Cuconnaught Maguire

Maguire, Cuconnaught, Lord of Fermanagh, younger brother of preceding, was upon his death in 1600 installed chief in the presence of his clansmen. He procured the ship for the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell, and accompanied them to the Continent. This prince, whom the Four Masters style "an intelligent, comely, courageous, magnanimous, rapid-marching, adventurous man, endowed with wisdom and personal beauty, and all the other good qualifications," died at Genoa on 12th August 1608. After his departure from Ireland, almost the whole of Fermanagh was confiscated and "planted" with English settlers, by King James I.; 2,000 acres were settled upon one Brian Maguire, son or brother of Cuconnaught. The direct descendants of this prince (the representative of one of the most distinguished Milesian families), through Cuconnaught Mor, who fell at the battle of Aughrim, and Brian, an officer in the East India Company's service, of duelling celebrity, have become so reduced that when O'Donovan was editing the Annals of the Four Masters, they were "common sailors on the coast vessels trading between Dublin and Wales." See Notes and Queries, 4th Series, for an interesting note on the burial place of the Maguires; while notes on the family descents may be consulted under the years 1498 and 1608 in the Annals of the Four Masters.

Sources

134. Four Masters, Annals of Ireland by the: Translated and Edited by John O'Donovan. 7 vols. Dublin, 1856.

254. Notes and Queries. London, 1850-'78.
O'Callaghan, John C., see No. 186.