The Last O'Leary Chieftain.
Donal MacArt (1575 -1657)
by Peter O'Leary.
Donal MacArt was the last elected chieftain of
the O'Leary people. Raised to this office in
1638, he survived as effective and fully
operating chieftain until the 10 years war,
(1640-1650), and the Cromwellian settlement
which followed it. This settlement destroyed
most of the ancient Gaelic system, including the
election and rule of the chieftains. Even after
the return of King Charles ll in 1660, there was
no full revival of the old systems, and the
Williamite war of 1689 finally put an end to all
the former Gaelic traditions including the
demise of the O'Leary and other chieftainries.
Donal - born in 1575:
Donal was
born in 1575 in Uibh Laoghaire. His father
was Art O Laoghaire of Carrignaneelagh. and his
wife, Margaret Ní Mhoroghie of Currabig.
Donal was only the third son. His father, the
eldest son of the previous chieftain, Conchobhar
of Mannen, had succeeded to the chieftaincy
three years previously in 1572, and at his
election there was the usual redistribution of
land which gave him the temporary ownership of a
huge piece of property, including what had now
become the chieftains tower house in
Carrignaneelagh.
The eldest son of Art
and Margaret, named Tadhg, was one of the
victims of the terrible slaughter of the
O'Learys at the hands of the MacCarthy Maol
Reaghs and the O'Crowleys at the cattle raid and
"battle" of Ahakeera in 1601.
Art's second son, Conchobhar, also died some
time between 1612 and 1620, leaving the third
son, Donal as the heir.
Art deposed
on the grounds of "incapacity":
In
1593 Art was deposed from his chieftainry, on
the grounds of "incapacity". This may have meant
sickness, but Art was in his 60s, a mild and
considerate man, and it is more likely that he
did not conform to the aggressive military
requirements which Hugh O'Neill was demanding
from the Gaelic peoples in preparation for the
great war to finally drive out the English
usurpers.
Art was succeeded as O'Leary by
his younger brother, Amhlaoibh Ruadh, a red
haired, aggressive and fiery leader much more in
tune with the O'Neill army. Unfortunately his
peppery nature proved his undoing. He was also
killed at Ahakeera leading his men into battle
against MacCarthy Maol. To be slain in this
manner, without the consent of the Queen's
President, would have resulted in the
confiscation of all O'Leary lands, so a little
deception was agreed upon. It was put about that
Amhlaoich had been wounded in the battle, and
some time later it was announced that he had
died a natural death.
So later in the
year of 1601 the O'Learys met again to elect a
new chieftain, and this time it was the turn of
the fourth son of Conchobhar of Mannen,
Donnchadh an Ghaorthaidh, who was chosen
and who received the white rod from Cormac
macDermod MacCarthy of Blarney and Macroom,
liege lord of the O'Learys.
Donnchadh had
a long and successful time as chieftain, living
until 1638, and dying just in time to avoid the
ten years war. On his election he moved into the
old O'Leary stronghold of Mannen, where
Inchigeelagh National School now stands.
This was a large ringfort and house which had
been the home of O'Leary in earlier times up to
the 15th.c. when the first tower house was built
at Carrignacurra.
Surrender and
Regrant:
An odd situation had arisen as a
result of "Surrender and Regrant". This English
imposed law was intended to weaken the Gaelic
order, and was widely welcomed by chieftains who
only saw in it a means of strengthening their
own branch of the family. The tower houses
became the personal property of the incumbent at
the time, whereas previously, like all property,
they had been owned by the Clan in general, and
occupied by the current chieftain and his
tanaiste.
After the "Composition of 1593"
those in occupancy of a tower house became its
legal owner. So when Donnchadh was elected in
1601, his cousins, Conchobhar macArt and Tadhg
Dermod Meirgeach, hung on grimly to their tower
houses at Carrignaneelagh and Carrignacurra,
leaving Donnchadh without this symbol of his
authority.
Tower House in Dromcarra:
This position was eventually corrected by
Donnchadh building himself a new tower house on
his land at Dromcarra. It was smaller than the
other two, but no doubt honour was satisfied.
The tower house in Dromcarra was completed in
1625, and stood, albeit in ruins, until
1966 when it was "knocked" by its owner because
he deemed it to be unsafe.
So far in our
story it has seemed that the chieftaincy of the
O'Learys had become hereditary as with many
other families. That this was not so was proved
in 1638 when Donnchadh died and the clan
reverted to a previous line and elected his
first cousin, Donal macArt. This despite the
fact that Donnchadh had a further brother,
Diarmaid Ruadh, and two sons, Amhlaoich of
Dromcarra and Conchobhar of East Graigue, who
were passed over.
Donal was 63 when he
achieved the chieftaincy. He then became the
lord of 13 townlands and some 3,000 acres
of the best land in the Parish, mostly on the
North Eastern strip lying to the South of the
River Toon. His income from rentals was £30 pa.
which would be the equivalent of about £60,000
in todays money.
1641:
But there
were dark clouds on the horizen. Three years
later, in 1641, there was a massive and
universal uprising throughout the Country. The
opportunity had come for all Irishmen, Gaelic
and Anglo-Norman, to unite against English
rule, by supporting an English King, Charles 1
against the forces of his Parliament, later to
be lead by the infamous Cromwell.
As the
storm clouds were gathering in 1641, popular
leaders were established in each area, and Lord
Muskerry, Donoch MacCarthy of Blarney,
raised the flag in his territory. He started by
summonsing a meeting to Blarney castle of
delegates from each sept who could provide men
and horses for the new army to be created. The
newly created O'Leary, Donal went along, and
took with him his tanaiste, Conchobhar Meirgeach
of Carrignacurra. Conchobhar seems to have been
the more dynamic, and made more impact on the
meeting. Reports of the occasion describe them
as "Conor, O'Leary of Carrignacurra, and his
brother Daniel". They were in fact second
cousins, and Donal was of course the senior.
The united front was to be represented in
the Country at large, by the Confederation, a
gathering of representatives of all the people,
which initially met in Kilkenny in May 1642.
Donal is mentioned amongst the delegates at the
General Assembly, where he was representing the
O Learys.
Sadly for Ireland the
Confederation was not a success, as factions
arose and no common agreement could be
found.between the splinter groups. Whilst the
supporters of O'Neill, Rinuccini, Preston,
Ormonde etc. squabbled amongst themselves, the
Parliamentary army in England were slowly but
surely grinding the Kings armies to defeat, and
eventually the King to the gallows. Then this
seasoned and experienced army were turned on
Ireland, under their General, Cromwell, to wreak
vengeance for the uprising, and to confiscate
the land of all Irishmen, Gaelic or
Anglo-Norman, and redistribute it amongst the
unpaid troopers and the Adventurers who had put
up the money for weapons.
"Sent
to Connacht":
In actual fact only the
large landowners, and heads of clans, were "sent
to Connacht", the smaller tenant farmers being
required to remain as labourers on the land.
Donal was amongst them, and at the age of 80 and
accompanied by his second son , Dermod, was
transplanted in 1655 to Ballymacdonellane in
County Clare. His third son, Tadhg was sent to
Killclogher in County Clare where he appears as
a titulado in 1659.
Dermod, the second
son featured in a curious incident in 1641 at
the start of the war. Large numbers of
dispossessed English settlers were trying to get
back to England with such of their property as
they could carry. O'Donovan of Castle Donovan
had arranged a convoy to escort one of these
parties, and Dermod was one of the escorting
officers. After the war he was accused, with
others, of robbing some of the settlers. They
were tried but there was insufficient evidence
and no convictions.
Meanwhile in Uibh
Laoghaire the lands of the O'Learys were divided
up and awarded to soldiers as back pay. The
other landowners could stay on as tenants under
the new owners or as labourers. Some did not
chose to do either, and large gangs of "Tories"
or landless men, gathered in the mountains
around Gougane, including many O'Learys but none
that we know from Donal MacArt's family.
Old Donal died in Connacht some time between
1655 and the Restoration in 1660. Historians
have had considerable confusion about these
events. They have overlooked the fact that
Donal's eldest son was also called Donal, and
have tended to merge the two men into one, thus
making the life span of the elder Donal stretch
off into the 1689 period when he would have been
an active 114 had he survived.
Charles 11:
In 1660 when Charles ll was restored to his late
father's throne, there was a general belief that
the land would now revert to its previous
ownership. The owners in 1641, or in many cases
their sons, flocked back to their patrimony in
1660. Amongst these was "young" Donal óg, now
himself aged 55, who moved into his fathers
lands of Gortsmorane, Kilbarry, Carrignaneelagh
etc. The tower house had been garrisoned
during the occupation by Cromwellian troops, but
they had "slighted" it on leaving. Nevertheless
it was capable of being lived in.
The
true facts turned out to be very different.
Charles had largely been restored by Protestant
Parliamentary leaders such as Monk, and they had
obtained guarantees of continued ownership of
their ill-gotten lands. Charles, like most of
the Stuarts was a weak man who could not take
difficult decisions like this. The Cromwellian
settlement largely remained, and his loyal
Royalist followers had to suffer, whilst his
previous enemies gained.
Donal óg had
moved into his fathers old lands, and in 1677 he
managed to obtain a 99 years lease of these
lands from their new owner, no other than Lord
Muskerry. This sort of thing was possible
because most of the soldiers did not actually
want to live in Ireland but only to turn their
property into cash and return whence they came.
And Lord Muskerry was one of the few great Lords
who were exempted from the general situation and
had their properties restored to them.
Twenty nine short years after, all this changed.
Once more the Irish people supported a Stuart
King in his struggle against his own people, and
once more they lost. This time it was James ll,
Charles brother, and this time they were
supporting a Catholic King who, they thought,
would right all the Protestant wrongs. But James
lost the military contest with William, and fled
to France deserting his Catholic Irish
supporters.
Donal óg, who was born in
about 1605, did not live to see this latest
disaster. In 1700 the Land Court at Chichester
House examined all the tenancies and most,
including his, were declared unsound and were
forfeited to the Crown. The freeholds of the
lands of Uibh Laoghaire were granted to
the Hollow Sword Blade Company to settle their
debts for financing the war. A few tenancies
were validated, but most went to new tenants of
the choosing of the new landlords. By and large
these were not O'Learys, who were regarded with
suspicion that they might get above themselves.
Donal óg and his eldest son, Arthur, were
never elected as chieftains, but they and their
successors called themselves "O'Leary", and were
regarded as such by the local people in the
Milstreet area.. Arthur was a Captain in King
James' army in 1689. He went to Millstreet
with his sister Juliana, where she was married
to old Colonel Owen MacCarthy of Drishane, and
the family stayed there for three further
generations until Denis O'Leary could only
produce one heir, his daughter Helen, thus
bringing this branch to an end.