Current Newsletter

Nuachtán No.10 - January/Eanáir 2002

Web presence


Following uploading the Web page to the net we have continued to work on completing the site. The recently completed links page provides users of our site with one-way contacts to various genealogical and cultural web pages. Our links page will in time be added to. Once we are ready to publish the site we shall seek to compliment our efforts by obtaining corresponding links to our site from the various linked web pages. Ideally such links will encourage more traffic to our site.

Taking an over view of the web site the basic structure is almost complete. We have had over 1,000 hits on the site, despite the fact that we have not yet attended to publicity. As noted in the newsletter No. 9 the response at this stage is quite satisfactory. That still leaves the thorny question of incorporating a clan shop into the site. Whilst a shop page is something which would be desirable for the site, we continue to evaluate the question of site security. We hope to be able to report in depth on this in the next newsletter. Once the question of a shop page is resolved we propose to then fully publicise our presence and obtain increased traffic by developing corresponding links from other major web sites.

Extracting Indexes of Births, Deaths and Marriages for England and Wales

We have completed extracting the English and Welsh Marriage indexes to 1865 to 2000. The marriage index records post 1912 are cross-indexed against both parents and whilst we have the basic record for the Mullarkey spouse we still have to get the full names of the non Mullarkey spouse. Hence there is still a months work to complete the marriage information. With that completed we then hope to update our Births and Deaths records from 1999 to the year 2000. That will finally complete our extract of the official indexes for England and Wales for the period 1837 to 2000. The task of extracting these indexes has been very time consuming, commencing in 1996 and has involved a huge commitment of time and resources.

Extracting Indexes of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland

Despite our misgivings about the shortcomings in the British vital register records we have nevertheless made a start with extracting the indexes of Births, Deaths and Marriages from the official records for Scotland held at New Register House, 3 West Register Street, Edinburgh.

In Scotland the state registration records commenced in 1855, somewhat later than in England. Prior to official registration it was the church which was the principal source of vital records. As in England with the advent of the religious upheaval of Reformation, the Church of Scotland was allotted the task of registering all baptisms, marriages and funerals, including those of other denominations such as the Free Church and Roman Catholics. However there was considerable opposition to this not just on the grounds of religious conviction, but also because the registration system was costly. Hence Scottish Catholic records pre 1855 will inevitably be very incomplete. The oldest Scottish church register relates to baptisms and banns in 1553 for the parish of Errol in Perthshire. The task of maintaining church records was probably one of the most disliked tasks for clergymen and as with church records in England, the degree to which the paperwork was completed and records preserved depended very much on the aptitude of the parish incumbent at the time. Hence for some parishes the earliest registers date only from the early 19th century, while for others there may be no registers at all. Also, as populations shifted and cities started to develop in the 19th century, religion began to lose its hold. Perhaps as few as 30% of registerable events may have been recorded for certain urban parishes. It has to be remembered that that the flood of Irish emigration to Scotland just after the famine of 1846 was largely drawn to these same industrialised cities looking for employment generated by the industrial revolution in the Westlothian area.

As with our examination of Irish emigration into England, we are also unlikely to find official records for every Irish birth, death and marriage in Scotland, because of their suspicion of officialdom leading to the failure of many Irish to register such events. Nevertheless over the course of the next two years we shall extract the indexes of whatever records do exist for the years 1855 to 2000 in order to complete the official picture for Great Britain. Because Scotland has a smaller population than England, the records are held in annual rather than quarterly year books. Having to plough through just one quarter of the index books reviewed for England and Wales should cut down considerably on the time required to complete the task. Additionally the greater computerisation of Scottish vital records will further reduce the time required on the indexes. It would not be over-optimistic therefore to expect a far reduced time-scale against the 5 years spent on the indexes for England and Wales.

Many of the Old Counties of England are well known even abroad. The names of most of the historic English counties have remained even where boundaries have altered. There are of course exceptions to this. By contrast in Wales the Old County names have completely disappeared to be replaced by County names which more reflect the names of the native Celtic divisions of Wales. In the 1970's Scotland also went through the same large scale reformation of county boundaries and names. We list below some of the main Lowland and Highland changes.

Name Variants

The English and Welsh marriage records have helped us to begin to eliminate some names from the group of names within the Ó Maelearcaidh clan. In particular the group of names spelt variously as Maleki, Moleki, Molicki and other variants. These names suddenly appear in relatively large numbers from 1940 onwards and from the Christian names of the individuals involved, clearly refer to a mid European origin, perhaps Polish or Ukrainian. In preliminary examination of USA immigration records we also noted a Jan Malechy from Barek in Russia, a Boleslaw Malekhy from Gledbach in Russia and a Dotzek Malochey also from Russia. Both this Russian name and the above Polish name are almost certainly unrelated to our name, but are possibly connected to each other. This Slavic name appears to be pronounced 'Mal eki' and unlike our name has a very short e in the second syllable. Confusingly 19th century records may possibly include obscure spellings of our name which may incidentally be spelt identical to the Slavic name. Hence until we are positive about the background of such persons in 19th century records we cannot totally dismiss them. However the chances are that most such spellings do not relate to clan members.

Whilst on the subject of unrelated but similar names from other countries, we are also aware of an Italian surname Malacchi, which appears to have many similarities to the Irish Christian name Malachy.

Prima facie the combination of consonants and vowels which constitute our name may appear to be somewhat uncommon, but despite this there appear to be many similar, but unrelated names in many countries and occurring on various continents. In the Middle East there is a surname Malaky, examples of which occur in Turkey and the Lebanon. Perhaps through Islamic/ Arabic connections this name also appears to exist in the West African state of Nigeria. Is it possible that this name has a derivation from the Biblical name of the profit Malachy. We also have noted the name Maliki, Malicky etc. from the Indian subcontinent which could likewise be related to this middle east Muslim name. Perhaps the name Meleky from Lucsivna in Hungary is yet another name with some other derivation but could through close contacts with the old Ottoman empire be also have a middle east connection.

The unique elements in our name which distinguishes it from all the above is the long "a" vowel in the second syllable. The "a" is so long that it almost sounds like the English word "are," being the present participle of the verb "to be."

Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury

We have also continued to progress through the records of Wills and Administrations proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and preserved in the Principal Probate Registry, in London. This has not produced any additional records up to 1748.

Clan Tanistry

We continue to research whether Ó Maelearcaidh clan or any individual might have had a coat of arms. One line of research has been to try to establish whether during the era of the Brehon law, i.e. prior to the effective English control of Ireland, the Ó Maelearcaidh's constituted an independent clan in their own right, with their own clan chief. Were there record of the existence of a clan chief, then this would point to there being a petty Ó Maelearcaidh kingdom, with their own war flag/native coat of arms. There are various lists of clan chiefs, though none purport to be a complete list of all native chiefs. A source of lists are the 16th century records maintained by the English administration based in Dublin. They produced masses of State papers and Fiants. From these documents we have noted the following chiefs :

MacArtan (or MacCartan), MacAuliffe, MacAuley, MacCarthy Mór, MacCarthy Reagh, MacClancy, MacCoghlan, MacDermot of Coolavin, MacDermot Roe, MacDonagh, McDonnell of the Glens, MacGeoghegan, MacGillycuddy of the Reeks, MacGilpatrick (Fitzpatrick), MacGorman, MacGrath, MacGuinness, MacGuire, MacMorrough Kavanagh, MacKenna, MacKiernan, MacKinnane (Ford), MacLoughlin, MacMahon, MacManus, MacNamara, MacRory, O' Beirne, O' Boyle , O' Brennan, O' Brien of Thomond, O' Byrne, O' Cahan (Kane), O' Callaghan, O' Carroll, O' Clery, O' Connell, O' Connolly, O' Conor Don, O' Conor Faly, O' Conor Roe, O' Conor Sligo, O' Daly, O' Dempsey, O' Devlin, O' Doherty, O' Donell of Tirconnell, O' Donoghue of the Glens, O' Donovan, O' Dowd, O' Doyle, O' Driscoll, O' Dunn, O' Dwyer, O' Farrell, O' Flaherty, O' Folane, Fox ,O' Gara, O' Grady of Kilballyowen, O' Hagan, O' Hanlon, O' Hara, O' Heyne, O' Keeffe, O' Kelly of Gallagh, O' Kennedy, O' Loughlin, O' Madden, O' Mahony, O' Malley, O' Mannin, O' Melaghlin, O' Molloy, O' More, O' Morchoe, O' Mulryan (Ryan), O' Mulvey, O' Neill of Clanaboy, O' Neill (of Tyrone), O' Nolan, O' Phelan, O' Reilly, O' Rourke, O' Shaughnessy, O' Sheridan, O' Sullivan Beare, O' Sullivan Mór, and O' Toole of Fir Tire.

The failure to find an Ó Maelearcaidh record does not mean that there was no clan chief, or that the Ó Maelearcaidh's did not constitute a separate clan in their own right. English intelligence and reports about Ulster may have been less extensive in the more remoter parts of Ulster outside their control. A small Ulster clan might have been transparent to them. However we also have to consider that lack of such a record may indicate our origins may be no more than as a splinter from one of the more powerful clans such as the Ó Domhnaill's. Perhaps an Ó Domhnaill with the Christian name of Maelearcaidh achieved skilled artisan status, a quasi noble position called Bó Aire. He may have given rise to a dynasty, with aspiration for their own advancement. In time they may have tried to separate into a distinct surname, especially at a time when Ulster was under pressure from the English and when Brehon laws were weakened as in the in the 16th century. In such a scenario there might never have been an Ó Maelearcaidh clan chief. This would also imply there was no separate war flag or coat of arms. If correct our clan would have simply followed the O' Domhnaill overlord and fought under his banner. The latter case has a considerable ring of plausibility. This might explain the apparent contradictions in supposed coats of arms for our clan touted by businesses advertising on the Internet. The suspicion must be that any claim to a native coat of arms is likely to be bogus. We shall nevertheless continue to lookout for further information in this regard.

The historical context in which the Ó Maelearcaidh clan developed in Ireland - Series Issue No. 10

We set out below part 10 of our short Irish history series. In order to place the Ó Maelearcaidh clan data into it's historical and sociological context we shall over several issues set out a history of Ireland, covering the period from approximately 1140 to the early 1800's. Within the context of a general history, we shall provide a more detailed account of events between 1500 and 1700, as this was the defining period during which the Gaelic order, the clan system and culture underpinning it were transformed into the proto system and culture of the modern day.

Aftermath of the Armada

By the time of the Armada, the New English had tempered their policy towards the Irish, into something closer to the Old English approach. By supporting clans favourable to the Dublin authorities and passing judgments over inter clan land arguments, they helped along the process of dividing the Gael. In particular the land judgments resulted in the break up of large clan land holdings into much smaller units, between rival claimants. The strategic plan behind this was that by dividing the Irish with such judgments Dublin could play the Irish against each other, weaken their will to resist the extending Dublin's authority and thus gain better control of the regions. It would also ensure that by dividing the wealth of the Irish aristocracy into smaller units, there would be fewer native noble with the resources to wage war on the English, or to resist the new regime. Dublin entrenched this control over the Gael by the application of localised military intervention. As a result the provinces of Munster and Connacht finally fell under the effective control of their English Governors. Even the Ulster Irish were sufficiently intimidated from making raids into the Pale by the threat of what might result from such attacks. The optimism of the English was palpable that their unified strategy would soon succeed in bringing all of the regions under Dublin control.

Hence the near hysteria in the ranks of both Old and New English alike when the scattered Armada ships sailed in Irish waters. In a knee-jerk reaction the authorities placed English garrisons all over Ireland on a state of high alert. Their fear was that Armada ships might land in Ireland in numbers and if they linked up with Gaelic allies, they might instigate rebellion throughout Ireland. It was even possible that the theoretical pan-Gaelic threat might come real. Who knew what the Gael, armed with huge quantities of the latest firearms and united under Spanish leadership might achieve? The fears were groundless. But this did not lessen the perceived threat. Whilst in some places where ships went aground, the Spaniards did indeed manage to get ashore in reasonable strength, their aim was always to acquire new vessels to get back to Spain.

The English Lord Deputy in Ireland, Sir William FitzWilliam reported his fears to London, complaining he had less than 2,000 soldiers in Ireland at his disposal to defend an Armada invasion. With no help forthcoming a chilling order was issued by FitzWilliam. Any Spaniards coming ashore were to be executed, no matter who they were and torture was to be exercised on the natives to find Spaniards, who might be in hiding.

Don Alonso de Luzon in charge of the La Trinidad Valencera and Commander of the regiment of Naples was forced to give orders to abandon ship off the Inishowen peninsula. The area of Inishowen was very poor, but the local Ó Dochartaigh clan, at great risk to themselves, did their best for the survivors. Don Alonso decided to push south towards the lands of Somhairle MacDonnell, where he hoped to get help to cross to neutral Scotland. His 350 men consisting of Spaniards, Neapolitans, Greeks and Dalmations, unaware of the danger to them should they be captured, set out with banners flying and drums beating.

On route to the Antrim glens they were intercepted by a Major John Kelly, with a troop of Irish soldiers in English pay. Kelly may have got his intelligence about the Spaniards from Aoidh Ó Néill, Earl of Tyrone, who had probably hoped to ingratiate himself with the Dublin authorities. Ó Néill may not have realised the fait in store for the unfortunate Spaniards, as he latter helped some Spaniards. Nevertheless his actions show that, at this time, Ó Néill either feared or supported the English. Don Alonso not wishing to loose men needlessly, surrendered to Kelly. Alonso and his officers found themselves separated from the others. The ordinary soldiers and sailors were robbed, stripped and then cruelly led to a field where the Irish troops tried to murder them all. A few survivors of the atrocity were latter helped by Ó Cahans and MacDonnells to get to the Netherlands via Scotland to recount their ordeal. Kelly force marched the officers over a hundred miles to Drogheda, resulting in more deaths. There Don Alonso and several others were ransomed and ultimately managed to survive the ordeal.

Another Armada ship the San Estaban was wrecked off the coast of Clare, with a loss of 300 on board. The 60 or so survivors including the aristocrat, Don Felipe de Córdoba, with a handful from another ship were hanged by the Sheriff of Clare, Boetius Clancy. Tradition has it that Clancy's name was cursed in the church in Don Felipe's home town every seventh year, so that his soul would never leave Purgatory.

In some parts of Mayo survivors received a very hostile welcome from the Irish. In one incident The El Gran Grin went aground off Clare island in Mayo. Some 200 men drowned, but about 100 got ashore. They became prisoners of the local Irish chief, Dowdarra Roe O'Malley. The Spaniards made an escape bid, but O'Malley caught them and killed some 64 escapees, including Don Pedro de Mendoza, their most senior surviving officer. In another incident seventy two Spaniards were captured by William Burke of Ardnary, in the Barony of Tirawley, and a Melaghlin McCabb is claimed to have killed some eighty Spaniards with his galloglass axe.

In yet another incident three Spanish ships were lost in the same bay off the Donegal coast. In total a thousand men lost their lives. The survivors, some three hundred men, were washed ashore, only to be stripped of clothes and possessions, as hundreds of local Irish and English militia came down to the beach to plunder the wrecks. Locals hid a few of the survivors from the English cavalry patrols, who continued to search through the night for Spaniards washed up amongst the dunes.

Don Alonso Martínez de Leiva was shipwrecked off Blacksod Bay in County Mayo. He was the number two in command of the Armada. Despite the conditions, he managed to get his men ashore in good order. There they learned of another Armada ship anchored nearby. Don Alonso marched his men across land to unite the crews. Encouraged by their good fortune, they made good the second ship and sailed north. At this point their luck temporarily ran out, as the ship ran aground off the Donegal coast. Despite suffering a broken leg, Don Alonso miraculously got his men safely ashore. Once on land, they took refuge in an abandoned castle on lands of the Gaelic lord Mac Suibhne Banagh. Fearing attack from both the roaming bands of English Militia and local Irish opportunists, they dug in to create a defensive position. Incredibly once again word came that there was yet another Armada ship, the Girona, at anchor off Killybegs, some 20 miles away. Exhausted but trusting in their commander, the Spaniards broke camp. With help from the local Irish chieftain MacSuibhne they marched to Killybegs, carrying the injured Don Alonso in a litter. At Killybegs the port became a hive of activity, as the combined crews, with assistance of MacSuibhne's men, worked for 7 days to repair the Girona. With the work complete, a total of 1,300 Spaniards expectantly set sail for Scotland. They rewarded MacSuibhne with their surplus supplies, together with a great store of weapons and ammunition for use against the English. But there was no happy end to this remarkable story. In the stormy Donegal waters the Girona's jury rudder failed and the ship went aground at Bunboyes near Dunluce with massive loss of life. Less than ten survivors got ashore.

The Armada disaster deepened as other hulks sank. The Falcon Blanco Mediano was wrecked off the Galway coast. Initially the survivors were protected from the English by the O'Flaherties, but under threat of Sir Richard Bingham, the English Governor of Connacht, they were obliged to surrender the Spaniards to him. On the personal order of Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, all except for two aristocrats, Don Luis de Cordoba and his nephew were hanged. Sir Richard Bingham, nick-named the "Flail of Connaught", boasted to have hung over 1,100 Armada survivors.

A few of the independent Gaelic Lords gave refuge to Spanish survivors. One such lord, Briain Ó Rourke of Breiffne, who had been at war with the English for some time, arranged for the survivors of the San Juan, the Lavia and the Santa Maria de Vision to be looked after by the MacClancy clan. In October 1588 information of this reached the Dublin authorities via their spy network. Determined to capture the Spaniards and punish the MacClancy's, Lord Deputy FitzWilliam himself raced across Ireland, with some 800 troops to attack the Mac Clancy's castle. Faced with apparent defeat, the MacClancy's opted to flee to the mountains, but the Spaniards refused to run with them. The castle was set on an island and in a good defensive position. Despite the siege the Spaniards successfully held out until the winter set in. Then the worsening weather forced FitzWilliam to retreat back to the comfort of Dublin. When the MacClancy's returned and found the Spaniards still alive, they were astonished and highly impressed. The chief of the MacClancy's offered his sister in marriage to Captain de Cuellar, the commander of the Spaniards. But de Cuellar knew it was only a matter of time before the English would return with much greater force. Instead he chose to head for Derry, from where he might get a ship to Scotland. With the help of ordinary Irish people, he was guided to Redmond Ó Gallagher, the Catholic Bishop of Derry, who organised his escape to Scotland, from where he eventually got to the Spanish Netherlands. For his resistance to England and help given to Armada survivors, Briain Ó Rourke was eventually captured by the English and sent to the infamous Tower of London. There he was tortured, before being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, the same place where the Scottish patriot William Wallace met an identical fate. Similarly Bishop Redmond Ó Gallagher was also captured for his "anti-English" activities and was also executed.

Aoidh Ó Néill, despite the incident with Captain Kelly and perhaps regretting his behaviour, gave refuge to some Spaniards, using their military expertise to improve the abilities of his own forces. A few of these Spaniards remained with Ó Néill, assisting him in his wars with the English through 1596. Indeed one Spaniard Pedro Blanco fought with Ó Néill until 1607 and even followed him into exile in Rome. Fear of Dublin and the consequences of resistance meant that the Armada shipwrecks did not lead to a Gaelic rebellion, and in hindsight a good opportunity for the Gael was missed.

Many a bedraggled Spanish soldier or sailor who survived drowning at sea, looting by the local Irish population, and death by the militias, was guided towards Somhairle Buí Macdonnell in Antrim. He operated the main escape route for Armada survivors. This old Scottish gallóglach ferried hundreds of Spaniards across the Irish Sea to the relative safety of neutral Scotland.

James VI of Scotland initially provided Armada Spaniards returning to the continent with letters of safe conduct, but as he considered his long term ambitions for the English Crown, he became more wary. Without letters of Protection from James VI, Gómez de Medina captain of the Armada ship the Grifón, together with a retinue of Catholic priests and Irish expatriates who were high on the English death list, decided their best course of action was to depart Scotland secretly.

Other survivors were not so lucky in their efforts to leave Scotland. With the invasion danger over, Queen Elizabeth in an apparent good will gesture, guaranteed safe conduct for some 600 Armada Spaniards to sail from Scotland. However the Spaniards were ambushed in a cynical plan, whereby the English arranged by proxy for their Dutch allies to attack the ships instead. The result was half the Spaniards were killed in the ambush.

Through October 1588, surviving Armada ships limped into various continental ports, with what remained of their emaciated crews. Despite their failure, Philip certainly appreciated the efforts of his soldiers and sailors ensuring that all his men were cared for. By contrast to Spain, England acted quite miserly with it's victorious naval veterans, leaving many casualties dependent on begging.

The financial loss to Spain was very great, with perhaps a third of the Armada sunk and anything up to 15,000 soldiers and sailors lost. England sought to drive home the victory by planning raids on the Spanish ships under repair in their home ports. Sir Francis Drake led the ambitious English assault, but he failed to secure the main objective, so that Spain was left with sufficient shipping to rebuild her navy. Drake and his privateers therefore once again turned their attention to disrupting Spain's colonial trade.

Rise of Aoidh Ó Néill and Aoidh Ó Domhnaill

With the defeat of England's main external threat, the Crown was able to concentrate on pursuing it's policy against recalcitrant Ulster nobles. The land policy they had successfully adopted in Connacht and Munster was now to be applied in Ulster. Following the kidnapping of Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill by the Dublin authorities, anxiety amongst the other independent Ulster nobles increased. It was clear to the Ulster Irish that they were the next target and that if they allowed the English to get involved in settling clan disputes over land, that the English would use the opportunity to break up the clan lands between all the rival claimants. The resulting smaller divided holdings just would not enable any of the nobles to finance military resistance. Most Ulster nobles realised that there was a real prospect of the end of their way of life. Worryingly, nobody could guarantee how the English would then behave once the Irish nolonger had the means to militarily resist.

The English had over the years expended a large effort in grooming certain sons of important Irish families, who they hoped to use in the plan to control Ireland. By providing these men with an English education, they hoped on their return to Ireland to then place them in positions of power, where they would act in England's interests. Aoidh Ó Néill was such a man. The English elevated him first to Baron of Dungannon and then in 1585, just prior to the Armada, to Earl of Tyrone. This was despite the fact that the existing Earl of Tyrone, Turlough Luineach Ó Néill was still alive and was the recognised clan leader.

Yet despite the English help with his meteoric rise, the realities of England's policy in Ulster led Aodh Ó Néill to conclude that he would have to resist the English in order to preserve his people, their culture and way of life. He conceived a secret strategy but would hide his hand until the Ulster clans could be united under his leadership. To be successful, Ó Néill realised that as a first step he needed to sweep away other Ó Néill rivals. He also knew that he also needed to ensure that the Ó Domhnaill forces of Tír Conaill were with him. The future prospective leader of the Ó Domhnaill clan Aoidh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill remained a political hostage in Dublin castle. Through the experience and from the stories of the many Gael he met in prison, Aoidh Ruadh realised the terrible negative impact of the New English administration on his countrymen. In 1589 another prisoner in Dublin Castle, passed a message to Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill, that Aodh Ó Néill had an escape plan to to free him. By freeing the young Aodh Ruadh, Ó Néill hoped to bring the Clan Connell into his conspiracy.

While Ó Néill secretly worked on his plan, the Dublin authorities pushed their direct influence further into Ulster. In 1589 Sir Ross MacMahon, leader of his clan died without heir. The MacMahon clan chief effectively controlled the whole of County Monaghan, with the exception of lands owned by the Earl of Essex in the barony of Farney. Following disputes between MacMahon rivals and attempts by some of them to use Brehon law to resolve the succession matters, the English intervened and created a settlement, dividing the county between 5 of the leading MacMahon's, the leader of the MacKenna's and a whole host of other native freeholders. The land division had the effect of so dividing and weakening the Irish, that the English were able to absorb it into the old Pale. This major advance of English control into Ulster set alarm bells going throughout Ulster, but fear of the English held back widespread resistance. Additionally, Irish nobles were increasingly preoccupied with growing numbers of speculative rivals, who saw the English land settlements as a means of acquiring a profitable share of the clan's wealth.

Turlough Luineach Ó Néill in Tír Eóghan the clan recognised leader was threatened not just by Aoidh Ó Néill (as grandson of Conn Bacach Ó Néill), but also by the MacShanes (as sons of Shane Ó Néill).

The Scots of Antrim believed that through the agreement between Somhairle MacDonnell and the Dublin authorities that they had secured legal recognition to possession of their land titles after centuries of English attacks on them. They were now reluctant to provide gallóglaigh troops to their neighbours as that would put everything at risk. Of course this assumed the English would honour the peace.

The policy of steady expansion of land division in Ulster promised to finally bring about the rapid English control of Ulster. This in turn presented the possibility for the final pacification of the Gael. From an English viewpoint their prospects in Ireland never looked better. During Christmas 1590 while Dublin Castle celebrated, the young Aodh Ruadh was spirited out of the castle. Their guide brought him and other escapees through the English lines, and into the biting cold of the snow covered Wicklow hills.

After years of imprisonment they were weak and to prevent them dying of exposure, they sought the protection of Felim Ó Tuathail, who Aodh Ruadh had befriended whilst in captivity in Dublin Castle. Whilst Felim was in favour of helping the escapees, others in his household, opposed the idea. In particular his wife Rosa was convinced that opposing the English in this way would incur the military wrath of the Dublin authorities, thereby putting possession of the Ó Tuathail clan lands in unnecessary jeopardy. Because of the clan pressures on him, Felim realised that he could not guarantee the security of Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill. Hence Felim proposed that he should appear to surrender Aodh to the English, but meanwhile would get word to his brother-in-law, the powerful Wicklow prince Fiacha Mac Aodh í Bhroin (who was not constrained by the same internal clan problems), to intercept the hand over of Aodh Ruadh to the English. Felim hoped the strategy would not only placate the timid in his clan and ingratiate himself to the English, but would also ensure that Aodh Ruadh remained free. Hence Felim sent word to Dublin Castle of Aodh Ruadh's capture by the Ó Tuathail clan. On 25 January 1591 the Lord Deputy FitzWilliam issued a warrant to Sir George Carew to go to Castlekevin to recapture Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill. At this point Felim's plan went awry. The weather was so bad that by the time Fiacha's forces arrived, it was too late to intercept the arrest. Aodh Ruadh was re-arrested by the English and taken by Sir George Carew back to Dublin Castle.

Books researched in the Society of Genealogists library, in London