Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/414

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At two in the morning the townsfolk were roused from their beds by the bagpipes and war shouts of his clansmen. The town was taken, sacked, and burned. Sir George Paulet falling amongst the first victims. Bishop Montgomery's valuable collection of books and manuscripts was destroyed. He next made an unsuccessful attack upon Lifford, and then marched into Mac- Swyne's country. A force of 3,000 men was at once despatched from Dublin, by the Lord-Deputy ; and after various skirmishes, Sir Cahir was killed in an en- gagement under the Eock of Doon, near Kilmaci'enan, on Tuesday, 5th '34 July 1 608, "eleven weeks, i.e., seventy-seven days after the burning of Derry, which," re- marks Sir John Davies, " is an ominous number, being seven elevens, and eleven sevens." According to Giraldus Cambren- sis, Tuesday was ever a fortunate day for the English in Ireland. Sir Cahir's head was struck off and sent to Dublin. An apocry- phal story is told of its having been sent by a soldier, who used it as a pillow at night on the road ; and of his host at one stopping-place purloining the head, setting off for Dublin with it, and se- curing the offered reward of 500 marks before the rightful custodian could over- take him. The Foit,r Masters thus con- clude their notice of his life : " He was cut into quarters between Derry and Cuil-mor, and his head was sent to Dublin to be exhibited ; and many of the gentle- men and chieftains of the province, too numerous to be particularized, were also put to death. It was indeed from it, and from the departiu-e of the Earls we have mentioned, it came to pass that their prin- cipalities, their territories, their estates, their lands, their forts, their fortresses, their fruitful harbours, and their fishful bays, were taken from the Irish of the province of Ulster, and given in their presence to foreign tri^ js ; and they were expelled and banished into other countries, where most of them died." '^ =^"3 =^ 3"

O'Donnell, Manus, Lord of Tircon- nell, flourished in the i6th century : he had his principal residence at Donegal, where his predecessor, Hugh Eoe O'Donnell, had erected a castle and monastery. In 1527 he built a castle at Lifford, to oppose the inroads of the O'Neills, and we read of his heading powerful expeditions against the MacQuUlans and the neighbouring tribes. In 1537, on the death of his father Hugh in the monastery of Donegal, he was for- mally inaugurated Lord of Tirconnell. He cannot have been wanting in mag- nanimity, as he spared the life of the slayer of his son, Niall Garv, in an assault 390

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upon the castle of Moygara, and, against the wishes of his clansmen, sent him away in safety. In 1539 he ravaged Meath, in company with Con O'Neill ; yet two years afterwards he met the Lord-Justice at Cavan, and formed a " league of peace, alli- ance, and friendship " with him. In 1 543 he attended "the great council" at Dublin, bringing with him in chains two of his relatives, Egneghan and Donough O'Don- nell, whom he liberated on the advice of the Lord-Justice. In 1555 he was deposed by his son Calvagh, who held him a pri- soner for three years. Manus died at his castle of Lifford, 9th February i563-'4, and was buried with his ancestors in the Franciscan monastery at Donegal. He appears to have been four times mar- ried and to have had fourteen children. His first wife was sister of Con Bacagh O'Neill ; his second, daughter of the 8th Earl of Kildare ; his third, daughter of MacDonnell of Islay ; and his fourth, daughter of Maguire of Fermanagh. His apparel is thus described by St. Leger in a despatch to Henry VIII. : " He was in a cote of crymoisin velvet, with agglettes of gold, twenty or thirty payer ; over that a greate doble cloke of right crymoisin saten, garded with blacke velvet ; a bo- nette, with a fether, sette full of agglettes of gold." 52 134

O'Donnell, Calvagh, eldest son of preceding, by Johanna O'Neill, was one of the most distinguished members of the family in the i6th century. In 1555 he obtained troops and a piece of artillery from Scotland, and deposed his father, whom he imprisoned for three years at his stronghold of Rossreagh, in the County of Donegal. But though he held him a pri- soner, Calvagh took his father's advice as to the best means of defeating Shane O'Neill, who invaded his territory in 1557 with a large army. Calvagh set upon the enemy's camp on a dark and rainy night, and obtained a complete victory, O'Neill escaping only by swimming the Finn and Derg on horseback. In 1559, however, matters were reversed, and Cal- vagh and his family were taken prisoners by O'Neill at Killodonnell. They were released in 1561, and Calvagh was rein- stated in some of his possessions. He died suddenly on 26th October 1566. He had one son. Con, and a daughter, Mary, wife of Shane O'Neill, who died of grief at her father's imprisonment by her husband, "ts

O'Donnell, Sir Niall Garv, grand- son of Calvagh O'Donnell, an ally of the English in the O'Neill wars. After the defeat of the Irish and their Spanish allies at Kinsale, and Hugh Eoe O'Donnell's de-