Daniel O'Mahony

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

O'Mahony, Daniel, Lieutenant-General, a distinguished officer in the Irish Brigade in France, brother-in-law of the Marshal Duke of Berwick. He signalized himself at the Boyne, Aughrim, and Limerick, and accompanied his regiment to the Continent. In January 1702, some of the Irish Brigade under O'Mahony, turning out in their shirts in the middle of the night, defeated Prince Eugene's attempt to capture Cremona. For their bravery and their resolute refusal of the offers made by Prince Eugene to turn them from their allegiance, Louis XIV. sent his thanks to the regiment and raised their pay. O'Mahony was made a colonel, and was subsequently recommended to Philip V. of Spain, by whom he was put in command of a regiment of Irish dragoons. He was subsequently appointed a Lieutenant-General and created Count of Castile. He died at Ocana in January 1714. A contemporary French writer, quoted by O'Callaghan, says: "He has always been not only brave, but indefatigable, and very pains-taking; his life is, as it were, a continued chain of dangerous combats, of bold attacks, of honourable retreats." His descendants rose to high rank in Spain.

Sources

186. Irish Brigades in the Service of France: John C. O'Callaghan. Glasgow, 1870.

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