Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Figures and Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I The Outbreak of the Rebellion
- 1 Owen Connolly, Hugh Og MacMachon and the 1641 Rebellion in Clogher
- 2 What do the Depositions say about the Outbreak of the 1641 Rising?
- 3 Mapping the Outbreak of the Rebellion: Robberies in County Cavan (October 1641)
- 4 Mount Taragh's Triumph: Commitment and Organization in the Early Stages of the 1641 Rebellion in Meath
- Part II Social Aspects of the Rebellion
- Part III Political and Military Aspects of the Rebellion
- Conclusion: The Rebellion in Text and Context
- Notes
- Index
1 - Owen Connolly, Hugh Og MacMachon and the 1641 Rebellion in Clogher
from Part I - The Outbreak of the Rebellion
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Figures and Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I The Outbreak of the Rebellion
- 1 Owen Connolly, Hugh Og MacMachon and the 1641 Rebellion in Clogher
- 2 What do the Depositions say about the Outbreak of the 1641 Rising?
- 3 Mapping the Outbreak of the Rebellion: Robberies in County Cavan (October 1641)
- 4 Mount Taragh's Triumph: Commitment and Organization in the Early Stages of the 1641 Rebellion in Meath
- Part II Social Aspects of the Rebellion
- Part III Political and Military Aspects of the Rebellion
- Conclusion: The Rebellion in Text and Context
- Notes
- Index
Summary
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, of a plot by disaffected Ulster Gaelic lords to capture Dublin Castle. Connolly ultimately turned informant, escaped whilst in the company of an intoxicated MacMahon in Dublin, and notified Sir William Parsons, one of the lords justices, of the design. This episode is a blend of ‘tragedy and farce, reinforcing in the eyes of many the crude stereotype of Irish Catholics as untrustworthy drunkards, inherently dangerous but ultimately incompetent’.
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- The 1641 Depositions and the Irish Rebellion , pp. 7 - 20Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014