Manus O’Donnell (d. 1564), son of Hugh Dubh O’Donnell, was left by his father to rule Tyrconnel, though still a mere youth, when Hugh Dubh went on a pilgrimage to Rome about 1511. Hugh Dubh had been chief of the O’Donnells during one of the bitterest and most protracted of the feuds between his clan and the O’Neills, which in 1491 led to a war lasting more than ten years. On his return from Rome in broken health after two years’ absence, his son Manus, who had proved himself a capable leader in defending his country against the O’Neills, retained the chief authority. A family quarrel ensued, and when Hugh Dubh appealed for aid against his son to the Maguires, Manus made an alliance with the O’Neills, by whose assistance he established his hold over Tyrconnel. But in 1522 the two great northern clans were again at war. Conn Bacach O’Neill, 1st earl of Tyrone, determined to bring the O’Donnells under thorough subjection. Supported by several septs of Munster and Connaught, and assisted also by English contingents and by the MacDonnells of Antrim, O’Neill took the castle of Ballyshannon, and after devastating a large part of Tyrconnel he encamped at Knockavoe, near Strabane. Here he was surprised at night by Hugh Dubh and Manus O’Donnell, and routed with the loss of 900 men and an immense quantity of booty. Although this was one of the bloodiest fights that ever took place between the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, it did not bring the war to an end; and in 1531 O’Donnell applied to the English government for protection, giving assurances of allegiance to Henry VIII. In 1537 Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and his five uncles were executed for rebellion in Munster, and the English government made every effort to lay hands also on Gerald, the youthful heir to the earldom of Kildare, a boy of twelve years of age who was in the secret custody of his aunt Lady Eleanor McCarthy. This lady, in order to secure a powerful protector for the boy, accepted an offer of marriage by Manus O’Donnell, who on the death of Hugh Dubh in July 1537 was inaugurated The O’Donnell. Conn O’Neill was a relative of Gerald Fitzgerald, and this event accordingly led to the formation of the Geraldine League, a federation which combined the O’Neills, the O’Donnells, the O’Briens of Thomond, and other powerful clans; the primary object of which was to restore Gerald to the earldom of Kildare, but which afterwards aimed at the complete overthrow of English rule in Ireland. In August 1539 Manus O’Donnell and Conn O’Neill were defeated with heavy loss by the lord deputy at Lake Bellahoe, in Monaghan, which crippled their power for many years. In the west Manus made unceasing efforts to assert the supremacy of the O’Donnells in north Connaught, where he compelled O’Conor Sligo to acknowledge his overlordship in 1539. In 1542 he went to England and presented himself, together with Conn O’Neill and other Irish chiefs, before Henry VIII., who promised to make him earl of Tyrconnel, though he refused O’Donnell’s request to be made earl of Sligo. In his later years Manus was troubled by quarrels between his sons Calvagh and Hugh MacManus; in 1555 he was made prisoner by Calvagh, who deposed him from all authority in Tyrconnel, and he died in 1564. Manus O’Donnell, though a fierce warrior, was hospitable and generous to the poor and the Church. He is described by the Four Masters as “a learned man, skilled in many arts, gifted with a profound intellect, and the knowledge of every science.” At his castle of Portnatrynod near Strabane he supervised if he did not actually dictate the writing of the Life of Saint Columbkille in Irish, which is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Manus was several times married. His first wife, Joan O’Reilly, was the mother of Calvagh, and two daughters, both of whom married O’Neills; the younger, Margaret, was wife of the famous rebel Shane O’Neill. His second wife, Hugh’s mother, by whom he was ancestor of the earls of Tyrconnel (see below), was Judith, sister of Conn Bacach O’Neill, 1st earl of Tyrone, and aunt of Shane O’Neill.
Calvagh O’Donnell (d. 1566), eldest son of Manus O’Donnell, in the course of his above-mentioned quarrel with his father and his half-brother Hugh, sought aid in Scotland from the MacDonnells, who assisted him in deposing Manus and securing the lordship of Tyrconnel for himself. Hugh then appealed to Shane O’Neill, who invaded Tyrconnel at the head of a large army in 1557, desiring to make himself supreme throughout Ulster, and encamped on the shore of Lough Swilly. Calvagh, acting apparently on the advice of his father, who was his prisoner and who remembered the successful night attack on Conn O’Neill at Knockavoe in 1522, surprised the O’Neills in their camp at night and routed them with the loss of all their spoils. Calvagh was then recognized by the English government as lord of Tyrconnel; but in 1561 he and his wife were captured by Shane O’Neill in the monastery of Kildonnell. His wife, Catherine Maclean, who had previously been the wife of the earl of Argyll, was kept by Shane O’Neill as his mistress and bore him several children, though grossly ill-treated by her savage captor; Calvagh himself was subjected to atrocious torture during the three years that he remained O’Neill’s prisoner. He was released in 1564 on conditions which he had no intention of fulfilling; and crossing to England he threw himself on the mercy of Queen Elizabeth. In 1566 Sir Henry Sidney by the queen’s orders marched to Tyrconnel and restored Calvagh to his rights. Calvagh, however, died in the same year, and as his son Conn was a prisoner in the hands of Shane O’Neill, his half-brother Hugh MacManus was inaugurated The O’Donnell in his place. Hugh, who in the family feud with Calvagh had allied himself with O’Neill, now turned round and combined with the English to crush the hereditary enemy of his family; and in 1567 he utterly routed Shane at Letterkenny with the loss of 1300 men, compelling him to seek refuge with the Mac-Donnells of Antrim, by whom he was treacherously put to death. In 1592 Hugh abdicated in favour of his son Hugh Roe O’Donnell (see below); but there was a member of the elder branch of the family who resented the passing of the chieftainship to the descendants of Manus O’Donnell’s second marriage. This was Niall Garve, second son of Calvagh’s son Conn. His elder brother was Hugh of Ramelton, whose son John, an officer in the Spanish army, was father of Hugh Baldearg O’Donnell (d. 1704), known in Spain as Count O’Donnell, who commanded an Irish regiment as brigadier in the Spanish service. This officer came to Ireland in 1690 and raised an army in Ulster for the service of James II., afterwards deserting to the side of William III., from whom he accepted a pension.
Niall Garve O’Donnell (1569–1626), who was incensed at the elevation of his cousin Hugh Roe to the chieftainship in 1592, was further alienated when the latter deprived him of his castle of Lifford, and a bitter feud between the two O’Donnells was the result. Niall Garve made terms with the English government, to whom he rendered valuable service both against the O’Neills and against his cousin. But in 1601 he quarrelled with the lord deputy, who, though willing to establish Niall Garve in the lordship of Tyrconnel, would not permit him to enforce his supremacy over Cahir O’Dogherty in Inishowen. After the departure of Hugh Roe from Ireland in 1602, Niall Garve and Hugh Roe’s brother Rory went to London, where the privy council endeavoured to arrange the family quarrel, but failed to satisfy Niall. Charged with complicity in Cahir O’Dogherty’s rebellion in 1608, Niall Garve was sent to the Tower of London, where he remained till his death in 1626. He married his cousin Nuala, sister of Hugh Roe and Rory O’Donnell. When Rory fled with the earl of Tyrone to Rome in 1607, Nuala, who had deserted her husband when he joined the English against her brother, accompanied him, taking with her her daughter Grania. She was the subject of an Irish poem, of which an English version was written by James Mangan from a prose translation by Eugene O’Curry.
Hugh Roe O’Donnell (1572–1602), eldest son of Hugh MacManus O’Donnell, and grandson of Manus O’Donnell by his second marriage with Judith O’Neill, was the most celebrated member of his clan. His mother was Ineen Dubh, daughter of James MacDonnell of Kintyre; his sister was the second wife of Hugh O’Neill, 2nd earl of Tyrone. These family connexions with the Hebridean Scots and with the O’Neills made the lord deputy, Sir John Perrot, afraid of a powerful combination against the English government, and induced him to
