The
Golden Age of the O'Donnells
The O’Donnells ruled Tir Chonaill from the beginning of the 13th
to the end of the 16th centuries but the golden age of Tir Chonaill, if such a phrase can
be used, was between the middle of the 15th and the middle of the 16th centuries. Between
1461 and 1555 three chieftains of the O’Donnells - Aodh Rua, Aodh Dubh and Maghnus,
father, son and grandson - ruled the territory in an almost unbroken line of succession.
These three are recognised as being amongst the great soldier statesmen of Gaelic Ireland.
The historian Kenneth Nicholl says that the O’Donnells "in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries consistently showed a hardness and a sense of political purpose absent
from most Irish rulers". In this era the term Tir Chonaill referred not just to the
county excluding Inishowen, a meaning it more commonly had before and since, but in fact
included the peninsula of Inishowen, and that part of the County east of Letterkenny which
had often been in dispute with the O’Neills, as well as overlordship of territories
south of the River Erne.
In the period before 1461 there was a succession of intermittent
conflicts between the O’Donnells and the O’Neills, one outcome of which was that
Inishowen did became part of Tir Chonaill. This was an important victory for the
O’Donnells, as Inis Eoghain - the island of Eoghan - was part of the inheritance of
Eoghan, brother of Conall. In addition, because of strategic alliances forged by the
O’Donnells, they could claim control over large parts of West Tyrone and even for a
short time part of North East Antrim. The O’Donnell army succeeded also in pushing
their control of adjoining parts of Fermanagh and North Connacht.
This Golden Age was based on three pillars. The political stability
which ensued from cohesion within the O’Donnells themselves, their military strength
and the support of key allied families was invaluable. Secondly this political stability
enabled an era of comparative prosperity, a prosperity that was all the more remarkable
when one considers the fate of the ordinary Gaelic speaking people in other parts of
Ireland. Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, the O’Donnells reapoed great benefits
from the strong and fruitful links forged with other regions beyond Ireland, in Scotland
and the Continent.
The longstanding loyalty of allied families to the O’Donnell
cause was to prove invaluable. Chief amongst these families were the three branches of the
Mac Suibhnes (Sweeneys). The Sweeneys were, however, just one of the Prominent
Donegal Familes allied to the O'Donnell cause. These Lucht Tighe or household
families were so numerous and so loyal that the O’Donnells could afford to build and
hold castles along the marches of their territory with reliable military forces dependent
on the O’Donnells themselves. These castles were located on the frontier with the
O’Neills; beginning in Derry castles were built in Lifford, Castlefin, Beleek and
Ballyshannon and Bundrowes. Unlike other great Irish families, for instance the McCarthys
in Cork and Kerry, the O’Connors of Connacht, and to a certain extent the
neighbouring O’Neills, the O’Donnells did not split up into warring factions
amongst themselves, although such factionalism was threatened from time to time.
During this time when it is not to fanciful to state that Donegal
resembled a kind of Gaelic Prussia, the region was anything but economically depressed. It
had a fairly small population concentrated in the fertile parts of Donegal - around
Donegal Town, around the Swilly and in East Donegal, and around the northern loughs of
Mulroy and Sheephaven. Medieval Tir Chonaill was known for both its cattle and sheep, but
also grew large quantities of oats. The fact that the upland areas west of Letterkenny and
immediately south of the northern coast were in fact almost uninhabited meant that area
could be used for summer pastures, for cutting turf, and as woodlands to provide timber
for various purposes from building houses to building boats. The people used the rivers
and the sea fisheries intelligently, and in fact on the continent as well as in Ireland
the chieftain of the O’Donnells was known as the
"best lord of fish in Ireland, and he exchangeth fish always
with foreign merchants for wine, by which [he] is called in other countries, the king of
fish".
Even before the beginning of this era Tir Chonaill had established
trading links with a number of ports in England, especially Bristol, in Scotland - Ayr,
Wigtown and Glasgow - and the two towns of St Malo and Morlaix in Brittany. On the other
hand the O’Donnells did not neglect trade with other Irish towns, especially Galway,
but also east coast towns such as Drogheda. In North Donegal trade flowed in and out of
the O’Donnell controlled ports of the Rosses.
In exchange for its imports of wine, luxury clothes, and modern
weapons and armour, Donegal sent out fish and animal hides. For instance in the case of
Bristol large quantities of salmon were sold by the O’Donnells in return for clothes
of the finest quality. This trade is recorded in the English State Papers, and it is clear
from these documents that merchants from Bristol knew Tir Chonaill quite well, coming to
the county on an annual basis and sometimes staying for a number of months. From the
Bretons and the French the O’Donnells bought gun powder and fire arms, and iron
products, as well as wine and salt, in return selling them fish and hides. This was a
highly regulated trade with agreements arrived at, signed, and abided by. The
O’Donnells themselves had agents living in the Continental ports and from time to
time Continental merchants lived in Tir Chonaill itself.
All of this meant that medieval Tir Chonaill was almost independent of
the Pale and the rest of Ireland, and, because of its links with Continental Europe, could
bypass England as well. On the other hand its direct contact with the lowlands of Scotland
and with Brittany and other centres on the Continent gave it a direct contact with some of
the leading humanist centres of the day. The O’Donnells were aware of contemporary
trends on the continent and built up considersable diplomtic skills. If trade connected
Tir Chonaill with the rest of Europe at the time, so of course did the church.
There are conflicting accounts of the wealth or poverty of the church
in medieval Donegal. On one hand the records of both Raphoe and Derry dioceses would seem
to indicate that the ordinary clergy were very poor. However the revenues gained by the
church from fisheries, from tithes, and from their control of the eel wiers meant that
they had quite a substantial income.
The three chieftains - Aodh Rua , Aodh Dubh and Maghnus were able
military men, relying not just on the bravery and numbers of their forces but on careful
preparation and the use of tactics. Their military force was not confined to the land but
also extended to their fleet of ships, both sea borne and river borne. In this regard
their foreign contacts were invaluable. In fact the first mention of fire arms in any of
the Irish records refers to a musketeer in Aodh Rua’s army shooting an O’Rourke.
As happens in other parts of the world relative prosperity and
military and political stability led to a taste for the better things in life. When Aodh
Rua succeeded in beating off the O’Connors of Sligo in 1470 one of the first things
he did was to bring back a collection of historic manuscripts such as Leabhar na
hUidhre and Leabhar Gearr which had been looted from his family in a previous
century. It was the same Aodh Rua who was responsible for the fine architecture of Donegal
Castle and Donegal Abbey. His son Aodh Dubh shared this interest in ancient Irish
manuscripts and in architecture. He was in Rome in 1510-1511 when the Sistine chapel was
being completed. Soon after visiting Rome he spent more than half the year at the English
Court, in the company of Henry VIII. It was Maghnus who was responsible for one of the
great works of late medieval scholarship in Ireland the Beatha Choluim Cille, which
he wrote in his castle at Lifford before he became chieftain. Maghnus is also credited
with the building of a complex of religious buildings near the birthplace of Colm Cille,
in Templedouglas and Kilmacrennan This trio of O’Donnell chieftains were great
patrons of the arts and of the learned classes and during this time the O’Cleirighs
and the Mac a’Bhairds were also at their most productive. According to another
historian of medieval Ireland, Katharine Simms
"the surplus wealth which the Gaelic Irish chieftains directed
entirely towards feasting and poetry corresponded to funds laid out by the ruling classes
of other European countries partly on entertainment, but also on magnificent processions,
statues, pictures, jewellery and imposing architecture".
Despite their relative independence from the Pale the chieftains of
Tir Chonaill knew that they could not be totally independent. All three sought, to one
degree or another, to come to the best possible arrangement with the administration in
Dublin Castle. This paid off to a large extent. No English army ever set foot in Tir
Chonaill during this time, or indeed to tried to hinder in any effective way the
overlordship of the adjoining area enjoyed by the O’Donnells. It is indeed
instructive to remember that at the time of the Renaissance in Europe Tir Chonaill was
ruled by a succession of chieftains who combined innovation, an openness to foreign
influences, and a sure political and cultural touch rooted in the native tradition.
for a detailed and informative account of this period read "The
Renaissance and the late medieval Lordship of Tír Chonaill 1461-1555" in Donegal:
history & society / edited by William Nolan, Liam Ronayne, Mairead Dunlevy.
Dublin: Geography Publications, 1995.
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