Owen Connolly, Hugh Og MacMachon and the 1641 Rebellion in Clogher

Type:

Book Chapter

Published:

2015

Publisher:

Routledge

On his death in 1629, Sir George Carew, former Lord President of Munster, bequeathed his manuscripts and books to Sir Thomas Stafford, his former secretary and possible illegitimate son. Drawing upon these documents, Stafford edited and published Pacata Hibernia , which gave Carew's account of the defeat of Hugh O'Neill in 1601 at Kinsale. According to Carew's narrative, on 22 December, Brian MacHugh Og MacMahon, a principal commander in the Irish army … sent a boy unto Captain William Taffe, praying him to speak unto the Lord President to bestow upon him a bottle of Aquavitae, which the President for old acquaintance sent unto him; the next night being the three and twentieth, by the same messenger he sent him a letter, praying him to recommend his love unto the President, thanks for the Aquavitae and to wish him the next night following to stand well upon his guard, for himself was at the Councell, wherein it was resolved, that on the night aforesaid (towards the breake of day) the Lord Deputie's Camp would be assaulted, both by Tyrone's armie (which lay at their backs) and by the Spanyards from the Towne, who upon the first Allarme would be in readinesse to sally. Whereupon the Lord Deputy gave order to strengthen the ordinary guards and put the rest of the army in readinesse. It is of remarkable symmetry that some forty years later, on the night of 22 October 1641, Brian's son, Hugh Og MacMahon, drunkenly informed his foster-brother Owen Connolly, a Protestant convert,…

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