Rury O'Donnell

O'Donnell, Rury, Earl of Tirconnell, younger brother of preceding, born in 1575, kept up a desultory warfare in the north for some months after the defeat at Kinsale, and Hugh's departure for Spain in 1602. In the autumn he and O'Conor Sligo were induced to submit to Lord Mountjoy at Athlone, and were thereupon permitted to settle in their own territories. Next year he was commissioned to proceed against Sir Niall Garv, who had gone out into opposition to the Anglo-Irish power, and assumed the title of O'Donnell. After some skirmishes, Niall submitted; and in June 1603 he and Rury proceeded to London to have their claims to precedency settled.

Rury was made Earl of Tirconnell, and confirmed in his territories, excepting the fishery at Ballyshannon and 1,000 acres contiguous. On his return to Ireland he was duly invested in Christ Church, Dublin, on 29th September. He married Brigid, daughter of the 12th Earl of Kildare. He was one of those who fled to the Continent with Hugh O'Neill in 1607, and died at Rome, 28th July 1608, aged 33, his remains being buried in the church of San Pietro di Montorio. His Countess remained in Ireland, and after his death married Viscount Kingsland. His brother Caffar died less than two months after him, and was buried beside him. [For further particulars of the flight of the Earls, see O'NEILL, HUGH.] Several descendants of both branches of the O'Donnells, born on the Continent, distinguished themselves in the Spanish and Imperial services.

Sources

52. Burke, Sir Bernard: Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages. London, 1866.

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

269. O'Neill, Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, and O'Donel Earl of Tyrconnell, their Flight from Ireland, and their Death in Exile: Rev. C. P. Meehan. Dublin, 1868.