Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Dogherty, Cahir
O'DOGHERTY, Sir CAHIR (1587–1608), lord of Inishowen, born in 1587, was the eldest son of Sir John O'Dogherty. He was seized by Hugh Roe O'Donnell [q. v.] in May 1600 as a pledge for his father's loyalty to the Irish cause. Sir John O'Dogherty died on 27 Jan. 1601, ‘being fledd from his owne countrey with his goods and people, a man that in shewe seamed wonderfull desireous to yeald his obedience to the Queene, But soe as his actions did euer argue he was otherwise minded.’ Cahir at the time was a boy of thirteen or fourteen, and O'Donnell, in accordance with the Irish custom that preferred the uncle to the son, who was a minor, caused Cahir's uncle, Phelim Oge O'Dogherty, to be inaugurated chief of Inishowen. The exclusion of Cahir from the succession gave great offence to his foster-parents, Hugh Boy and Phelim Reagh MacDevitt, who, in their resentment, made overtures to Sir Henry Docwra [q. v.] The latter was finally induced to support Cahir against his uncle by a promise that they would undertake to serve the crown against O'Donnell. The nephew's succession was confirmed by the lord-deputy and council, and Cahir, having been taken out of O'Donnell's hands, was established by Docwra as lord of Inishowen.
Under Docwra's supervision Cahir grew up a strong and comely youth, excelling in military exercises. For his bravery on the field of Augher he was knighted by Mountjoy, and in 1603 he visited London. He was favourably received at court, and on 4 Sept. warrant was given to pass him a patent of all the lands formerly granted by Elizabeth to his father. On his return to Ireland he married a daughter of Lord Gormanston, was created a J.P. and an alderman of the new city of Derry. After the flight of the northern earls in September 1607, he was foreman of the jury that found them guilty of treasonable practices. So long as Docwra remained at Derry everything went well, but in 1606 Docwra surrendered his post to Sir George Paulet [q. v.], a civilian wholly unfitted by temper or training for the office. Sir Cahir was soon charged by Paulet with meditating treason. He protested against Paulet's insinuations as groundless, but repaired at once to Dublin. Chichester, thinking him not altogether ‘free from ill-meaning,’ obliged him to enter into heavy recognisances, and to find two sureties for his good behaviour (November 1607). Early in the following April he had occasion to visit Paulet at Derry about the sale of some land to Sir Richard Hansard. During the transaction of his business, Paulet, for some unexplained reason, struck him, and he at once took counsel with his fosterers, the MacDevitts, how to avenge the insult.
Acting on their advice, and probably at the instigation of Sir Niall Garv O'Donnell [q. v.], he determined to attack Derry. With the object of obtaining arms and ammunition for his followers, he, on 19 April, invited Captain Harte, constable of Culmore Castle, and his wife to an entertainment at his house at Elagh. After supper he unfolded his project to Captain Harte, but, failing to seduce him from his allegiance, he locked him up, and so worked on Mrs. Harte's fears that she consented to connive at his design. Starting at midnight, he managed, with Mrs. Harte's assistance, to surprise Culmore, and, having placed in it a garrison of his own and armed his followers, he marched directly on Derry. Arriving there in the early hours of the morning, while the inhabitants were still in their beds, he captured the town without much resistance. The place was sacked and burnt, and the citizens and garrison put to the sword, among the first to fall being the author of the calamity, Sir George Paulet. The burning of Derry, and also of Bishop Montgomery's fine library, consisting of two thousand volumes, is particularly ascribed to the MacDevitts, who are still locally called ‘Burnderrys.’ After the sack of Derry, O'Dogherty made an unsuccessful attack on Lifford, and then leaving his wife, who had all along opposed him, with his infant daughter, his sister, and the wife of Bishop Montgomery, in his castle of Burt, he marched into Fanad to rally his forces. A letter written by him at this time to O'Gallagher, chief of the foster-family of O'Donnell (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, James I, vol. iii. p. xlix), calling on him for assistance, is specially interesting as illustrating the relations that subsisted among the minor chiefs of the same territory, and the well-known institution of fosterage.
When the news of the disaster reached Dublin, Chichester determined to make war ‘thick and short’ against him, and at once despatched a strong force into the north under Marshal Wingfield. For some time O'Dogherty avoided an engagement, but on Tuesday, 5 July 1608, he was overtaken at the Rock of Doon, near Kilmacrenan, by a party under Sir Francis Rushe. He was shot through the brain at the first encounter. His head was struck off and sent to Dublin, where it was stuck ‘on a pole on the east gate of the city, called Newgate.’
His death, according to Sir Geoffrey Fenton, ‘opened the way for a universal settlement of Ulster.’ On 22 Feb. 1610 Chichester obtained a grant of the whole district of Inishowen, with the exception of thirteen hundred acres reserved for the better maintenance of the city of Londonderry and the fort of Culmore.
By his wife Mary, daughter of Christopher, fourth viscount Gormanston, who, being a lady of birth and breeding, soon came to regret her marriage with him, and was with difficulty persuaded to live with him ‘for want of good and civil company,’ O'Dogherty had an only daughter. His two brothers, John and Rory, were both very young, and at the time of his rebellion were residing with their foster-father O'Rourke in Leitrim. Rory, it would appear, became a soldier, and died in service in Belgium. John married Eliza, daughter of Patrick O'Cahan of Derry, and died in 1638. Phelim Reagh MacDevitt, O'Dogherty's foster-father, was tried at Derry, convicted, and executed. O'Dogherty is traditionally said to have been the tallest man of his tribe. On the stone lintel of the door of the square tower of Buncrana, leading to the lowest part of the building, there are traces of a rude representation of a Spanish hat and upright plume, which are said to mark his stature. It is popularly believed that he was starved to death in this very dungeon, and that the skeleton seated on a bank depicted in the arms of the city of Londonderry refers to his fate.
[Docwra's Narration, ed. O'Donovan, in Celtic Society's Miscellany, 1849; Russell and Prendergast's Cal. of State Papers, Ireland, James I; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan; O'Sullevan Beare's Historiæ Catholicæ Iberniæ Compendium; Gerald Geoghegan's Notice of the Early Settlement of Londonderry, in Kilkenny Archæol. Society's Journal, new ser. vols. iv. and v.; Erck's Repertory of Patent Rolls, James I; Hill's Plantation of Ulster; Montgomery MSS. ed. G. Hill; Mehans's Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel; Colby and Larcom's Memoir of Templemore Parish; Newes from Lough-foyle, in Ireland. Of the late treacherous Action and Rebellion of Sir Carey Adougherty, &c., London, 1608; Overthrow of an Irish rebell in a late battaile, or the Death of Sir Carry Adoughertie, &c., Dublin, 1608; Stearne MSS. Trinity Coll. Dublin, F. 3. 15.]