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"Red" Hugh O'Donnell (Aodh Rua Ó Domhnaill in Irish) (1571- 10 September 1602) was an Irish lord who led a rebellion against English government in Ireland from 1593 and helped to lead the Nine Years War, a revolt against English occupation, from 1595 to 1603.

Early Life, Imprisonment and Escape

For the political context of O'Donnell's life see the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland

Born to the King of Tir Connaill, Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill in 1571, Hugh Roe was kidnapped by Sir John Perrot in an attempt to prevent an alliance between the O'Donnell and O'Neill clans, and imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1587. He escaped briefly in 1590 but was recaptured within the year. He finally managed to escape in January 1592 with the assistance of his ally Hugh O'Neill, who arranged for his escape from Dublin into the Wicklow Mountains in the height of winter. He successfully reached the stronghold of Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne (another of O'Neill's allies) at Glenmalure, where he found refuge, but his companion and fellow escapee Art O'Neill died of exposure in the mountains. O'Donnell himself lost several toes due to frostbite. Hugh O'Donnell and his two companions, the brothers Art and Shane O'Neill, are the only prisoners to ever successfully escape captivity in Dublin Castle.

The Nine Years War

Upon his return to Ulster, he gained the leadership of the O'Donnell Clan (known as Clan Dalaigh of the tribe Cenel Connaill derived from the Heremonian Dynasty of High-Kings of Ireland), O'Donnell becoming Lord of Tyrconnel (modern Donegal) after his father abdicated in his favour later that year. Having driven the crown sheriff out of Tyrconnel, he successfully led two expeditions against Turlough Luineach O'Neill in 1593, in order to force Turlough O'Neill to abdicate his chieftainship in favour of Hugh O'Neill. At this point, O'Neill did not join O'Donnell in open rebellion, but secretly backed him in order to enhance his bargaining power with the English. O'Donnell by now was also communicating with Phillip II of Spain for military aid.

Declaring open rebellion against the English the following year, O'Donnell's forces captured Connaught from Sligo to Leitrim by 1595. In this year, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, abandoned negotiation with the English and in 1596 the combined forces of O'Donnell and O'Neill defeated an English army under Sir Henry Bagenal at the Battle of Clontibret.

Their greatest victory came two years later however at Battle of the Yellow Ford on the Blackwater River near the southern border of Tyrone in August 1598. At this battle, the Irish annihilated an English force marching to relieve Armagh and they seemed on the verge of expelling the English from Ireland altogether. O'Neill then went south to secure the alliegance of Irish lords in Munster, while O'Donnell raided Connacht, driving out the small English settlement there.

However, in the next two years, O'Donnell and O'Neill were hard pressed with the deployment of thousands more English troops in the country. O'Donnell repulsed an English expedition towards western Ulster at the battle of Curlew Pass in 1599, but his and O'Neill's position was increasingly defensive. Even worse for O'Donnell than English offensives was the defection of his kinsman, Niall Garve O'Donnell to the English side, in return for their backing his own claim the O'Donnell chieftainship. Niall Garve's support allowed the English to land a sea-borne force at Derry in the heart of O'Donnell's territory.

They recognised that their only chance of winning the war outright was with the aid of a Spanish invasion. The Spanish finally landed at Kinsale - at virtually the opposite end of Ireland from the Ulster rebels in September 1601. O'Donnell Led his army in a hard march during the winter of 1601, often covering over 40 miles a day, to join O'Neill and the Spanish General Juan del Aquila at Kinsale arriving in early December 1601. En route, he left some of his kinsmen behind in Ardfert in County Kerry to guard the Barony of Clanmaurice, the territory of his ally, Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, who had lost his territory and his 9-year old son, to Sir Charles Wilmot. During the Battle of Kinsale on December 24, 1601 O'Donnell launched an attack to break the English siege but was defeated by Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy.

Flight to Spain and Death

After the Irish defeat at Kinsale, O'Donnell fled to Spain with the aim of securing further assistance from the Spanish, but lived there in exile until his death, in 1602, at Simancas Castle. While it was once commonly held that he had been poisoned - a James Blake from Galway is often named as the assassin who befriended and then poisoned him on behalf of the English - it is now widely believed that he died of a tapeworm.

He was buried in the chapter of the Franciscan monastery in Valladolid. However, the building was destroyed by fire in the succeeding centuries, and the tombs seem to have suffered the same fate.

He was succeeded as chief of the Clan O'Donnell and Lord of Tyrconnel by his brother Rory O'Donnell.

He was highly praised in the Irish language writings of the early seventeenth century for his nobility and religious commitment to Roman Catholicism - notably in the Annals of the Four Masters and Beatha Aodh Rua O Domhnaill ("The Life of Red Hugh O'Donnell") by Lughaidh O Cleirigh.

In 1991, a plaque was erected at Simancas Castle in commemoration of Red Hugh O'Donnell, which was unveiled by Don Leopoldo Ó Donnell, Duque de Tetuan.

Further reading

  • The Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnell (Beatha Aodh Rua O Domhnaill) by Lughaidh O'Cleirigh. Edited by Paul Walsh and Colm Ó Lochlainn. Irish Texts Society, vol. 42. Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland, 1948 (original Gaelic manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin).
  • Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) by the Four Masters, from the earliest period to the year 1616, compiled during the period 1632-1636 by Brother Michael O’Clery, translated and edited by John O'Donovan in 1856, and re-published in 1998 by De Burca, Dublin.
  • A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies established in Ireland, by William Lynch, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster Row, London, 1830 (O’Donnell: page 190, remainder to Earl’s patent).
  • Vicissitudes of Families, by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, published by Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, Paternoster Row, London, 1861. (Chapter on O’Donnells, pages 125-148).
  • The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone (Hugh O’Neill) and Tyrconnel (Rory O’Donel), their flight from Ireland and death in exile, by the Rev. C. P. Meehan, M.R.I.A., 2nd edition, James Duffy, London, 1870.
  • Elizabeth's Irish Wars, by Cyril Falls, London, 1950.
  • Erin’s Blood Royal – The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland, by Peter Berresford Ellis, Constable, London, 1999, (pages 251-258 on the O’Donel, Prince of Tirconnell).

Popular Culture

Hugh O'Donnell serves as the main character in the 1966 Walt Disney feature film, The Fighting Prince of Donegal.

See also

External links

1571 births | 1602 deaths | Irish kings History of Ireland | Royal families | Noble families | Monarchy | People of Elizabethan Ireland | Natives of County Donegal

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Hugh Roe O'Donnell".

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