stop the Passage from Dublin to Mounster, which lieth through this Countie, and do much harm to all the Counties adjacent.' But Mountgarret deserted his ally the next year,1 and a pardon from the Government followed in due course.2 Fiant 6484 (dated 1601) is explicit as regards the relationship of these personages: pardon to Richard Butler, esq., son and heir of Lord Visct. Mountgarret, Edmund Butler son of said Richard, Margaret ny Neale, wife of said. Richard, etc.' Sir Edmund died in 1602 and was succeeded by Sir Richard. On June 18, 1608, Salisbury is instructed on the alliance of Tyrone the arch-traitor as follows:"The Earl of Tyrone has one daughter married to Magenis, whose sister is likewise married to Tyrone. He had another married to Maguier, one to Mack Mahound, one to O Chane, one to Sir Randall M'Surley, one to the Viscount Mountgarrett, and one to Henry oge." This is the Mountgarret who was president of the Supreme Council of the Confederation, and whom the author of the Aphorismical Discovery describes as a poor dotinge ould man.' He died in 1651. He married three times, and Margaret above seems to have died before 1619.4 (6) Rose, married Hugh Roe ODonnell. When ODonnell was captured by Sir John Perrot, at Michaelmas, 1587, he was aged about fifteen and married. On December 10 of that year Tyrone writes to Walsyngham that the Lord Deputy hath caused O Donnell's son, called Hugh O Donnell, to be taken, and now he remaineth as prisoner in the castle of Dublin. He is my son-in-law, and the only stay that O Donnell had for the quieting of this country, and the detaining of him in prison is the most prejudice that might happen unto me.' Some time after his escape in 1592, O Donnell and Rose separated. The author of Ireland in 1598, referring to a long-standing feud between the O Neill and O Donnell families, says, "This controversie was taken away by a double Marriage, Tyrone having married O Donnell's sister, by whom he hath divers Sonnes, and O Donnell having married his daughter, whom many yeares he hath cast off for Barrenness. A scheme for the marriage of O Donnell with Joan, sister of the Queen's 1 Annals of the Four Masters, vi. 2114. 2 See Fiant 6309, which mentions Edmond, Visct. Mountgarret, dame Grany, his wife, Richard Butler, Margaret Neale, and many others. 3 Calendar of State Papers, p. 570. + See Archdall's Lodge, iv. 51 ff. Earl of Desmond, was blocked by Carew towards the end of 1600.1 Rose re-married with Domhnall Ballach O Catháin, who succeeded to the chieftainship of his name in 1598. The above-mentioned author describes him as Tyrone's 'chier vassell,' and says that of late he hath married this Earle's Daughter whom O Donnell hath divorced from him.'" Fiant 6688 mentions her by name: 'pardon to Donald or Daniel O Cahan gent., chief of his name, Rosa O Neale his wife, etc.' O Cahan had been previously married, and Montgomery, Bishop of Derry, writes to Chichester, L.D., March 4, 1607, that the breach between him and his landlord will be the greater by means of his [Tyrone's] daughter, his reputed wife, whom he has resolved to leave, having a former wife lawfully married to him.' O Cahan retained the lady's marriage portion, and Tyrone subsequently to his downfall, for which this son-in-law was largely responsible, explained to King James his whole grievance in the matter. He was arrested in 1608, and died in the Tower years later. Chichester proposed placing his eldest son with the provost of the college [Trinity], 'to be brought up in learning.' (7) Sorcha, married Sir Arthur Magennis, who succeeded his father, Sir Hugh, as Lord of Iveagh in 1595. Sir Hugh is described as 'the civilest [i.e., most anglicized] of all the Irish in these parts . . . But this old knight being dead, his Sone that succeeded, being a young man, hath ioyned himself with Tyrone, his Brother-in-law, and thereby cast away his Father's civilitie, and returned to the rudeness of the country.' He is said to have married the Lady Sara before 1599. She is mentioned in Sir Josias Bodley's humorous account of his visit to Lecale in 1602-3 : We now came to the island of Magennis, where, alighting from our horses, we met Master Morrison and Captain Constable.. .. They had tarried there at least three hours expecting our arrival, and in the meantime drank ale and usquebath with the Lady Sara, the daughter of Tyrone and wife of the aforesaid Magennis, a truly beautiful woman; so that I can well believe these three hours did not appear to them more than a minute, especially to Master Constable, who is by his nature very fond not of women only, but likewise of dogs and horses. We also drank twice or thrice, and after we had duly kissed her we each prepared for our journey. 1 See Pacata Hibernia, Book i. c. 18. 2 Ireland in 1598, pp. 30, 33. 3 Ibid. p. 7. 4 Falkner, Illustrations of Irish History, p. 331. 1 Sir Arthur was made Viscount Iveagh in 1623. He died in 1629. Falkner1 gives 1638 as the date of the death of Lady Sara. (8) Mary, married Brian (son of Aodh Og) Mac Mathamhna of Oriel. He became a competitor for the chieftainship in 1589. Pacata Hibernia (Book ii. chap. 21), describes a horrible act of treachery committed by him immediately before the attack on Mountjoy's army before Kinsale, on Christmas Eve, 1601. On April 25, 1608, Sir Henry Dillon informs Salisbury that 'as for Sir Bryen Mac Mahowne, who hath been an auncient rebell, he is growen to be every daie hevy with surfett; and albeit he be maryed to the Lady Mary, daughter to Tyrone, yett I think if his son Art Oge Mac Mahowne be still restrayned he will not stir except there be a generall revolt.' His son Aodh, 'grandson to the traitor Tyrone,' was concerned in the attack on Dublin Castle, in October, 1641, and was executed in London nearly four years later. There is preserved an Irish poem which was addressed to Sir Brian and his wife. It begins: 'Beagmhairios do mhacraidh Ghaoidel.'2 (9) Alice, married Randall (son of Sorley Boy) MacDonnell, who succeeded his brother, Sir James, as chief of the Antrim MacDonnells in 1601. Hill3 gives the date of this marriage as 1604. That Randall's wife was a daughter, not a sister, of Tyrone, is clear from the passage quoted above under (5). Again, Sir Randal McSorley, who hath married the Earl of Tyrone's daughter.'' Sir Randall was created Viscount Dunluce in 1618, and Earl of Antrim in 1620. He died in 1636. His countess, Lady Alice, was still alive in 1663, and was then aged eighty years." (10) Name unknown. A spy, writing to England from Rome, January 7, 1615, says : Of Tyrone I have not been able to learn much. His departure hence is not believed, for he is as well off here as he could be in any other part 1 Op. cit. p. 332. 2 See O'Grady, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, p. 472. 3 Hill, op. cit. p. 222. 4 Sir John Davis to Salisbury, September 12, 1607. See further Meehan, op. cit. p. 233. This author is in error, pp. 47, 70, as also T. M. Healy, Stolen Waters, p. 121, etc. See Hill, op. cit. p. 255. of the world. He has a very beautiful daughter, marriageable and greatly admired; so much so, that it will amaze us all if he take her with him unmarried.1 VI This paper has run to so great length that I must abbreviate my remarks on the personages mentioned in O Neill's Will. Sean, son of Cormac, was a nephew of the Earl, being a son to his brother. For another nephew, and the two O Hagans, Henry and Sean, see my notes to the Flight of the Earls, page 16. Feardorcha O Neill was grandson of the Earl, a child of the elder Conn above. The two gentlemen named O Coinne may have been sons of Muircheartach O Coinne, who took part in the flight. John Bath was the captain of the ship which carried the Earls out of Ireland. Of Eamonn Og O Maolchraoibhe I know nothing. Henry Silis may be the 'Spaniard that lived with Tyrone since the year 1588, and fled with him." Very likely he belonged to Tyrone's secretarial staff, and was employed to help Ŏ Neill in his Spanish correspondence. The great Earl of Desmond likewise had a foreigner as secretary; William of Danubi was his name. While the last person mentioned in the Will is O Neill's young son, Brian, the unfortunate boy whom the assassin, no doubt employed for the task, sent to his doom in August, 1617. PAUL WALSH. 1 Meehan, op. cit. p. 303, note. 2 Flight of the Earls, p. 19. CURRENTS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRISH LITERATURE BY JOSEPH J. MACSWEENEY THE Battle of the Boyne and its sequel, the Fall of Limerick, are the historical events which, in the main, influenced Irish Literary development during the eighteenth century. With the fall of Limerick fell the political hopes of the Irish, and with Sarsfield departed the leaders of the race. The characteristic of Irish-speaking Ireland from 1690 to 1760 is the lack therein of political initiative, and the existence, strange to say, of a literature which is thoroughly national. This latter fact finds its explanation in the departure of the Irish and old English nobility, and in the passing of literary patronage from them to the people. Such patronage naturally deflected the native literature into popular channels, and to the influence, of the new poetry some would attribute in part the growth of the Celt's conception of the national idea in place of the tribal.1 However, the tribal, or local idea, caused the generation of poets who lived subsequently to the fall of Limerick, and who remembered better days, to turn to lamenting the exile of the nobles, and to expressing hopes for their return. To them the Stuart cause seemed linked with the preservation of their own class, and in lyric after lyric we get the hope expressed that James may be king. Three powerful interests were thus represented by this literature, namely, the political or Jacobite, the religious, and the popular, and all three seemed to coalesce in forming a great national demand. Thus it was that a strong sense of unity grew up among the mass of Irishmen in a manner such as previously was unknown, and it is true to say that the solidarity of O'Connell's political campaign can, in part, be traced to this early expression of Irish nationality in lyrical verse. 1 Vide E. Hull, New Ireland Review, March, 1903, p. 40. |
