O’CLERY, Lughaidh. Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Ui Domhnaill, The Life of Hugh Roe O’Donnell, Prince of Tirconnell (1586-1602), by Lughaidh O’Clery.

Now for the first time published from Cucogry O’Clery’s Irish Manuscripts in the R. I. Academy, with historical introduction, translation, notes, and illustrations by Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. Frontispiece from the original manuscript. Dublin: Fallon and Co., 1895. Quarto. pp. clviii, 338. Maroon blind-stamped cloth, title in gilt on spine. Previous owner’s ex libris of front free endpaper. Spine professionally rebacked. Ex libris Kimmage Manor with neat oval stamps. A very good copy. Scarce.
Hugh Roe O’Donnell, also known as Red Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602), was “The O’Donnell” and king of Tyrconnell. He led a rebellion against English government in Ireland from 1593 and helped to lead the Nine Years’ War against the Saxon of the Pale, from 1595 till his death. He is sometimes also known as Aodh Ruadh II or Red Hugh II, especially within County Donegal.
Hugh Roe O’Donnell was born to the Gaelic Lord of Tyrconnell, Sir Hugh O’Donnell, and his second wife, Ineen Dubh, in 1572. He had numerous brothers and sisters including Donnell, Rory and Cathbarr. Sir Hugh was a long-standing ally of the Crown, in attempt to counterbalance the power of Shane O’Neill and Turlough Luineach O’Neill the rulers of neighbouring Tyrone. In Sir Hugh’s later years, a long-running succession dispute broke out to determine who would succeed him. Although Ineen Dubh pushed the case for Hugh Roe to succeed, it was his elder half-brother Donnell who emerged as the leading candidate. The Crown chose to support Donnell as it regarded him as the rightful and most stable potential ruler, partly due to the fact that Donnell’s mother was a local woman while Hugh Roe’s was from Scotland.
Donnell was strengthened by the arrival of a small detachment of Royal Irish Army troops dispatched from Dublin under John Connill. Ineen Dubh countered this by hiring large numbers of Redshank mercenaries [Gallowglas] from her native Scotland who defeated and killed Donnell at the Battle of Doire Leathan in 1590, by which time Hugh Roe was a prisoner in Dublin. There were a number of other claimants to the O’Donnell title including Hugh Roe’s great uncle Hugh Dubh O’Donnell.
In 1587, at the age of fifteen, he was either married or betrothed to Rose O’Neill, the daughter of Hugh O’Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone. This cemented a growing alliance between the two men. The same year he was seized by Sir John Perrot, then the English Lord Deputy of Ireland, in an attempt to prevent an alliance between the O’Donnell and O’Neill clans. At Rathmullan O’Donnell was invited aboard a ship from Dublin to drink wine, but was then carried away as part of a pre-planned operation. Subsequently imprisoned in Dublin Castle O’Donnell escaped briefly in 1591 but was recaptured within days.
Hugh O’Donnell made his successful escape only in January 1592, assisted by his allies brothers Art and Hugh O’Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, who arranged for his flight from Dublin into the Wicklow Mountains in the depths of winter. O’Donnell successfully reached the stronghold of Fiach McHugh O’Byrne (another of O’Neill’s allies) at Glenmalure, where he found refuge, but he had lost both big toes to frostbite and his companion and fellow escapee Art O’Neill had died of exposure in the mountains. Hugh O’Donnell and his two companions, the brothers Art and Henry (Hugh) O’Neill, were the only prisoners ever to successfully escape captivity in Dublin Castle.

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