Hugh Roe O'Donnell

For the earlier ruler of Tyrconnell, see Hugh Roe O'Donnell (died 1505).

Hugh Roe O'Donnell II Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill II
King of Tyrconnell
1934 depiction of O'Donnell by Richard King
Reign	1592–1602
Coronation	3 May 1592
Predecessor	Hugh McManus O'Donnell
Successor	Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell
Born	(1572-10-30)30 October 1572 Tyrconnell, Ulster, Ireland (present-day County Donegal)
Died	10 September 1602(1602-09-10) (aged 29) Simancas Castle, Province of Valladolid, Spain
Burial	September 1602 Convent of St. Francis, Valladolid, Spain
Spouse	Rose O'Neill (m. 1592; sep. 1595)
Issue	None
House	O'Donnell dynasty
Father	Hugh McManus O'Donnell
Mother	Iníon Dubh (Fiona MacDonald)
Signature

Hugh Roe O'Donnell II (Irish: Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill; 30 October 1572 – 10 September 1602), also known as Red Hugh O'Donnell, was an Irish clan chief, Lord of Tyrconnell, and senior leader during the rising of the Irish clans against English rule in Ireland known as the Nine Years' War (1593–1603).

He was born in Tyrconnell (present-day County Donegal) into a very ancient and powerful family of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. After his engagement at the age of 14 to the daughter of Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain and elevation to the position of tanist to his father, the Chief of Clan O'Donnell, the English Government was terrified of the potential threat Hugh Roe posed. The Lord Deputy accordingly arranged for Hugh Roe's kidnapping and four-year imprisonment without trial in Dublin Castle, while covertly backing regime change in Donegal. Following a successful escape shortly before Christmas 1591 and the temporary resolution of the lengthy succession dispute within Clan O'Donnell's derbhfine, Hugh Roe was inaugurated as clan chief and Lord of Tyrconnell at the Rock of Doon in May 1592.

Along with his father-in-law Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe led a rising of the Irish clans in the Nine Years' War; motivated firstly by determination to permanently end the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I and her officials. As a further means to achieving that end, O'Donnell and O'Neill also sought the political independence of the Kingdom of Ireland with Archduke Albert VII of the House of Habsburg as High King. Hugh Roe led an army of the Irish clans to victory in the Battle of Curlew Pass. After the crushing defeat of Gaelic Ireland at the 1602 Siege of Kinsale, Hugh Roe travelled to Spain to seek badly needed reinforcements from King Philip III.

Unsuccessful, he died at Simancas Castle, was buried, similarly to Christopher Columbus, inside the Chapel of Wonders at the Convent of St. Francis, Valladolid, and was succeeded as Chief by his younger brother Rory O'Donnell. Hugh Roe's premature death made continued resistance by the Irish clans impossible and the Nine Years' War was accordingly ended by the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603.

In Valladolid, the recent search by archaeologists for his remains has drawn international media attention. Since 2022, Valladolid has annually reenacted his 1602 funeral procession in period costumes and with an empty casket draped with an Irish tricolour. Red Hugh O'Donnell's birthday is celebrated every year in his birthplace and plans are currently afoot to erect statues of him in both Lifford and in Simancas, where he died.

Since 1977, the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Guild has been advancing his cause for canonization as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church. His current title is Servant of God.

Early life

For the political context of O'Donnell's life, see Tudor conquest of Ireland.

Family background

Hugh Roe O'Donnell was born on 30 October 1572, the eldest son of Irish lord Hugh McManus O'Donnell and his second wife, Scottish aristocrat Fiona "Iníon Dubh" MacDonald. He was born into the ruling branch of the O'Donnell clan, a Gaelic Irish noble dynasty based in Tyrconnell (a kingdom geographically associated with present-day County Donegal). He had three younger brothers, Rory, Manus and Cathbarr, and several sisters, Nuala, Margaret and Mary. He also had older half-siblings from his father's previous relationships, including Donal and Siobhán.

Paternally Hugh Roe claimed descent, via the lineage of Conall Gulban of the Cenél Conaill, from the Pre-Christian High King Niall of the Nine Hostages. Through his mother, Hugh Roe was a descendant of the first six Scottish Chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg and from Somerled, the first Lord of the Isles. He was also descended from King of Scots Robert the Bruce and his grandson Robert II, the first Stuart king of Scotland.

Arms of Clan O'Donnell

Hugh Roe's father, Hugh McManus, had ruled as clan chief and Lord of Tyrconnell since 1566. He was a wary politician who alternated between alliances with the O'Neill clan, his long-established rivals in Ulster, and the English government, which controlled the area around Dublin. In 1569 Hugh McManus married Iníon Dubh of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg, as part of a marriage alliance, which gave the O'Donnell clan access to the formidable Scottish mercenary forces known as Redshanks. Iníon Dubh pushed the O'Donnell clan further into opposition with the English, and in 1574 the clan established an alliance with ascendant O'Neill clansman Hugh O'Neill via his marriage to Siobhán.

Education

Like other local members of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, Hugh Roe would have received a Classical Christian education from the Franciscan Friars at Donegal Abbey, whose practice, ever since the beginning of the Reformation in Ireland under King Henry VIII, had been to grant sanctuary to Old English refugees, particularly Roman Catholic priests and religious, who had fled from religious persecution in the Pale. In his biography of Rob Roy MacGregor, W. H. Murray described the code of conduct as follows, "The abiding principle is cast up from the records of detail: that right must be seen to be done, no man left destitute, the given word honoured, the strictest honour observed to all who have given implicit trust, and that a guest's confidence in his safety must never be betrayed by his host, or vice versa. There was more of like kind, and each held as its kernel the simple ideal of trust honoured... Breaches of it were abhorred and damned... The ideal was applied 'with discretion'. Its interpretation went deeply into domestic life, but stayed shallow for war and politics."

Fosterage

The children of Gaelic Irish nobility were traditionally fostered to fellow clans, typically in the hopes of developing political alliances. As such, Hugh Roe was fostered by four families of differing political alignments: Clans Sweeney na dTuath and O'Cahan, as well as two rival O'Donnell branches led by Hugh Dubh O'Donnell and Conn O'Donnell. Conn had a strong claim to the lordship as his father Calvagh was a prior ruler of Tyrconnell. In 1581 Conn turned hostile towards the ruling O'Donnells and Hugh Roe was removed from his care. Conn died in 1583 and Hugh Roe's succession seemed assured. Nevertheless, Conn's sons, particularly Niall Garve, looked to the English government as a means of restoring their branch of the family to power.

Family tree

Hugh Roe O'Donnell and selected relatives Hugh Dubh O'Donnell d. 1537 Manus O'Donnell 1490–1563 Hugh McHugh Dubh O'Donnell c. 1537–1618 Calvagh O'Donnell c. 1515–1566 Hugh McManus O'Donnell c. 1520–1600 Fiona "Iníon Dubh" MacDonald Hugh MacEdegany d. 1588 possibly son of the Dean of Raphoe Conn O'Donnell d. 1583 Donal O'Donnell d. 1590 Hugh Roe O'Donnell 1572–1602 Nuala O'Donnell c. 1575–c. 1630 Niall Garve O'Donnell c. 1569–1626 Legend XXX Subject of the article XXX King of Tyrconnell XXX Challenged Hugh Roe's succession XXX Foster-father of Hugh Roe

By 1587, Hugh Roe was in the care of Owen Óg MacSweeney na dTuath, his final foster-father. According to historian Darren McGettigan, MacSweeney na dTuath "appears to have given [Hugh Roe] much freedom".

Ultimately Hugh Roe's fosterage did not engender much loyalty in his foster-families. Hugh Dubh antagonised the ruling O'Donnells into the 1590s, and the sons of MacSweeney na dTuath and Conn eventually opposed Hugh Roe by defecting to the English.

Rise to prominence

Hugh Roe saw his first military action in 1584, with his father's chief advisor Sir Eoin O'Gallagher, against Clan O'Rourke of West Breifne. Even before reaching the age of fifteen, Hugh Roe had become well known across Ireland and England. Biographer Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh praised the young noble: "He continued to grow and increase in comeliness and urbanity, tact and eloquence, wisdom and knowledge, goodly size and noble deeds". Hugh Roe began to be associated with Aodh Eangach, a prophesied high king. It was foretold that if two men named Hugh succeeded each other as O'Donnell chief, the last Hugh shall "be a monarch in Ireland and quite banish thence all foreign nations and conquerors".

Hugh Roe was formally betrothed to Hugh O'Neill's daughter Rose in 1587. In addition to O'Neill's marriage to Siobhán, this betrothal would further cement a growing alliance between two clans who had traditionally been mortal enemies for centuries. Hugh Roe had become a focus of authority within Tyrconnell, and O'Neill described him as "the stay that his father had for the quieting of his inhabitance". As tanist of the O'Donnell clan, Hugh Roe was widely considered to be his father's most likely successor.

Imprisonment and escape

Capture at Rathmullan

The English government feared that the emergence of a powerful O'Neill-O'Donnell alliance, which would be cemented by Hugh Roe's marriage to Rose, would threaten English control over Ulster. Though O'Neill professed loyalty to the Crown, he was attracting suspicion from the government due to his growing power. Hugh Roe's familial links to various Scottish Highland clans were also a cause for concern; English officials often pejoratively referred to him as "Scottish". Additionally Hugh Roe's father had failed to pay annual rents promised to the government, and at the time the English government kept hostages for policy reasons. Ultimately the government decided that Hugh Roe must not be allowed to succeed as O'Donnell clan chief, and so the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Welsh statesman John Perrot, hatched a plan to kidnap the young noble. In May 1587, Perrot wrote to Lord Burghley that he planned to capture Hugh Roe "by sending thither a boat with wines".

Lord Deputy John Perrot authorised Hugh Roe's kidnapping

In September, Hugh McManus was summoned to a conference with Perrot. Meanwhile the ship Matthew, captained by Dublin merchant Nicholas Barnes (also known as Nicholas Skipper) was dispatched to Rathmullan on Lough Swilly, where fourteen-year-old Hugh Roe was sojourning with his foster-father MacSweeney na dTuath. Though MacSweeney na dTuath was Hugh Roe's foster-father, Rathmullan was the stronghold of Clan MacSweeney Fanad, a related branch of Clan MacSweeney. The ship was anchored and the crew went on shore under the guise of ordinary merchants selling wine and ale. Hugh Roe heard of the merchant ship and arrived with several young companions. Barnes claimed that they had no wine left unsold except for what was left on their ship, and the group were invited aboard. Chief Donnell MacSweeney Fanad was ashamed that Hugh Roe had missed out on the wine, and unwittingly encouraged him to take a small boat to the Matthew.

Chief MacSweeney Fanad, Chief MacSweeney na dTuath and Eoin O'Gallagher accompanied Hugh Roe onto the Matthew. Once on board, Hugh Roe and his compatriots were conducted into a secured cabin and plied with food and wine. Whilst they were enjoying themselves, the hatches were fastened, their weapons were removed, and the ship set sail for Dublin. News of the capture spread through the onlookers on the shore, but the ship was in the deep part of the harbour and could not be reached in time. MacSweeney Fanad was released in exchange for his eldest son Donnell Gorm MacSweeney Fanad. O'Gallagher likewise gave his nephew Hugh O'Gallagher. MacSweeney na dTuath was also released upon giving "his eldest son"—actually a young peasant dressed in his son's clothes—as a hostage. Hostages were offered in Hugh Roe's stead to no avail.

Hugh Roe arrived in Dublin on 6 October; Queen Elizabeth I was informed the next day. Perrot ascertained that the peasant was not MacSweeney na dTuath's son and dismissed him. Hugh Roe and his two fellow hostages were imprisoned in Dublin Castle's Bermingham Tower.

Within three months, O'Neill was lobbying the queen for Hugh Roe's release. In spring 1588, Iníon Dubh offered Perrot a bribe of £2000, plus sureties and hostages, for her son's release. In September 1588, Hugh McManus offered thirty Spanish officers, taken from the Spanish Armada's shipwreck in Inishowen, in exchange for his son. William FitzWilliam, Perrot's successor as Lord Deputy, refused due to "the dangers that might grow unto this miserable realm by letting loose the reins unto so harebrain and ungracious an imp as [Hugh Roe]".

The English attempted to convert Hugh Roe and his fellow Catholic hostages to Protestantism by bringing them to a Protestant service, but the boys shouted over the hymns and music so the service could not be heard. They did not desist even when carried out of the church and sent back to Bermingham Tower, and were never again summoned.

"It was a cause of great distress of mind to [Hugh Roe] to be thus imprisoned; yet it was not for his own sake that he grieved, but for the sake of his country, his land, his friends, and kinsmen, who were in bondage throughout Ireland. He was constantly revolving in his mind the manner in which he might make his escape."

The Annals of the Four Masters, on Hugh Roe's imprisonment

During his time in Dublin Castle, Hugh Roe had little interaction with the outside world beyond conversations with fellow political prisoners. In witnessing first-hand the brutality inflicted by the Dublin government on Irish rebels, he became embittered and resentful of English authority. Ironically, he learnt to speak English during his imprisonment. Both Ó Cléirigh and the Annals of the Four Masters highlight Hugh Roe's growing distress for his kinsmen, and McGettigan characterises his imprisonment as the defining event of Hugh Roe's life.

Tyrconnell succession dispute

Hugh McManus had become senile in his later years, and Hugh Roe's imprisonment exacerbated a long-running succession dispute which had consumed Tyrconnell since October 1580. The succession dispute was violent and three of Conn's sons died during the dispute. Iníon Dubh pushed successfully for Hugh Roe to become her husband's successor by spreading the Aodh Eangach prophecy and by directing her Redshanks to kill any challengers to her son's succession. Hugh MacEdegany, an illegitimate son of Calvagh O'Donnell, was the principal challenger of the succession dispute. He was assassinated by Inion Dubh's bodyguard at her residence, Mongavlin Castle, in May 1588.

Further disruptions developed as the government appointed various administrators in Tyrconnell who ransacked and pillaged the kingdom. Perrot appointed William Mostian as Sheriff of Tyrconnell. Mostian quickly carried out eight cattle raids, ransacking Donegal Abbey and murdering its guardian. Later the same year, FitzWilliam gave Captain John Connill charge of Tyrconnell. Connill assisted the opponents of the ruling O'Donnells. He was later joined by Captain Humphrey Willis and two hundred soldiers.

Map of Ulster's Gaelic kingdoms in the 16th century

Hugh McHugh Dubh was a prominent contender, and the government suggested him as a preferred sucessor to Hugh McManus. Hugh Roe's elder half-brother Donal remained the Crown's favored candidate for the chiefdom, and shortly after the Armada's shipwreck, FitzWilliam knighted and appointed Donal as High Sheriff of Donegal. O'Gallagher was an important adherent during the succession dispute, though he was taken prisoner by FitzWilliam and later died in Dublin Castle. Donal made an effort to depose as his father, backed by Connill's troops. Iníon Dubh, backed by her Redshanks and the clans of the Cenél Conaill who remained loyal to her husband, crushed Donal at the Battle of Doire Leathan on 14 September 1590.

Willis (who replaced Donal as Sheriff) and Connill exploited the ensuing chaos in Tyrconnell. Their men did not retreat from Tyrconnell, but instead began raiding and pillaging, extorting local inhabitants to give both them supplies and protection money. At one point Connill captured Hugh McManus, but he was freed by Niall Garve.

According to a 1617 history of Donegal Abbey written in Louvain, "The entire principality was plundered by Fitzwilliam's sheriff's and captains, to whom he sold the appointments. The more remote the shire and the more Irish, the larger the sum paid. One Boen, for example, obtained a captaincy for a bribe of two gold chains, which he gave to the sordid deputy's wife; and another, named Willis, got a similar preferment for sixty pounds. These unscrupulous marauders pillaged the country and held the heads of families in their grasp until ransomed, some for two hundred, and others for three hundred cows; and when the cattle were not forthcoming they tortured their prisoners by frying the soles of their feet in seething butter and brimstone. As for our friars, they were obliged to betake themselves, with muniments and altar-plate, to the fastness of the mountains, to avoid Willis and his brigands; who a few months before Hugh Roe's return, swooped down upon Donegal in the dead of night, killing thirty of its inhabitants, and occupying the monastery as a garrison."

First escape attempt

The 13th-century Bermingham Tower at Dublin Castle, where State prisoners were held during the Elizabethan era.

After three years and three months in English captivity, O'Donnell made his first escape attempt in January 1591, in the company of his fellow Ulster hostages Donnell Gorm MacSweeney and Hugh O'Gallagher.

According to the Annals of the Four Masters, "At the very end of winter, as Hugh and a party of his companions were together, in the beginning of the night, before they were put into the close cells in which they used to be every night, they took with them a very long rope to a window which was near them, and by means of the rope they let themselves down, and alighted upon the bridge that was outside the door of the fortress. There was a thick iron chain fastened to this door, by which one closed it when required; through this chain they drove a strong handful of a piece of timber, and thus fastened the door on the outside, so that they could not be immediately pursued from the fortress. There was a youth of Hugh's faithful people outside awaiting their escape, and he met them on coming out."

O'Donnell made it as far as the County Wicklow and the territory of Felim O'Toole, Chief of Clan O'Toole, who had previously visited Dublin Castle to help plan Hugh Roe's escape. Under pressure from the derbhfine of his clan, who feared the consequences of aiding so high profile of a fugitive, O'Toole agreed to surrender Hugh Roe to the posse of English soldiers who were already en route. According to O'Sullivan Beare, however, word was secretly dispatched to Felim O'Toole's brother in law Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, Chief of Clan O'Byrne and Lord of Ranelagh, that Hugh Roe needed to be urgently rescued. O'Byrne and his clansmen immediately set out from Glenmalure for that very purpose, but their inability to cross a flooded river prevented them from reaching Clan O'Toole's stronghold quickly enough. Hugh Roe was accordingly recaptured by the English posse and was returned to Dublin Castle in chains.

According to the Annals of the Four Masters, after his return to Dublin Castle, "When Hugh arrived in Dublin, the Council were rejoiced at his return to them; for they made nothing or light of all the other prisoners and hostages that had escaped from them. He was again put into the same prison, and iron fetters were put upon him as tightly as possible; and they watched and guarded him as well as they could. His escape, thus attempted, and his recapture, became known throughout the land of Ireland, at which tidings a great gloom came over the Irish people."

Second escape attempt

Shortly before Christmas 1591, Hugh Roe made a successful escape attempt. At this time he was imprisoned in Bermingham Tower with fellow prisoners Henry MacShane O'Neill and Art MacShane O'Neill. After years of lobbying and bribery, O'Neill managed to bribe FitzWilliam, one of Tudor Ireland's most corrupt Lord Deputies, with £1,000 to secretly assist in Hugh Roe's escape.

Hugh Roe O'Donnell's father, Hugh O'Neill, organised his prison escape and led the Irish confederacy

As part of the escape plan, an Old English Recusant named Edward Eustace promised four horses which would be saddled in a nearby stable three days prior. Hugh Roe also had the assistance of local Irish clan chief Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, who promised a guide who would conduct Hugh Roe to his house in Glenmalure. From there Hugh Roe would be sent him safely back to Ulster. Richard Weston, a servant of O'Neill, managed to supply Hugh Roe with a silk rope.

When the three prisoners were unshackled to eat, they "took advantage of the keepers". A servant of one of the gaolers acted as their guide and the prisoners made their way to the privy house. They tied one end of the rope there, and fed the other end down the privy hole which led outside the castle. Henry made his way down the rope first, and without waiting for the others, escaped safely back to Ulster. Hugh Roe followed, but Art was badly injured by a falling stone whilst sliding down the rope. Although Eustace had promised the horses, on that day they had been removed without his knowledge. Once outside the castle, Hugh Roe and Art met with O'Neill's emissary Turlough O'Hagan who guided them through Dublin. The trio proceeded through the dark streets, mixing with the crowds, and safely escaped the city. As Hugh Roe had not expected the journey to be on foot, he had not worn proper shoes, which were soon worn out during their efforts to reach O'Byrne's stronghold at Glenmalure. While Art O'Neill had much better footwear, he was weakened both by the lack of food and drink, as well as by the injury he had received from the falling stone during their escape. For this reason, O'Hagan went on ahead, while Hugh Roe and O'Neill remained in hiding inside a cave along the slopes of Conavalla, in the Wicklow Mountains. Hugh Roe managed to survive by eating leaves, roots, and bark, but despite his pleas, Art O'Neill could not eat. By the time O'Byrne's clansmen arrived to rescue them, Art O'Neill was dying of hypothermia and expired before their eyes. Hugh Roe was taken to Glenmalure where he recovered.

An outraged Queen Elizabeth I wrote to Lord Deputy Thomas Burgh in May 1592 and decreed, "O'Donnell escaped by the practice of money bestowed on somebody. Call to you the Chancellor, Chief Justice Gardiner, and the Treasurer, and inquire who they are that have been touched by it."

Becoming Chief of the Name

1885 illustration of O'Donnell's inauguration by John Dooley Reigh

Upon his return to his father's castle at Ballyshannon, Hugh Roe's big toes were amputated by Tyrconnell surgeons due to frostbite. Hugh Roe's father summoned the clan to a gathering in the Gap of Barnesmore and abdicated in his son's favour. Iníon Dubh temporarily bought off the one remaining rival claimant, Niall Garbh Ó Domhnaill, Chief of the Clann Dalaigh branch of the O'Donnell derbhfine and who, with similar duties to a Highland Tacksman, was based in east Tyrconnell, with a dynastic marriage to her stepdaughter Nuala. Red Hugh O'Donnell accordingly received the uncontested leadership of the Clan O'Donnell. At the "Rock of Doon", near Termon, he was acclaimed as "The O'Donnell", Chief of the Name and Lord of Tyrconnell on 3 May 1592. After Hugh Dubh's abdication, according to O'Sullivan Beare, "he himself, after the manner of Irish Chiefs, devoted the seven years which he lived after this, to prayer and meditation on holy things." Sir Hugh O'Donnell spent those years living among the Franciscans at Donegal Abbey and doing penance for his sins, of which he most deeply regretted his role in the 1588 massacre of sailors from the Spanish Armada, who had been shipwrecked off the coast of Inishowen, and in obedience to orders from Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam. Upon his death c. 1600, the remains of Sir Hugh O'Donnell were first clothed in the habit of a Franciscan monk and then buried underneath the Chapel of Donegal Abbey.

Doon Rock and the holy well at Kilmacrennan in County Donegal, Ireland, c.1900. On the left, two women are praying by the well. On the right, an array of crutches, bandages and rosary beads deliberately left at the well by pilgrims.

While describing how The O'Donnell was inaugurated on 3 May 1592, Timothy T. O'Donnell wrote, "The inauguration of the O'Donnell as King of Tyrconnell was both civil and religious in nature. The ceremony took place on the great Rock of Doon which is one mile west of Kilmacrenan, from which one is give a breathtaking view of the surrounding country. It began with the religious rites in the church of the nearby monastery and holy well singing Psalms and hymns in honor of Christ and St. Columba for the success of the Prince's sovereignty. Standing on the Rock surrounded by nobles and his clansmen, the Prince received an oath in which he promised to preserve the Church and the laws of the land. The Prince also vowed to deliver the succession of the realm peacefully to his Tanist (his successor). O'Ferghil, the hereditary warden and abbot of Kilmacrenan, performed the religious ceremony of the inauguration of The O'Donnell. O'Gallagher was the Prince's Marshal and O'Clery was the Ollamh, or scholarly lawyer who presented to him the book containing the laws and customs of the land and the straight white wand symbolizing the moral rectitude demanded of his judgments and rule." Then, in honour of the Holy Trinity, Hugh would have surveyed his Clan lands as he walked three times sunwise around the peak of Rock of Doon, after which all the Irish clans present loudly acclaimed him as "O'Donnell! O'Donnell! O'Donnell!"

Immediately after his coronation as Chief, Hugh Roe O'Donnell raised the Cenel Connaill and surrounded Captain Humphrey Willis, the Sheriff of County Donegal, and the two companies of English soldiers with which he had been extorting tribute from their barracks inside Donegal Abbey, into which Willis has reported driven a herd of more than three hundred stolen head of cattle.

The Cumdach of the Cathach

According to the traditions of local Gaelic warfare, the 6th-century psalter known as the Cathach of St. Columba was believed to guarantee victory upon the battlefield to the Irish clans of the Cenel Connail. Before a battle, like that about to take place at Donegal Abbey, it was customary for a monk or holy man (usually from the Clan McGroarty, and who was in a state of grace) to wear the Cathach and the cumdach ("book shrine"), around his neck and walk three times sunwise around the warriors of Tyrconnell.

According to the 1614 history of Donegal Abbey, "Sensible of the straits to which he was reduced, Willis threatened to fire the buildings; but the young Prince, anxious to preserve the sacred edifice, suffered him and his people to depart unharmed." The peace terms reportedly stipulated, though, that Willis and his soldiers were forbidden to take any stolen cattle or other looted property with them as they crossed into Connaught.

Exiled English Recusant poet Richard Verstegen's depiction of the 1584 torture and execution of Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley outside the city walls of Dublin. The 1579 hanging of fellow Irish Catholic Martyrs Bishop Patrick O'Hely and Friar Conn Ó Ruairc at Kilmallock is shown in the background.

According to Philip O'Sullivan Beare, "Being surrounded there [Willis] surrendered to Roe by whom he was dismissed in safety with an injunction to remember his words, that the Queen and her officers were dealing unjustly with the Irish; that the Catholic religion was contaminated by impiety; that holy bishops and priests were inhumanely and barbarously tortured; that Catholic noblemen were cruelly imprisoned and ruined; that wrong was deemed right; that he himself had been treacherously and perfidiously kidnapped; and that for these reasons he would neither give tribute or allegiance to the English."

The 1614 history of Donegal Abbey continues, "The friars returned immediately afterwards; and O'Donnell, for such was now his name and title, seeing the poverty of the district - swept so bare by the English, offered to support the community and repair the buildings out of his own revenues, if we would forgo our usage of questing from door to door. The proposal, however, was declined; and the people, their scant means notwithstanding, shared their last morsel with us."

Wartime leadership

Irish kern and gallowglass armed with pikes, longswords, and the Lochaber axe. Drawing by Albrecht Dürer, 1521.

He successfully led two expeditions against Turlough Luineach O'Neill in 1593, to force Turlough O'Neill to abdicate his chieftainship in favour of Hugh O'Neill. At this point, O'Neill did not join O'Donnell in open war but secretly backed him to enhance their bargaining power with the English. O'Neill by now was also communicating with Philip II of Spain in a quest for military aid.

Declaring open rebellion against the English the following year, O'Donnell received fealty within Connacht from counties Sligo to Leitrim by 1595, and O'Donnell personally re-instated the Chiefdom of Clan MacWilliam Íochdar of the completely Gaelicised House of Burgh in County Mayo, which had been abolished under the policy of surrender and regrant. Instead, however, of allowing Clan a Burc to summon a gathering at which the nobles and commons would debate and then choose one of the derbhfine of the last chief to lead them, O'Donnell instead chose to appoint his ally Tiobóid mac Walter Ciotach Búrca as Chief of the Name. By also passing over the claim of her son Tiobóid na Long Búrca of the Chiefdom, O'Donnell made himself a permanent and very dangerous enemy out of his mother's former ally; the famous pirate queen Grace O'Malley. The latter was swift to retaliate by launching an English-backed regime change war, in which she fought against Hugh Roe in order to wrest the White Wand of the Chiefdom away from Tiobóid Mac Walter Ciotach and give it to her son. In this same year, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, abandoned negotiation with the English by raising his clan and launching the successful Assault on the Blackwater Fort.

In 1595, with Hugh O'Neill's consent, Hugh Roe and Róisín, who remained without issue, were separated. According to the Calendar of State Papers, Hugh Roe had hopes of a dynastic marriage alliance with Lady Margarey Burke, the daughter of the Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, who had refused to join the Nine Years War. Hugh Roe and Róisín briefly reconciled, but their marriage was eventually annulled and she married Donnell Ballach O'Cahan. In 1600 there was word of another plot, this time for Hugh Roe to marry Lady Joan Fitzgerald, the sister of the Súgán Earl of Desmond. As was the case in the Clanricarde rumours, the Tudor army placed Lady Joan under a sizeable military guard as a precaution against Hugh Roe and his retainers coming to spirit her away. The diversion of so many English troops at the height of the Nine Years War, however, may well have been Hugh Roe's real intention all along. In 1596, the combined forces of O'Donnell and O'Neill defeated an English army under Sir Henry Bagenal at the Battle of Clontibret.

Their greatest victory came two years later however at Battle of the Yellow Ford on the Blackwater River near the southern border of Tír Eoghain in August 1598. At this battle, the Irish annihilated an English force marching to relieve the siege of Blackwater Fort, five miles northwest of the Elizabethan Army's government's garrison town of Armagh. Later that year, O'Donnell purchased Ballymote Castle from the Chief of Clan MacDonagh and subsequently made it his primary residence.

O'Neill then went south to secure the allegiance of Irish clans in Munster, without much success. Meanwhile, O'Donnell claimed sovereignty over the Irish clans and Old English town-dwellers of Connacht and, as is traditional in the warfare of Gaelic Ireland, Hugh Roe subjected those among both ethnicities who sided with the Queen to both cattle raiding and arson. As part of his war against the Pro-English Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, Hugh Roe besieged the Earl's town of Athenry. During the 16th century, the usual laws and customs of war permitted up to three days of sacking after the fall of a city, but, according to Ó Cléirigh, after the fall of Athenry, Hugh Roe allowed his troops to sack the city for only one day.

Upon being refused entry to Galway City by the Old English and Royalist city government, Hugh Roe burned the suburbs:

"... he sent forth swift-moving marauding parties through the district of Caladh, and the upper part of the territory; and they carried off many herds of cows and other preys to O'Donnell, to the town of Athenry; and though the warders of the town attempted to defend it, the effort was of no avail to them, for O'Donnell's people applied fires and flames to the strongly-closed gates of the town, and carried to them great ladders, and, placing them against the walls, they recte, some of them ascended to the parapets of the wall. They then leaped from the parapets, and gained the streets of the town, and opened the gates for those who were outside. They all then proceeded to demolish the storehouses and the strong habitations; and they carried away all the goods and valuables that were in them. They remained that night in the town. It was not easy to enumerate or reckon the quantities of copper, iron, clothes, and habiliments, which they carried away from the town on the following day. From the same town he sent forth marauding parties to plunder Clanrickard, on both sides of the river; and these marauders totally plundered and ravaged the tract of country from Leathrath to Magh-Seanchomhladh. The remaining part of his army burned and ravaged the territory, from the town of Athenry and Rath-Goirrgin Westwards to Rinn-Mil and Meadhraige, and to the gates of Galway, and burned Teagh-Brighde, at the military gate of Galway".

Despite these and other assaults, however, O'Donnell was unable to persuade local Royalist Old English and Irish clans to change their allegiance.

However, in the next two years, O'Donnell and O'Neill were hard-pressed with the deployment of thousands more English troops in the country. The O'Donnell also ambushed and slew an English expedition led by Sir Conyers Clifford to relieve the siege of the pro-English Clan O'Connor Sligo at Colloney Castle at the Battle of Curlew Pass in 1599. After Sir Conyers' severed head was shown to the Castle's defenders, they surrendered.

The Gaelic Chieftan - a modern statue of O'Donnell by Maurice Harron, near Boyle, County Roscommon

According to the Chronicle of Donegal Abbey, "Right heartily did the friars of Donegal pray for the success of their prince, for the repose of the clansmen who fell in his cause; and, oh! how their jubilant voices made vault and cloister ring, when forty throats pealed out Te Deum, for the defeat of Norris at Clontibret, Bagnal on the field of the Yellow Ford, and Clifford in the passes of the Curlew Mountains!"

The Siege of Donegal

Even worse for O'Donnell was a regime change war launched by his kinsman (cousin and brother-in-law), Niall Garbh Ó Domhnaill, based on Sir Henry Docwra's agreement to support his claim to the O'Donnell Chiefdom. Niall Garbh's brothers and an estimated one thousand Clan O'Donnell warriors also joined his efforts to wrest the White wand away from Hugh Roe with the support of the Crown.

Niall Garbh's support, however, allowed the Tudor navy under Sir Henry Docwra and Humphrey Willis to land a seaborne force at Derry into the heart of Tyrconnell and also capture Clan O'Donnell's traditional stronghold, which Hugh Roe had entrusted to Niall Garbh, in the Battle of Lifford.

In response, Hugh Roe's half-sister, Nuala O'Donnell, immediately separated from her husband, joined the court of her half-brother, and brought her children with her. Meanwhile, Hugh Roe was at the head of his army in Thomond when he received word of Niall Garbh's uprising. O'Donnell and his followers immediately hurried back to Tyrconnell to retake control of his native district.

According to the Elizabeth era English officials who wrote the Calendar of State Papers—specifically Henry Docwra—Hugh Roe was so outraged by his brother-in-law's defection that he ordered mass hangings of Niall Garbh's followers, and personally killed Niall Garbh's four-year-old son (and his own nephew) by bashing his brains out against a post. Allegations about Hugh Roe's murder of her child, however, do not explain why Nuala O'Donnell did not similarly change her allegiance, as the code of conduct would have demanded. It is very well-documented, in fact, that Nuala remained loyal to her half-brother and his siblings, for which she has been praised in Irish bardic poetry. Furthermore, the Hiberno-Latin historians from Donegal Abbey did not consider Niall Garbh's efforts to seize the Chiefdom to be justified under the traditional code of conduct and according denounced Niall Garbh as, "a traitor" and "a perfidious wretch." Docwra's biographer John McGurk acknowledges the uncertainty of the report's truthfulness. He points out that Docwra's "blunt" personality would indicate that he reported current affairs accurately, though it is unclear where Docwra received this intelligence. McGurk also acknowledges that infanticide was a feature of warfare in the early modern period. Historian Hiram Morgan notes that since this is a contemporary account, it should not be dismissed out of hand.

O'Sullivan Beare, on the other hand, was more nuanced in his assessment, "Garve was a man of great spirit and daring, skilled in military matters and had many of the men of Tyrconnell on his side, fortified by whose aid and valour he did not decline a fight with the Catholics in the open. However, he always retained the Catholic Faith and kept aloof from heretical rites."

On 10 August 1601, the monks of Donegal Abbey carefully removed all sacred objects and fled by ship from their enclosure shortly before Niall Garbh O'Donnell seized control of the monastery buildings and fortified them with earthenworks, which he built with the assistance of Tudor navy engineers, who also helped him to repair the dilapidated buildings of Donegal Castle for the expected siege by Hugh Roe's forces.

According to the history of Donegal Abbey, "Meanwhile, O'Donnell arrived, pitched his camp at Carrig, within two thousand paces of Donegal, and resolved to give Nial and his followers no rest, night or day, as long as they remained within the desecrated walls. A series of hand to hand conflicts, in which Nial's people suffered severely, ensued; and in the course of a fortnight many of the revolted Irish, repenting their treason, deserted in twos and threes to our Prince's camp."

According to Philip O'Sullivan Beare, "There was frequent and sharp fighting between the Catholics and royalists round Derry and Lifford. We may mention a cavalry fight in which the royalists being routed, Manus, brother of O'Donnell's, would have run through with his spear Garve as he retired, had not the blow been parried Owen O'Gallagher, surnamed Oge, a comrade of Manus, but actuated by his devotion and affection for Niall's family who were their lords. Cornelius O'Gallagher was differently disposed to this family, and is said to have persuaded Garve to go over to the English, and who wounded Manus at Monin, near Lifford, where a cavalry fight was suddenly sprung on both parties and Manus charging into five Irish royalists was struck in the right side by a spear thrust from Grave and being surrounded was struck by Cornelius under the shoulder. However, the points of the spears did not penetrate the cuirass, but nevertheless reached the body of Manus. Roderick coming to his brother's aid aimed his spear at Garve's breast. Garve tightening the reins raised his horse's head which received Roderick's blow by which the horse fell dead under Garve; but he, lifted up by his men, returned to Lifford when O'Donnell was coming up with the foot. Manus died of his wounds after fifteen days and shortly after Cornelius was captured by O'Donnell and hanged."

Sir Henry Docwra was reportedly delighted by Niall Garbh's role in the slaying of Hugh Roe's brother Manus. Niall Garbh had previously shown signs of wanting to call off the uprising and make peace with his cousin and brother in law, but Docwra knew that the death of Manus O'Donnell represented such an insult under the traditional honour code as to make a peaceful solution far more difficult if not outright impossible. Even so, Niall Garbh is still said to have tried to arrange one.

The ruins of Donegal Abbey, as they appeared in 2009

According to the history of Donegal Abbey, "Cooped up in the monasteries, so vigilantly watched by O'Donnell that they could not come out into the open country to lift preys, Nial's people began to mutiny; when on the night of Michaelmas, the powder stored in the monastery of Donegal took fire, whether accidentally or by the special interposition of Heaven I know not, and exploded with a terrible crash, that was heard far out at sea, may, scared the wild deer in the coverts of Barnesmore. Oh, the appalling spectacle! Hundreds of the besieged were blown to atoms; others, among the rest Nial's own brother, were crushed to death by masses of the rent masonry; and all that night, while the woodwork blazed like a red volcano, in whose glare friend and foe were distinctly visible to each other, O'Donnell's swordsmen pressed the survivors back across the trenches into the flames, where upwards of a thousand of them perished miserably. Nor should it be forgotten that a ship, laden with munitions for the besieged, ran in a rock, and went to pieces that very night, just as she was entering the bay of Donegal. Next morning Nial proceeded unobserved by O'Donnell's troops, along the strand to Magherabeg, and returned, under cover of the guns of the English war vessel, with the soldiers he had left in that place, determined to maintain himself to the last among the smoldering ruins. O'Donnell immediately shifted his camp nearer to Donegal, and continued the siege till October; when, being informed that the Spaniards had landed at Kinsale, he struck his tents and marched to their assistance."

Kinsale

The Spanish General Juan del Águila finally landed and was besieged by the English Army inside the walled city of Kinsale – at virtually the opposite end of Ireland from the Northern clans - in September 1601. Seeking to break the siege and rescue their Spanish allies, O'Donnell led his warriors in a hard march during the extremely bitter winter conditions of 1601, often covering over 40 miles a day, to join Hugh O'Neill at his warriors at Kinsale, arriving in early December 1601.

Holy Cross Abbey, Thurles, County Tipperary.

En route, true to his family arms and Constantinian motto In Hoc Signo Vinces and in anticipation of the battle to come, Red Hugh visited and venerated the relic of the True Cross, the Holy rood, on the Feast of St. Andrew, on 30 November 1601 at Holy Cross Abbey, and removed a portion of it.

From there he dispatched an expedition to Ardfert in County Kerry, to win a quick victory and successfully recover the territory of his ally, James Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, who had lost it and his 9-year-old son, to Sir Charles Wilmot. Red Hugh also left some O'Donnell clansmen behind in Ardfert to defend Clanmaurice country, notably his first cousin and nephew, Domhnall Óg, son of his late half-brother and rival for the succession, Sir Domhnall O'Donnell, and who appears in the FitzMaurice pardon of 16 July 1604.

Battle of Kinsale, 1601.

At the Battle of Kinsale on (according to the Julian Calendar then used in Elizabethan era England: 24 December 1601) Gregorian Calendar: 5/6 January 1602, the combined forces of Irish clans were defeated by Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy. O'Donnell and his clansmen arrived as the defeated Irish clans were withdrawing with heavy losses from the field and he tried in vain to rally them, but in the end, Clan O'Donnell escaped the battle without serious losses. The defeat at Kinsale, for which O'Donnell unjustly blamed himself, would prove every bit as devastating for Gaelic Ireland as the Battle of Culloden would be for their fellow Gaels in Scotland in 1746.

Juan del Aguila then surrendered Kinsale on terms and departed with his forces for Spain. Based almost certainly upon Jesuit lay brother and future Irish Catholic Martyr Dominic Collins' tactical assessments, Irish Jesuit priest and Spanish Royal Army military chaplain Fr. James Archer immediately engaged in recrimination. He accused Spanish expeditionary force commander Juan del Águila of cowardice, vacillation, and dereliction of duty for both refusing to heed the advice of the local Irish clans and refusing to sally forth and meet his Ulster allies at the critical point. Archer concluded, "[He] has the reputation in other parts of being a brave soldier, but [in Ireland he was] cowardly and timorous."

Meanwhile, as the defeated Irish clans gathered in a conference at Inishannon, an outraged and heartbroken Hugh Roe O'Donnell announced his plans to travel to Spain to seek further reinforcements from King Philip III. This announcement devastated his supporters, who suspected, despite O'Donnell's vow he would return before the next spring with twenty thousand more Spanish Royal Army soldiers, that they would never see him again.

Spain

After the Irish defeat at Kinsale, O'Donnell left Ireland on 6 January 1602 and sailed to Corunna in Galicia, Spain, where many other Irish clan chiefs were already arriving as refugees with their families. There he was received with great honours by the Governor of Galicia and the Lord Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, where an Irish College was founded. He was also taken to "visit the Tower of Brigantiums, where according to bardic legends the sons of Milesius left to the Isle of Destiny".

O'Donnell then travelled to Valladolid to ask further assistance from King Philip III. When he arrived in the Royal presence, O'Donnell knelt before the King and vowed not to rise until three requests were granted, "The first is that you send a Spanish Army with me to Ireland. The second is that once you rule Ireland, I will be the most powerful Irish noble there. The third is that you protect the rights of the O'Donnells forever." The King immediately agreed and ordered O'Donnell to rise.

According to Irish historian John McCavitt, "He made sure to position himself with a recognisable aristocratic rank while he also emphasised the Irish's sacrifice for Spain in turning down the chance for peace with England in the hope a further Spanish invasion force would be sent to Ireland."

Tyrconnell-born plague doctor Niall Ó Glacáin records enjoying O'Donnell's gracious hospitality at the Spanish court while also treating his exiled Prince for a bubonic plague sore.

During his time at court, O'Donnell also spent much of his time assisting the gathering of evidence for the court martial of Juan del Aguila. After two weeks, however, the King granted O'Donnell a generous pension and reassigned him to supervise naval preparations for another Spanish expeditionary force at Coruña.

The Spanish Council of State also reported to the King about O'Donnell, "His zeal and loyalty should be highly praised... He should be assured that His Majesty regards the Irish Catholics as his subjects."

Upon his own arrival on 21 March 1602, Juan del Aguila was met at the quay of Coruña by a livid Hugh Roe O'Donnell, whom del Águila told in a bouyant, positive tone, "Be of good comfort. We will have one more turn at Ireland." O'Donnell's reply is not recorded.

The Venetian Ambassador to Spain reported, "[The Spanish authorities] now insist that Águila made a mistake in coming to terms with the English and surrendering to them two places which he held. Some prophesy ill for him, declaring that he has escaped an honourable death in Ireland to meet with a shameful one in Spain."

The 31 July 1602 execution of the Duc de Biron, for allegedly plotting with Spanish backing to assassinate King Henri IV, brought France to the brink of entering the war as an ally of England and drastically increased the risk that further Spanish intervention in Ireland would result in French troops being dispatched there, as well.

Despite this fact, O'Donnell continued being told, according to Des Ekin, by the Spanish Council of State, "anything he wanted to hear." At the same time, according to intelligence reports received by Sir George Carew, O'Donnell's reputation remained, "great in Spain", while there was widespread, "dislike of Don Juan." Feelings regarding both men remained almost identical in Ireland.

Death and burial

In the middle of 1602, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, suffering from, "anguish of heart and sickness of mind", finally left for Valladolid, "to go into the King's presence again to learn the cause of the delay." Instead, Hugh Roe O'Donnell unexpectedly fell ill at Simancas Castle.

Hugh Roe O'Donnell received the Last Rites and was attended by Archbishop of Tuam Fláithrí Ó Maol Chonaire and two refugee Franciscans from Donegal Abbey; Friars Muiris mac Donnchadh Ulltach and Muiris mac Seán Ulltach. After sixteen days of suffering, Hugh Roe O'Donnell died at Simancas Castle on 10 September 1602. He was 29 years of age.

O'Donnell's Last Will and Testament, written in his dying moments with his loyal retinue, is an extremely evocative and moving document. One original is preserved in Simancas and the other in the Chancellery archive in Valladolid. Whilst on his deathbed, O'Donnell dictated his will in Irish but it was translated into Spanish for official purposes. O'Donnell requested that he be buried in Valladolid.

Similarly to the explorer Christopher Columbus, Hugh Roe was buried in the Chapel of Wonders of the Franciscan monastery in Valladolid. Although both the monastery buildings and the land upon which they stood were confiscated, demolished, and sold by the anti-Catholic and Liberal Spanish Government of Queen Isabella II in 1837, the exact location of the tomb may have been discovered following a Spanish archaeological dig in May 2020. If Red Hugh O'Donnell's remains are successfully identified, they will be repatriated to Ireland for burial in County Donegal.

According to historian Jane Ohlmeyer, "If discovered intact, Red Hugh’s skeleton will reveal much about his stature and height, and possibly provide evidence if he suffered from childhood diseases, malnutrition, injuries (aside from the big toes he lost to frostbite after his 1591 mid-winter escape from Dublin Castle) or fractures, possibility associated with his martial lifestyle. Technology might allow researchers to recreate some of his facial features and to imagine what he looked like. Molecular analysis, especially of his teeth, might provide insights into what he ate and whether his diet changed over time. Remarkably, it will tell us how old he was when he was weaned as a baby and thereby provide a glimpse of Gaelic women, who are so absent from the historical record."

Thomas McGreevy's poem Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill describes a search for his grave:

Juan de Juni, the priest said,

Each J becoming H,

Berruguete, he said,

and the G was aspirate,

Ximénez, he said then

And aspirated first and last.

But he never said

And -- it seemed odd -- he

Never had heard

The aspirated name

Of the centuries-dead

Bright-haired young man

Whose grave I sought.

McGreevy describes how, when

They brought

His blackening body

Here

To rest

Princes came

Walking

Behind it

And all Valladolid knew
And out to Simancas all knew
Where they buried Red Hugh.

The Anglo-Irish double-agent, James "Spanish" Blake, later claimed to have poisoned Red Hugh O'Donnell. The Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, preserved in the Archepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1601–1603, was copied and published in 1870 by Longmans, Green & Co. in London detailing the official preserved letters from Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster during part of the Nine Years' War, to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who was nominated as Lord Lieutenant over Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I. Some of these letters were written in cipher, but the key to the cipher was to use a substitute letter six spaces earlier in the alphabet. In the letter from Carew to Mountjoy dated 28 May 1602, Carew reported to Mountjoy "One James Blake...took a solemn oath to do service...and is gone into Spain with a determination (bound with many oaths) to kill O'Donnell", and then another letter, written partially in cipher, was sent from Carew to Mountjoy dated 9 October 1602, "O'Donnell is dead... he is poisoned by James Blake, of whom your lordship hath been formerly acquainted...".

It is, however, unlikely that Red Hugh O'Donnell was poisoned. A more probable cause of death was the tapeworm that Simancas documents of the time stated to have been the cause of his demise. It should be said that spies and spymasters of the era often made improbable claims about their operations, and in this case as in many others like it, it is very likely that Carew exaggerated the success of his operative.

Even so, with O'Donnell's death, Spanish plans to send further assistance to the Irish clans were abandoned. According to Des Ekin, "The Duke of Lerma was in no hurry. He was still playing the long game. He aimed for peace with England, and Kinsale had achieved his aim of strengthening Spain's hand. True, Queen Elizabeth had inconsiderately refused to die while del Águila clung on his bridgehead: that was too bad. But still, for the price of a thousand Spanish deaths in Ireland, his Irish expedition had cost the Queen 6,000 to 10,000 of her best soldiers, diverted her from the Low Countries, and almost bankrupted her. It had worked out okay. Now it was time to move on. Soon, the Council of State would recommend a new policy towards the Irish: 'These people should be undeceived, so that they may be able to make the best terms [with the English] they can, bad as the consequences may be."

The Treaty of Mellifont that ended the war, was accordingly signed by Hugh O'Neill on 30 March 1603. For this reason, John McCavitt has recently stated about Hugh Roe O'Donnell, "Had he lived, this was a distinct possibility. It could have changed the course of Irish history forever."

Dynastic and local legacy

Hugh Roe O'Donnell's younger brother Rory O'Donnell succeeded him as ruler of Tyrconnell

Hugh Roe was succeeded by the Tanist of Clan O'Donnell, his younger brother, Rory O'Donnell, as both Lord of Tír Chonaill and Chief of the Name of a still polarised Clan O'Donnell. After submitting in London to the newly crowned King James I, Rory, under the policy of surrender and regrant was required to renounce his traditional titles and was in return created hereditary Earl of Tyrconnell per letters patent of 4 September 1603, with the subsidiary title Baron of Donegal reserved for his heir apparent, but both titles were to be passed down by primogeniture rather than the Brehon law tradition of Tanistry. Rory was further granted the territorial Lordship of Tyrconnell per letters patent of 10 February 1604.

A 1614 Hiberno-Latin history of Donegal Abbey, however, harshly criticized the title of Earl as, "how inferior to that with which the Prince of Tyrconnell used to be acclaimed on the sacred rock of Kilmacrenan!"

Hugh Roe's nephew, Hugh Albert O’Donnell at 10 years of age as a page at the court in Vienna of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria.

Rory and his family ultimately joined the 1607 Flight of the Earls. In 1603, the last Chief of the Name and Lord of Tyrconnell to be acclaimed at the Rock of Doon was Red Hugh's treacherous cousin and brother in law Niall Garve O'Donnell; who now led the Clan with English backing.

For this reason, despite his praise for some elements of Niall Garbh O'Donnell's character, Philip O'Sullivan Beare also went on the record as a very harsh critic of him, Tiobóid na Long Búrca, Grace O'Malley, and other members of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland who similarly launched regime change wars within their clans with English backing. Having the benefit of hindsight regarding the long-term fallout from Niall Garbh's uprising against his Chief and many others like it nationwide, O'Sullivan Beare wrote, "The Catholics might have been able to find a remedy for all these evils, had it not been that they were destroyed from within by another and greater internal disease. For most of the families, clans, and towns of the Catholic chiefs, who took up arms in defense of the Catholic Faith, were divided into different factions, each having different leaders and following lords who were fighting for their estates and chieftaincies. The less powerful of them joined the English party in the hope of gaining the chieftainship of their clans, if the existing chieftains were removed from their position and property, and the English craftily held out that hope to them. Thus, short-sighted men, putting their private affairs before the public defence of their Holy Faith, turned their allies, followers, and towns from the Catholic chiefs and transferred to the English great resources, but in the end did not obtain what they wished for, but accomplished what they did not desire. For it was not they, but the English who got the properties of and rich patrimonies of the Catholic nobles and their kinsmen; and the Holy Faith of Christ Jesus, bereft of its defenders, lay open to the barbarous violence and lust of the heretics. There was one device by which the English were able to crush the forces of the Irish Chiefs, by promising their honours and revenues to such of their own kinsmen as would seduce their followers and allies from them, but when the war was over the English did not keep their promises."

Niall Garbh would prove no exception, as his alliance with Sir Henry Docwra collapsed due to a subsequent conflict over both money and power. Niall Garbh had been promised that he would rule Tyrconnell just as his ancestors had done, while Docwra had every intention of supplanting him and, along with other Royal officials, sought to frame him on charges of high treason, based on a nonexistent conspiracy with the Earl of Tyrone and the Spanish Crown. Iníon Dubh, who had outlived all her sons, belatedly took her revenge by informing Dublin Castle that Niall Garbh had encouraged Sir Cahir O'Doherty, whose lands in Inishowen Niall Garbh coveted, to launch O'Doherty's rebellion, and had then broken his word by refusing to raise his own clan and join the rising once it began. On 15 June 1608, Niall Garbh was arrested and imprisoned in October 1609 in the Tower of London. He remained there until his death in 1626.

In contrast to Niall Garbh, the descendants of Grace O'Malley became completely assimilated into the British upper class, as did those of O'Donnell's other enemy, Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde, who was knighted on the battlefield of Kinsale and whose modern descendants include Diana, Princess of Wales, William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

As stated by Philip O'Sullivan Beare, the loss of their former protectors among the Gaelic nobility of Ireland drove the Catholic Church in Ireland deeper underground in the face of an escalating religious persecution that ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Historian and folklorist Tony Nugent accordingly lists twelve Mass rocks located throughout County Donegal that were used for illegal religious worship over the following centuries in defiance of the law, the Redcoats and the priest hunters. One is located beside the holy well near the Rock of Doon near both Termon and Kilmacrenan. The grave of Friar Rory O'Hegarty, who was captured and summarily executed by priest hunters while offering Mass near Buncrana in 1711 and buried where he fell, remains a local site of Christian pilgrimage.

Following the Irish War of Independence, the ascendant Fianna Fail political party began a policy of granted courtesy recognition as Chief of the Name to the senior male descendants of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. With regard to the O'Donnell dynasty, the succession came down to a contest between the O'Donnell family of Newport House and the Duke of Tetuan of the Spanish nobility. The Irish State ultimately ruled in favor of Fr. Hugh O'Donnell, OFM, a Roman Catholic missionary in Zimbabwe who could document his descent from Manus O'Donnell, the second son of Niall Garbh and Nuala O'Donnell, who was killed in action while fighting for the Confederation of Kilkenny under the command of Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill at the Battle of Benburb in 1646.

In September 2002, Eunan O'Donnell, BL, gave the Simancas Castle Address in honour of Red Hugh, during an O'Donnell Clan Gathering in Spain. In that same year, a monument upon the battlefield at Kinsale was unveiled by Nuala O'Donnell, the sister of Fr. Hugh O'Donnell, OFM. Following the death of Fr. Hugh O'Donnell, OFM on 11 July 2023, the White Wand of the Chiefdom and his seat in the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains were both inherited by his Tanist and distant relative, don Hugo O'Donnell, 7th Duke of Tetuan (b.1948).

During an interview with Peter Berresford Ellis, don Leopoldo O'Donnell y Lara, 6th Duke of Tetuán (1915-2002), don Hugo's father and the Irish State's then recognized Tanist of Tyrconnell, commented, "Being in my mid-eighties, perhaps I will not inherit the title of my forebears, nor even my son in his lifetimes. But one of my grandsons doubtless will. Our family, forced to flee from our native land to maintain our own existence, has never really abandoned Ireland, our patrimony nor our people of Tirconnell. We would sincerely wish to maintain their interest in the ancient Gaelic culture and civilization that once made Ireland the cradle of civilization during the grim, bleak days of the European Dark Ages."

In historian Darren McGettigan's biography, he praises O'Donnell's leadership. However, John McCavitt notes that O'Donnell's failure to forsee Niall Garve's betrayal displays clear flaws in O'Donnell's leadership. A bardic poet claimed that young O’Donnell was arrogant in his youth, and in need of maturity.

Family

O'Donnell family tree

Issue of Hugh McManus O'Donnell (Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill; c. 1520 - 1600) First marriage: Nuala O'Neill Joanna O'Donnell (Siobhán Ní Domhnaill) Died c. January 1591 Married Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone in June 1574 - marriage repudiated in 1579 - later reconfirmed Margaret O'Neill (fl. c. 1596) Married Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret shortly before 8 October 1596 Sarah O'Neill (fl. 1595–1602) Married Sir Arthur Roe Magennis before 4 March 1595 Mary O'Neill (fl. 1608) Married Brian McHugh Og MacMahon Alice O'Neill (1583 – c. 1665) Married Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim in 1604 Hugh O'Neill (c. 1585 – September 1609) Henry O'Neill (c. 1586 – 25 August 1610) Daughter (name unknown) Married a son of Turlough Lynagh O'Neill Duncan "Scaite" O'Donnell (Donnchadh Ó Domhnaill) Rory O'Donnell (Ruaidhri Ó Domhnaill) Died 1575 Donal O'Donnell (Domhnall Ó Domhnaill) Died 14 September 1590 Married a daughter of Turlough Lynagh O'Neill, c. 1588 Donnell Oge O'Donnell (died 5 September 1620) Second marriage, 1569: Fiona MacDonald (Fionnghuala Nic Dhomhnaill, also known as Iníon Dubh; fl. 1567–1611), daughter of James MacDonald, 6th of Dunnyveg and Agnes Campbell. Hugh Roe O'Donnell (Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill) Born 30 October 1572 Died 10 September 1602 Betrothed to Rose O'Neill, c. 1587 - married in December 1592 - separated in 1595 Rory O'Donnell (Ruaidrí Ó Domhnaill) Born 1575 Died 28 July 1608 Married Bridget FitzGerald, c. December 1606 Hugh Albert O'Donnell (October 1606 – 1642) Mary Stuart O'Donnell (c. 1607 – after 1639) Some sources incorrectly suggest that they had an elder daughter named Elizabeth (see Elizabeth_Plunket#Errors in her genealogy) Nuala O'Donnell (Nuala Ní Domhnaill) Born c. 1575 Died c. 1630 Married Niall Garve O'Donnell in 1591 - separated 1600 A son (c. 1596 – 1600) Child of unknown paternity: Grania O'Donnell (fl. 1607 - 1617) Children of Niall Garve, possibly by Nuala: Naghtan O'Donnell (died 1640) Manus O'Donnell (died 5 June 1646) George Hill mentions Naghtan having two younger brothers (see Niall_Garve_O'Donnell#Family) Manus O'Donnell (Maghnus Ó Domhnaill) Born c. 1579 Died 22 October 1600 Margaret O'Donnell (Mairghead Ní Domhnaill) fl. 1608, possibly died 1662 Mary O'Donnell (Máire Ní Domhnaill) Died 1662 Married Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan c. 1593 Rory Oge O'Cahan A daughter Married Teigue O'Rourke in 1599 Brian O'Rourke (born 1599) Hugh O'Rourke (born c. 1600) Caffar O'Donnell (Cathbarr Ó Domhnaill) Born c. 1583 Died 15 September 1608 Hugh O'Donnell (c. June 1605 – 1625) Relationship with an unmarried woman Conn O'Donnell (fl. 1608–1629) Gráinne O'Donnell (Gráinne Ní Domhnaill)

Legacy

Monument to the Four Masters, located at the bridge over the Drowes River near Kinlough, County Leitrim.

Red Hugh O'Donnell was highly praised in the Irish language chronicles of the era, the Renaissance Latin histories of Philip O'Sullivan Beare, and centuries of subsequent Irish bardic poetry for his personal commitment to the honour code of an Irish clan chief and, during the same era as the Irish Catholic Martyrs, his determined defense of the Catholic Church in Ireland against the religious persecution ordered by Queen Elizabeth I. Most notably, the Annals of the Four Masters, which was compiled between 1632 and 1636, either in a cottage beside the ruins of Donegal Abbey and just outside of Donegal Town or in a Franciscan house of refuge beside the River Drowes in County Leitrim and just outside Ballyshannon by Friars Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire and Cú Choigríche Ó Duibhgeannáin, is a highly important source about his life from the perspective of Gaelic Ireland.

Also, the Classical Gaelic saga Beatha Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill ("The Life of Red Hugh O'Donnell") by Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh, one of the five sons of Maccon Ó Cléirigh, the former official bard to the Chief of Clan O'Donnell, is another highly important source for Red Hugh's life and times. According to historian Hiram Morgan, "When Spanish interest in Ireland was renewed again in the Anglo-Spanish war of 1625–31, Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh wrote a biography of Red Hugh in the anachronistic style, placing him in a vaunted role in the Nine Years War in the hope of another O'Donnell leading the recovery of Ireland. In fashioning this bellicose Irish hero, Ó Cléirigh deliberately marginalised the role of O'Neill in the war."

This, according to James Henthorn Todd, would not at all have been unusual, however. In his introduction to the 1867 edition of Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, Todd explained, "It was unfortunately the custom of Irish scribes to take considerable liberties with the works they transcribed. They did not hesitate to insert poems or other additional matter, with a view to gratify their patrons or chieftains, and to flatter the vanity of their clan. It is to be feared, that for the same reason, they frequently omitted what might be disagreeable to their patrons, or scandalous to the Church; thus they were guilty of anachronisms and various mistakes, which have the effect of throwing discredit upon the works so transmitted to us, as disproving apparently their claim to antiquity."

At the same time, although Hugh Roe O'Donnell's posthumous reputation has been overshadowed in recent Irish nationalism by that of Hugh O'Neill, Red Hugh's leadership and tactical abilities were quite considerable, especially when considering that he was only 29 years old at the Battle of Kinsale in 1602. His personal charisma seems to have been particularly magnetic, and contemporary sources are united in their praise of his oratorical ability.

In 1977, the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Guild was formed to seek his Cause for Canonization as a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. His current title is Servant of God.

In the early 1980s, O'Donnell's will was discovered by a Donegal priest.

Art O'Neill's cross

In 1991, a plaque was erected at Simancas Castle in commemoration of Red Hugh O'Donnell. A large cross in honour of Art MacShane O'Neill stands near the site of his death and secret burial in the Wicklow Mountains. Red Hugh and Art's 55 km. escape route from Dublin Castle to Glenmalure is also retraced by long-distance runners every January in "Art O'Neill's Challenge".

A sculpture by Maurice Harron, titled The Gaelic Chieftan, was unveiled in 1999 near Boyle, County Roscommon. Overlooking the N4, the sculpture depicts O'Donnell on horseback and commemorates his victory at the battle of Curlew Pass.

Despite attempts to uncover the exact location of O'Donnell's grave in Simancas, it has not been discovered.

Physical appearance

According to historian Jane Ohlmeyer, "There is no extant portrait or visual representation of Red Hugh though a contemporary suggested that he was 'above middle height, strong, handsome, well built.'" O'Donnell's contemporary, the Franciscan Donagh O’Mooney, described him as of “middle height, ruddy, of comely face, and beautiful to behold... his voice was like the music of a silver trumpet".

In popular culture

• The Irish language and Sean-nós song Róisín Dubh, which remains one of the most popular Irish rebel songs ever written, is addressed in Red Hugh's voice to his wife Róisín. The song is believed to have its origins in the rebel encampments during the Nine Years War, and has been attributed to a Tyrconnellian poet under the reign of Red Hugh. Conversely, music scholar Donal O'Sullivan claims there is no evidence it was composed that early.
• In 1843, Michael Joseph MacCann wrote the song O'Donnell Abu in tribute, drawing on the tradition of romantic nationalism which was popular during the era.
• In his 1861 poem Eirinn a' Gul ("Ireland Weeping"), Uilleam Mac Dhunlèibhe, an important figure in 19th century Scottish Gaelic literature, recalled the many stories about his fellow Gaels in Inis Fáil (Ireland) he had heard in the Ceilidh houses of Islay, before that island was emptied by the Highland Clearances. He then lamented the destruction wreaked upon the Irish people by both famine and similar mass evictions ordered by Anglo-Irish landlords. He particularly laments the loss of the chiefs of the Irish clans, who led their clansmen in war and provided "leadership of the old and true Gaelic kind". Mac Dhun Lèibhe comments sadly that the mid-19th century fighters for Irish republicanism had none of the heroic qualities shown by Red Hugh O'Donnell, Hugh O'Neill, and Hugh Maguire during the Nine Years War against Queen Elizabeth I. Sadly, but expressing hope for the future of the Irish people, Mac Dhun Lèibhe closes by asking where are the Irish clan warriors who charged out of the mist and slaughtered the armies of the Stranger at the Battle of the Yellow Ford and the Battle of Moyry Pass.
• Aodh Ruadh CLG in Ballyshannon and Red Hughs Gaelic Athletic Association club at Crossroads, Killygordon, are named after Red Hugh O'Donnell.
• He is the subject of James Clarence Mangan's poem Ceann Salla.
• Hugh O'Donnell is the subject of the Irish ballad "If These Stones Could Speak", as featured on the Phil Coulter album Highland Cathedral.
• Hugh O'Donnell serves as the main character in the 1966 Walt Disney feature film The Fighting Prince of Donegal in which he is portrayed by Peter McEnery.
• O'Donnell is a major character in Brian Friel's 1989 play Making History. According to historian Jane Ohlmeyer, "Friel portrayed the youthful Red Hugh as fiery, headstrong, quick-witted, passionate, committed to Catholicism, and to the preservation of the values, language, and culture of the Gaelic world into which he had been born and reared... Though limited and often biased against Red Hugh, extant historical records largely validate Friel’s representation. They also recapture the complexities of Red Hugh’s highly militarised world, where local lords raided for cattle and reduced neighbouring lords to submission, and show Red Hugh to be a wily negotiator, an effective and pragmatic power broker, and a brave soldier." In its original production, O'Donnell was played by Peter Gowen.
• In 1992, commemorating the 390th anniversary of the arrival of O'Donnell in Galicia, the Grammy Award-winning composer of Riverdance, Bill Whelan, brought together musicians from both Ireland and Galicia to perform his newest symphony From Kinsale to Corunna.

See also

• O'Donnell
• Irish kings
• Tyrconnell
• County Donegal
• Kings of Tir Connaill
• Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691

References

Primary sources

• Annals of the Four Masters. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. 2008 [1636].
• Brewer, John Sherren; Bullen, William, eds. (1870), The Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, 1601–1603, London, p. 350{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Meehan, Charles Patrick (1870). The Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries (3 ed.). Dublin: J. Duffy.
• McNeill, Charles (1930). "Rawlinson Manuscripts (Class A)". Analecta Hibernica (1): 12–117. ISSN 0791-6167.
• Murphy, Reverend Denis (1893), "Translation, Notes, and Illustrations", The Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, with Historical Introduction, Dublin{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• O'Clery, Lughaidh; O'Clery, Cucogry; Murphy, Denis (1895). Beatha Aodha Ruaidh ui Dhomhnaill. The life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, prince of Tirconnell (1586-1602). Boston College Libraries. Dublin, Fallon.
• O'Sullivan Beare, Philip (1903). Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth. Translated by Byrne, Matthew J. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024.

Secondary sources

• Canny, Nicholas (7 June 2022). "Hugh O'Neill in Irish historical discourse, c.1550–2021". Irish Historical Studies. 46 (169): 25–51. doi:10.1017/ihs.2022.2. ISSN 0021-1214.

• Dalton, G. F. (1974). "The Tradition of Blood Sacrifice to the Goddess Éire". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 63 (252): 343–354. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30088757.
• Ekin, Des (2014). The Last Armada: Siege of 100 Days - Kinsale 1601. O'Brien Press.
• Ekin, Des (2015). The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Aguila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion. Pegasus Books.
• Ellis, Peter Berresford (2002). Erin's Blood Royal: The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland. Palgrave.
• Finnegan, David (2007). "Niall Garbh O'Donnell and the Rebellion of Sir Cahir O'Doherty" (PDF). Donegal Annual (59): 60–82. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
• Healy, Patrick (1977). "Skipper's Alley". Dublin Historical Record. 31 (1): 33–37. ISSN 0012-6861. JSTOR 30104029.
• Klossner, Michael (2002). The Europe of 1500–1815 on Film and Television: A Worldwide Filmography of Over 2550 Works, 1895 Through 2000. McFarland & Company.
• McGee, Thomas D'Arcy (2008), "Chapter 10 Mountjoys Administration", A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics: Book 8, archived from the original on 12 August 2007 (audio book)
• McGettigan, Darren (2005). Red Hugh O'Donnell and the Nine Years War. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-8518-2887-6. OL 11952048M.
• McGinty, Matthew (2013), O’Neill, O’Donnell and the Nine Years War (PDF), retrieved 20 September 2024
• McGurk, John (2006), Sir Henry Docwra, 1564–1631: Derry's Second Founder, Four Courts Press
• Meek, Donald E., ed. (2019). The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse. Birlinn Limited.
• Morgan, Hiram (1993). Tyrone's Rebellion: The outbreak of the Nine Years' War in Tudor Ireland. London: The Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-683-5.
• Morgan, Hiram (2002). Ó Riain, Pádraig (ed.). "The Real Red Hugh". Irish Texts Society. London: 1–35.
• Morgan, Hiram (1 April 2006). 'The Pope's new invention': the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Ireland, 1583-1782 (PDF).
• O'Donnell, Timothy T. (2001). Swords Around the Cross: Ireland's Defense of Faith and Fatherland 1594-1603. Christendom Press.
• O'Neill, James (2017). The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781846827549.
• O’Neill, James (2020). "Red Hugh O'Donnell, Tirconnell's missing lord—: but for how long?". History Ireland. 28 (4): 6–7. ISSN 0791-8224.
• Starke, Shirley (1984). Red Hugh: The Story of Hugh Roe O'Donnell (PDF). Valley City, North Dakota: The Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Guild.
• Walsh, Paul (1922). "Hugh Roe O'Donnell's Sisters". The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. XIX. Dublin: 358–364.

• Walsh, Paul (1930). Walsh, Paul (ed.). The Will and Family of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone [with an Appendix of Genealogies] (PDF). Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 May 2024.

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "O'Donnell s.v. Hugh Roe O'Donnell". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 7–8.
• Dunlop, Robert (1894). "O'Donnell, Hugh Roe" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. pp. 436–440.

Further reading

• Charles Patrick Meehan (1870), Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries and Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century, James Duffy & Sons, Dublin.
• The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell – A Hidden Legacy, by Francis Martin O'Donnell, published by Academica Press LLC in London and Washington, D.C., 2018, (750 pages) (ISBN 978-1-680534740).
• 'Simancas Castle Address', Adhamhnan O Domhnaill, Journal of Donegal Historical Society, pp. 94–96
• 'Niall Garbh O'Donnell – A man more sinned against than sinning', Eunan O'Donnell, BL, Journal of the Donegal Historical Society, 2000 & 1941.
• The Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnell (Beatha Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill) by Lughaidh O'Cleirigh. Edited by Paul Walsh and Colm Ó Lochlainn. Irish Texts Society, vol. 42. Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland, 1948 (original Gaelic manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin).
• Red Hugh: Prince of Donegal, by Robert T. Reilly, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1957.
• O'Donel of Destiny, by Mary Kiely, Oxford, New York, 1939 (a narrative history for older children).
• Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) by the Four Masters, from the earliest period to the year 1616, compiled during the period 1632–1636 by Brother Michael O’Clery, translated and edited by John O'Donovan in 1856, and re-published in 1998 by De Burca, Dublin.
• A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies established in Ireland, by William Lynch, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster Row, London, 1830 (O’Donnell: p. 190, remainder to Earl's patent).
• Vicissitudes of Families, by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, published by Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, Paternoster Row, London, 1861. (Chapter on O’Donnells, pp. 125–148).
• The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone (Hugh O’Neill) and Tyrconnel (Rory O’Donel), their flight from Ireland and death in exile, by the Rev. C. P. Meehan, M.R.I.A., 2nd ed., James Duffy, London, 1870.
• Elizabeth's Irish Wars, by Cyril Falls, London, 1950.
• Erin's Blood Royal – The Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland, by Peter Berresford Ellis, Constable, London, 1999, (pp. 251–258 on the O'Donel, Prince of Tirconnell).
• Red Hugh: The Story of Hugh Roe O'Donnell by Shirley D. Starke, The Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill Guild, 1985.
• Red Hugh by Deborah Lisson, Bunbury Western Australia, 1998, Lothian Books.

External links

• The Life of Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill, transcribed from the Book of Lughaidh Ó Clérigh
• The Hugh O'Donnell Guild
• The O'Donnell Coat of Arms and Family History
• Aodh Rua Ó Domhnaill Genealogy