^b McGurk 2007, p. 19. "...he advised Donal O'Cahan that since he was still married to his first wife, Marie O'Donnell..."; Walsh 1930, p. 38. "...having a former wife lawfully married to him."
^ O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "O'Rourke (Ó Ruairc), Brian Óg". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.007028.v1. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
^ ^a ^b Walsh 1929, pp. 569–571.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Walsh 1929, p. 570.
^ Gallogy 1963, pp. 194–195.
^ O'Donnell 2020, p. 7.
^ Walsh 1922, pp. 361–362.
^ Walsh 1929, p. 571.
^ Dunlop 1895, p. 195.
^ Smith 1996, pp. 19–20.
^ ^a ^b McGurk 2007, p. 19.
^ Morgan, Hiram (September 2014). McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). "O'Neill, Hugh". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006962.v1. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b O'Donnell 2006, p. 38.
^ Moody et al. 1940, p. 189.
^ Walsh 1929, pp. 570–571.

Sources

Dunlop, Robert (1895). "O'Neill, Hugh (1540?-1616)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 188–196.
Gallogy, Dan (1963). "Brian Oge O'Rourke and the Nine Years War". Breifne Journal. II.
McGettigan, Darren (2005). Red Hugh O'Donnell and the Nine Years War. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-8518-2887-6. OL 11952048M.
McGinty, Matthew (August 2013). "The Development and Dynamics of the Relationship between Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell". pp. 1–69.
McGurk, John (August 2007). "The Flight of the Earls: Escape or Strategic Regrouping?". History Ireland. 15 (4): 16–21. ISSN 0791-8224. JSTOR 27725653.
Moody, T. W.; Willis, Richard; Bust, Matthew; Grevyll, Fulke; Sotherton, Jo.; Bromley, Edw.; Denham, Jo. (September 1940). "The School-Bills of Conn O'Neill at Eton, 1615-22". Irish Historical Studies. 2 (6): 189–205. ISSN 0021-1214. JSTOR 30006103.
Morgan, Hiram (2002). Ó Riain, Pádraig (ed.). "The Real Red Hugh". Irish Texts Society (12). London: 1–35.
O'Donnell, Eunan (2006). "Reflection on the Flight of the Earls". Donegal Annual (58): 31–44.
O'Donnell, Francis Martin (2020), Memorialising Emigré Dignity: Soldiers, scholars, friars & friends reposed in the Irish College in Leuven Irish College Leuven, pp. 1–32
Pollard, Albert. "O'Cahan, Donnell Ballagh" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 344–345.
Smith, Murray (1996). "Flight of the Earls?: Changing Views on O'Neill's Departure from Ireland". History Ireland. 4 (1): 17–20. JSTOR 27724309. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
Walsh, Paul (1922). "Hugh Roe O'Donnell's Sisters". The Irish Ecclesiastical Record (XIX). Dublin: 358–364.
Walsh, Paul (1929). "The Book of O'Donnell's Daughter". The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. XXXIII. Dublin: 561–575.
Walsh, Paul (1930). Walsh, Paul (ed.). THE WILL AND FAMILY OF HUGH O NEILL, EARL OF TYRONE [WITH AN APPENDIX OF GENEALOGIES] (PDF). Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles.
Walsh, Paul (1939). "Historical Criticism of the Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell". Irish Historical Studies. 1 (3): 229–250. doi:10.1017/S0021121400030819. ISSN 0021-1214. JSTOR 30005953.