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     Red Hugh O’Donnell 1572 – 1602

]As presented last week, the O’Donnell Clan from Tyrconnell became very successful and powerful throughout the Middle Ages.

By 1500 CE, along with their septs they controlled the entire northwestern part of Ireland including nine modern counties from Antrim to Mayo with influence stretching into Scotland, England, and the continent. They had vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, the ocean shorelines were teeming with salmon and herring, and the farmlands were extensive. This was the ‘golden age’ for the O’Donnells who enjoyed the support of Crown authorities in Dublin.

They established the Donegal Abbey in the 15^th century. Their literary interests included the acquisition of the historical Book of Ballymote in 1522 for the princely sum of 140 milch cows.

Despite this success, the O’Donnells were continually at war with the O’Neills during the 16^th century, until the English, under Queen Elizabeth I decided to conquer Ireland and destroy the Clans and their Brehon Law system. In the 1570s – 80s the English had to suppress the Desmond Rebellions in the southwest, Munster. They were particularly brutal. They planted Protestants in Cork and other locations to occupy and try to control the lands they had conquered. It was clear that they planned to do the same in Northern Ireland.

This threat caused the two northern Clans to stop fighting each other and unite against England. Red Hugh O’Donnell, the potential future chieftain was 15 years old in 1587 and already betrothed to Rose O’Neill when he was kidnapped by the English to prevent the Clans alliance. He was imprisoned in Dublin Castle. In January 1592 Red Hugh escaped along with Art and Henry (Hugh) O’Neill (the only ones to escape from the castle). Art died of hypothermia and Red Hugh lost two toes to frostbite in the Wicklow mountains. This imprisonment and harrowing escape cemented the partnership of these two great clans and future leaders to fight against English oppression.

Red Hugh was inaugurated as The O’Donnell upon his return to Tyrconnell at Doon at age 20, despite challenges from other Clan leaders, including Niall Garve O’Donnell. Niall turned against his own clan and supported the English in the hope of becoming the Earl after their defeat.

Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell won three major battles using guerrilla tactics as the English tried to advance into Northern Ireland in the 1590s during the Nine Years’ War, namely the battles of Clontibret (1595), Yellow Ford (1598), and Curlew Pass (1599). At Curlew, O’Donnell’s forces killed a thousand of Lord Essex’s English troops with only minor loss of life. This forced Essex to negotiate with O’Neill and sent him packing back to the wrath of Queen Bess. A deeply religious Catholic man, Red Hugh was said to be magnanimous to his men and those whom he conquered.

O’Donnell and O’Neill, along with Florence, the MacCarthaigh Reagh contracted with the Spanish to help drive the English out of Ireland. In 1601 a Spanish Force landed at the port of Kinsale near Cork and O’Donnell and O’Neill had to march their armies south at the beginning of winter to engage the English. The English lured them into a pitched battle in January 1602, away from their successful guerrilla tactics and decisively defeated the Clans.

Red Hugh went to Spain to solicit more support. He died there, likely poisoned by the English a year later and that was the end of Spanish assistance.

Red Hugh’s brother Rory was accepted by the English as the first Earl of Tyrconnell in 1603 when he submitted to the new British monarch, James I after Queen Bess’s death. However, the tide of opinion in England turned against them and Rory, Hugh O’Neill and their families set sail for Spanish Flanders and then Rome in the ‘Flight of the Earls’ in 1607. Rory died in Rome in 1608.

The traitor Niall Garve O’Donnell never achieved his goal and was arrested and thrown into the Tower of London for life as a result of a failed coup in Derry.

Thus ended the O’Donnell dynasty, until of course their rebirth in my novels “The Irish Clans”.

Stephen’s novel series “The Irish Clans” can be purchased at https://amzn.to/3gQNbWi