Sad plight of 'Earls' women
Members of several Kildare local history groups were treated in KIlcullen to a fascinating talk on the women who accompanied the Donegal-based earls when they fled to Europe in 1607.
The female dimension of the 'Flight of the Earls' is a forgotten one, Dr Mary Ann Lyons told the gathering at the event, which was organised by the Kildare Federation of Local History Groups and held in the Kilcullen Heritage Centre.
Dr Lyons, a lecturer in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, noted that when the ship carrying the earls of Tyrone and Tyreconnell left Lough Swilly 400 years ago there were 99 people on board, of whom just 37 were actual fugitives. Of 17 women in the party, three were 'noble' and the others were in service to the earls and their families.
Dr Lyons gave detailed accounts of the lives of the three women from the Irish aristocracy. Catherine Magennis was wife of Hugh O'Neill and mother of three of his sons. Nuala O'Donnell was sister of Red Hugh O'Donnell and Rory, Earl of Tyreconnell. Rose O'Doherty was wife first of Cathbhar O'Doherty and later Owen Roe O'Neill.
Dr Lyons also provided an insight into the life of Bridget Fitzgerald, Countess of Tyreconnell and married to Rory O'Donnell, who was left behind in the 'flight' because she was close to giving birth, a matter which left her very bitter.
Interweaving the threads from the lives of each of the women and those close to them, Dr Lyons detailed how their individual and collective fortunes were dictated by the politics of the time between Spain, England and Rome.
She outlined how the marriages of the women were usually 'strategic' matches related to local politics and dynastic power bases, and how their fortunes declined once they were away from their homeland and also separated from their children by dictat of their 'protector' monarchy in Spain.
Nuala Magennis, as the fourth and very young wife of a cruel husband who had already been married three times, found herself in very difficult circumstances compared to her accustomed station, especially following his death in Italy. After many privations she died in Naples, to where she had been chased by creditors.
Nuala O'Donnell, aristocrat by blood and probably the only one of the women to make her own decision to be part of the flight, might have been best able to deal with the difficulties of their exile. Subsequent to the death of her brother in Italy she returned to Louvain in Flanders where the young children of the earls' families were lodged with the Irish Fransciscan community.
Rose O'Doherty's sojurn in Rome was also blighted by tragedy when her brother was killed and her husband Cathbar died. Dependent on Nuala for the administration of her Spanish pension, she also ended up back in Louvain where she married Owen Roe O'Neill and lived with him for the next 35 years. She also played a part in the civil war in Ireland of the 1640s, raising money in Galway and buying munitions.
Dr Lyons related how Bridget Fitzgerald's daughter Mary got involved in anti-English intrigues until she bacame pregnant by a 'lowly Irish Captain' and thereafter her life went severely downhill.
It is clear from the pen pictures painted by Mary Ann Lyons that the lot of the women who left Ireland with their aristocratic menfolk in 1607 certainly was nothing approaching romantic.
And though she only touched on it, the experiences of the more lowly servant women who also left on that boat from Lough Swilly was even more trying.
The evening was a fascinating insight into what hadn't even been a sidenote to a part of Irish history which for most of us was romanticised as far as the principal characters were concerned.
As Dr Lyons noted, decisions made by those principals had disastrous consequences for the people close to them and dependent on them for their livelihoods.
The event was the second such lecture organised by the Kildare Federation of Local History Groups. Thanking all those involved, federation chairman Ger McCarthy said it would continue to be an annual event if the support for this one was any indication.
Brian Byrne.
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