Fiach McHugh O'Byrne

Infobox_Monarch | name = Fiach Mac Aodh Uî Broin
Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne
title = Earl of "Clann Uí Bhroin"


reign = 15....-1597
coronation = 1587, Wicklow
predecessor = ..
successor = ...
heir =
consort =
issue =
royal house = Shillelagh, Glendalough, Wicklow
royal anthem =...
father = ...
mother = ...
date of birth = c.1544
place of birth = Shillelagh, Glendalough, Wicklow
date of death = death date|1597|7|20|mf=y
place of death = ...
place of burial= [...|

Fiach Mac Aodh Uî Broin (anglicised as Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne) (1544 – 1597) was chief of Clann Uí Bhroin, or the O'Byrne clan, during the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland.

Background

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England, the ancient O'Byrne clan (the "Gabhail Raghnal/Gavall Ranell") held sway in the territory of the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin covering about convert|153000|acre|km2, having overtaken the authority of the O'Toole clan in the preceding decades. Their fastness lay toward the south, at Ballinacor in Glenmalure, where they maintained an oak fort near to a ford with a bridge. The territory included the oak wood of Shillelagh, Glendalough and part of County Wexford. The clan was said to compose of one hundred expert swordsmen.

The O'Byrnes posed a permanent threat to English authority within the Pale through their raids on the lowlands; they also formed part of the balance between various factions and dynasties throughout the southern part of the province of Leinster, a balance the English found difficult to upset.

The O'Byrne territory had been under the nominal authority of a sheriff, but in 1562 the task of bringing order to the border area was given to an English captain. So varied were the local allegiances, and so difficult did the territory prove to police, that little was achieved by the crown government and during the rest of the queen's reign the O'Byrnes became adept at securing official pardons.

Early career

In 1569 the O'Byrnes, under the leadership of Fiach's father, had given help to the rebels during the Butler Wars; it was Fiach himself who assisted the escape of the imprisoned Edmund Butler, when the latter fell from a rope while climbing from the battlements of Dublin Castle. Thereafter, the younger O'Byrne proved wily and skillful, and ultimately betrayed a dangerous ambition to undermine English authority in Ireland.

In 1572, O'Byrne was charged with complicity in the murder of the son-in-law of the seneschal of County Wexford, Sir Nicholas White. The crown commander in Wicklow was charged with leading a punitive expedition from Newcastle near Bray; on his way, the commander seized a mountain man and forced him at peril of his life to lead the crown troops into the heart of O'Byrne territory. Sixteen villages were burned and hundreds were slaughtered; O'Byrne himself escaped with the loss of two sisters and two foster brothers. In retaliation, O'Byrne led 400 followers in raids on villages in Wexford and managed to retire to Glenmalure, having evaded the seneschal's forces. But in August he did surrender custody of the murderer in return for a pardon and a fine of 20 marks (which he probably never paid).

Under the government of Sir Henry Sidney, O'Byrne gave support to his own brother-in-law, Rory Oge O'More, the pretender to the lordship of Leix, who broke out in rebellion in 1577. In a bloody fight with Sir John Harrington, many of O'More's household were killed, except O'Byrne's sister, who was spared by the crown forces. After the death of O'More, O'Byrne took in the rebel's son for training at Ballinacor, which by that time had become a martial academy.

O'Byrne was in correspondence with Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond and never lost touch with the Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, for whom he did a great favour by hanging an important witness when Kildare was under government investigation. The cattle raiding carried on, until he made his submission in early 1579 at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where he gave pledges of allegiance and acknowledged the authority of the crown government.

Desmond Rebellions

The sequence of raids and pardons continued and, succeeding his father in the leadership of the O'Byrnes, Fiach joined with James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglas - despite a history of mutual enmity between their families - during the Second Desmond Rebellion from 1579.

In the summer of 1580, the Earl of Desmond fled Munster into Queens County (aided by the O'Mores), where he joined the O'Byrnes near the Wicklow border. In August, O'Byrne and the Kavanagh clan ambushed crown forces in Idrone (County Carlow); the Irish fought their way through the territory and, after burning the manor house, executed those Kavanaghs who had succumbed to the rule of the English Carew family.

In the same month in 1580, a new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton arrived with 6,000 newly recruited troops. He found the country in a nervous state, owing to the threat of Spanish intervention in favour of the rebels. Crown commanders throughout the country were on guard, and Grey was beset at every point of the compass. It was clear that cutting off the source of so many raids against the underbelly of Dublin and the Pale, within twenty five miles of the city, would be a good service for the crown. In addition, an offensive into the province of Munster was expected and before he might engage in such a campaign Grey had to deal with the O'Byrnes to prevent them from attacking him in the rear as he marched south. The campaign resulted in the Battle of Glenmalure.

Battle of Glenmalure

In 1580, Grey led his army westward through the Pale, ignoring certain veterans who implored him to delay the campaign. He planned to enter Glenmalure from the neighbouring Glen of Imaal and attack O'Byrne's stronghold; the enemy was expected to be flushed from its fastness, whereupon the English cavalry would ride them down in their flight. O'Byrne had remained in the Liffey valley with Baltinglas, but at the approach of the crown army he withdrew into Glenmalure.

Grey altered his course and travelled several miles south, where he was joined by Kildare, before heading east in a loop and making an arduous ascent into the mountains. After a row amongst his chief officers, Grey sent out an expedition of half his force in royal livery with their colours aloft.

The rebel lookout on the peak of Loughnaquilla sounded the alarm, and Grey ordered his men to descend into the glen with a drum roll. O'Byrne had concealed his men in the craggy terrain, and the English troops, conspicuous in their red and blue coats and white hose, instantly found themselves sliding along a river course. Decimated by sniping gunfire, they hit bottom fully a mile in depth from the point where the glen was entered. The Irish did not wait: shots were fired from both sides, and the kerne descended to engage in hand to hand combat. Grey's troops were routed with the loss of hundreds, and much valuable equipment had to be discarded. Grey spurred his cavalry on to check the pursuit and force the rebels back into the glen, but even on the retreat to Dublin the punishment was withering.

Despite this disturbing setback, Grey was in a position to post a garrison in the locality, in the hope that this would contain Fiach; but the raids kept coming, even into the suburbs of Dublin. In the campaign that ensued, O'Byrne did suffer losses and failed to dislodge the garrison, but he held out, even after the crown had asserted its command in Munster with the massacre at Smerwick of the papal invasion force.

In the following spring, when Grey passed through Wicklow, O'Byrne had the gall to show his forces on the hills and even sent sorties to cut off the straggling plate wagons. He insisted that the terms offered to him include a pardon for Desmond and a guarantee of freedom of conscience. But the glens now became so frequented with crown troops, that he was forced to accept the original terms and, once hostages had been given to the government, he received his pardon.

Quiet Times

For some years after, O'Byrne remained quiet and, following the death of the Earl of Desmond in 1583, had even received into his territory his old foe, Nicholas White, the first visit to that place by a senior crown judge. He gave his uncle and sons as hostages to the new governor, Sir John Perrot, who hanged a piper sent in by O'Byrne after a cattle raid which had been carried out to the piper's tune. Some of the hostages escaped, but O'Byrne soon appeared before Perrot in English dress and supplied more hostages.

In March 1587, the Irish wife of the English captain, Sir Thomas Lee, let it be known that her husband was plotting to capture O'Byrne, and Lee decided to separate from her. In 1589, 22 O'Byrne hostages escaped custody - including two of Fiach's sons and his brother in law - 11 being recaptured. O'Byrne's docility remained in doubt, and he was soon found attacking Arklow Castle in revenge for a private wrong.

Cat and Mouse

In 1592 O'Byrne involved himself in another escape from Dublin Castle. Hugh Roe O'Donnell (later Earl of Tirconnell), had escaped the castle in the previous year, only to be betrayed while on the run. His second attempt was a success, and although he suffered frostbite O'Donnell was guided to Glenmalure, whence O'Byrne despatched him home to the province of Ulster. (The grave of Art O'Neill,(son of Shane O,Neill) a fellow prisoner who died during the escape, lies south-west of Granabeg towards Glenmalure, in the townland of Oakwood.)

O'Byrne fell quiet again, but Lee insisted throughout the period 1594-96 that he was a traitor to the crown, and a new initiative against him was directed by the lord deputy, Sir William Russell. After the Christmas festivities of 1594, Russell drove O'Byrne from Ballinacor in a three day offensive and garrisoned his house. On their approach to the ramparts of Ballinacor a drum had been accidentally sounded before the troops could reach the gate, which put O'Byrne on his guard, and the gate was defended while those inside fled to safety. It was a mark of how close the government was coming in their efforts to tame the Wicklow highlands, and a reward of £150 was posted for O'Byrne's capture (or £100 for his head).

O'Byrne and his wife were proclaimed traitors. But days later the Dublin suburb of Crumlin was burned by an associate of his, the bastard Geraldine, Walter Reagh. The flames of the raid were seen in the centre of Dublin, and Russell ordered the city gates opened as he sent cavalry in pursuit, but to no avail. In response, a fort was built at Ballinacor with 100 O'Byrne labourers, and the pressure on the clan territory was increased. Reagh was captured and hanged alive in chains for 24 hours before being impaled on a spike.

Russell set up spring camp at Shillelagh, hunting and fishing and receiving the heads of rebels. But O'Byrne was elusive, even as he intrigued with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The O'Byrnes executed an attack at Athy, but Fiach denounced the raid. At about this time his wife, Rice O'Toole, was captured and, upon her conviction for treason by a Dublin jury, sentenced to death by burning; her life was spared by Queen Elizabeth.

The government attempted a parley with O'Byrne, and remarkably he delivered up one of his wayward sons, Turlough, for punishment according to law. It seems that his wife had been informed while a prisoner in Dublin Castle that Turlough had agreed to betray his father; on word from her, O'Byrne had sent Turlough to Dublin in chains to let him test the humanity of the enemy, and the son was duly hanged.

Ulster Alliance

In his negotiations with Russell, during a truce in the Nine Years War (Ireland), Hugh O'Neill included terms for the treatment of O'Byrne, and reinforced his point with the capture of the Blackwater fort, which was said to have been in response to the lord deputy's campaign in Wicklow. O'Byrne sought pardon for himself and his family - excluding his most wayward sons - in the summer of 1596, by which time he was old and sick. He presented himself on his knees to the council sitting at Dublin, seeking mercy, and was granted his pardon upon petition to the queen. Even so, he was in alliance with O'Neill, acting as a Leinster base for rebel influence and maintained a threatening force on the borders of the Pale.

The fort at Ballinacor was soon razed, and the attacks on government forces in Wicklow began again. O'Byrne had also allied with the O'Mores, Kavanaghs, O'Connors and O'Tooles, and was thought by Russell to be of far greater ability than O'Neill. However, the rest of the O'Byrnes were not yet considered a threat and a new fort was built at Rathdown.

During the winter, Russell scoured the mountains, taking in cattle and heads. He crossed the bridge at Ballinacor ford against resistance on the 24th of September 1596 and stayed on the mountain with his cavalry. Meanwhile, Captain Lee was sent with a force to Fananerin, on the west side of Glenmalure (ie. in Manning's bog convert|1|mi|km|sing=on north of Greenane north of the river), where he burned the town before returning to camp. O'Neill complained of the attacks on O'Byrne, and Lee was left to engage in sporadic fighting. The government believed that O'Neill was attempting to divert the attacks, and so Russell made the final push in March 1597, when he marched over the mountains to Fananerin and on to Ballinacor and into the glen. There he made a show of dining, and knighted an officer in the place where one of the Carews had been slain during Grey's campaign in 1580.

Russell withdrew, only to return two months later on the information of the northern branch of the O'Byrne clan. He was due for recall to London, and it seems that the defeat of O'Byrne himself had become the ultimate aim of his government. Again the lord deputy came to Fananerin (Sunday, 8 May 1597) - with troops converging on the town from three directions - and O'Byrne was compelled to flee on foot. He had been in the company of a few swordsmen, who were killed at the first incursion, and was forced by exhaustion to seek refuge in a cave, where Captain Thomas Lee caught up with him. He was slaughtered by Lee's soldiers, and his own sword was used to cut off his head, which was presented to Russell before his return to Dublin the next day. It was the governor's final success in Ireland. Lee later met with O'Byrne's son, Felim, at Rathmines, and swore the killing was not of his choice.

The Lost Head

O'Byrne's corpse was cut up, and for months the head and quarters hung on pike staffs on the wall over Dublin Castle drawbridge. Several months later, the pickled head was presented to the council secretary at London by an English adventurer, who was disappointed to find that the head-silver due on O'Byrne had already been paid in Ireland. The queen was said to have been greatly angered that "the head of such a base Robin Hood was brought solemnly into England". The offending item was given to some lad for burial, but was found a day or two later in the fields outside London, perched in the fork of a tree.

Legacy

It was reckoned that O'Byrne was O'Neill's right hand man in the early stages of the Nine Years War. In June 1597, O'Neill attacked on several fronts - Carrickfergus, Newry and Westmeath - in retaliation for the killing of his ally. O'Byrne's sons, Felim and Redmond, survived their father and were active during the remainder of the war.

On going north into Ulster, Felim was given charge of the Blackwater fort. In October 1597, the brothers returned south and began active operations at O'Neill's direction with a force under the command of the O'Mores. In 1599, Felim had a success against the ill-fated army of the Earl of Essex (see Essex in Ireland), and Redmond returned to O'Neill's ranks. After the war, in 1606, Felim and Redmond received grants of what lands were left to them in their father's estate.

It was under the patronage of Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne that much of the Book of O'Byrne, a collection of Gaelic poems, was compiled. The manuscript was sold at auction in 2000 at Dublin.

The exploits of O'Byrne are celebrated in the modern song 'Follow me up to Carlow'.

References

*Richard Bagwell, "Ireland under the Tudors" 3 vols. (London, 1885–1890)
*John O'Donovan (ed.) "Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters" (1851).
*"Calendar of State Papers: Carew MSS." 6 vols (London, 1867-1873).
*"Calendar of State Papers: Ireland" (London)
*Nicholas Canny "The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland" (Dublin, 1976); "Kingdom and Colony" (2002).
*Steven G. Ellis "Tudor Ireland" (London, 1985) ISBN 0-582-49341-2.
*Hiram Morgan "Tyrone's Rebellion" (1995).
*Standish O'Grady (ed.) "Pacata Hibernia" 2 vols. (London, 1896).
*Cyril Falls "Elizabeth's Irish Wars" (1950; reprint London, 1996) ISBN 0-09-477220-7.
*"Dictionary of National Biography" 22 vols. (London, 1921–1922).