RORY O'DONNELL, 1st earl of Tyrconnel (1575-1608), second son of Hugh MacManus O'Donnell, and younger brother of Hugh Roe, accompanied the latter in the expedition to Kinsale; and when his brother sailed for Spain he transferred his authority as chief to Rory. In 16o2 Rory gave in his allegiance to Lord Mountjoy, the lord deputy; and in the following summer he went to London with the earl of Tyrone, when James I. created him earl of Tyrconnel. In 1605 he was made the king's lieutenant in Donegal. But the arrangement between Rory and Niall Garve in sisted upon by the Government displeased both O'Donnells, and Rory, like Hugh Roe before him, entered into negotiations with Spain. His country had been devastated by famine and war, and his own extravagance had plunged him in debt. These circum stances and the fear that his designs were known to the Govern ment induced him to leave Ireland. In Sept. 1607 "the flight of the earls" (see O'NEILL) took place, Tyrconnel and Tyrone reach ing Rome in April 16°8, where Tyrconnel died on July 28. His wife, the beautiful daughter of the earl of Kildare, was left behind in the haste of Tyrconnel's flight, and lived to marry Nicholas Barnewell, Lord Kingsland. By Tyrconnel she had a son Hugh; and among other children a daughter Mary Stuart O'Donnell, who, born after her father's flight from Ireland, was so named by James I. after his mother. This lady, after many romantic ad ventures, married a man called O'Gallagher and died in poverty on the Continent.
Rory O'Donnell was attainted by the Irish parliament in 1614, but his son Hugh, who lived at the Spanish court, assumed the title of earl; and the last titular earl of Tyrconnel was this Hugh's son Hugh Albert, who died without heirs in 1642, and who by his will appointed Hugh Baldearg O'Donnell (see above) his heir, thus restoring the chieftainship to the elder branch of the family.
To a still elder branch belonged Daniel O'Donnell (1666-1735), a general of the famous Irish brigade in the French service, whose father, Turlough, was a son of Hugh Dubh O'Donnell, elder brother of Manus, son of an earlier Hugh Dubh mentioned above. Daniel served in the French army in the wars of the period, fight ing against Marlborough at Oudenarde and Marlplaquet at the head of an O'Donnell regiment. He died in 1735.
The famous Cathach, or Battle-Book of the O'Donnells, was in the possession of General Daniel O'Donnell, from whom it passed to more modern representatives of the family, who presented it to the Royal Irish Academy, where it is preserved. This relic, of which a curious legend is told (see P. W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland, 1903, vol. i. p. soi), is a Psalter said to have belonged to St. Columba, a kinsman of the O'Donnells, which was carried by them in battle as a charm or talisman to secure victory. Two other circumstances connecting the O'Donnells with ancient Irish literature may be mentioned. The family of O'Clery, to which three of the celebrated "Four Masters" belonged, were hereditary 011aves (doctors of history, music, law, etc.) attached to the family of O'Donnell; while the "Book of the Dun Cow" (Lebor-na-h Uidhre) , one of the most ancient Irish mss., was in the possession of the O'Donnells in the 14th century ; and the estimation in which it was held at that time is proved by the fact that it was given to the O'Connors of Connaught as ransom for an important prisoner, and was forcibly recovered some years later.
See O'NEILL, and the authorities there cited.