Domhnall na g-Croiceann

Carbery in Tudor times

Donal of the Skins or Hides (Irish: Domhnall na g-Croiceann), also called Peltry O'Donovan or simply Donal I O'Donovan (Irish: Domhnall Ó Donnabháin), was The O'Donovan Mor, Lord of Clancahill from his inauguration with the White Wand circa 1560 by the MacCarthy Reagh, Prince of Carbery, to his death in 1584. Although not recorded his inaugurator was probably Cormac na Haoine MacCarthy Reagh, 10th Prince of Carbery.

He was the son of Teige of Dromasta, The O'Donovan Mor, and Helena O'Donovan, daughter of Denis O'Donovan MacEnesles of Moyny.

He was not raised as an O'Donovan, but was instead fostered by the O'Leary of Carrignacurra. Donal married his foster father's daughter, Ellen O'Leary, and upon coming of age, pronounced himself as an O'Donovan, and sezied the chieftainship by force of arms. By his marriage to Ellen, his foster sister, he had Diarmaid O'Donovan, who was hanged for raiding in their territory by the forces of Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare in 1581, Teige and "other sons", who in 1592 were declared illegitimate (i.e., not bastards) by the Lord Chancellor Adam Loftus. He was followed in the chieftainship of Clan Cahill by his son, Donal, upon his death in 1584. His son Donal II O'Donovan was recognized as chief of Clan Cahill by his then father in law, MacCarthy Reagh. The younger Teige attempted to contest the succession, alleging Donal II was a bastard, but failed in his attempt.

Epithet

Donal's epithet na g-Croiceann or "of the Skins" is believed to come from his being, when a child, wrapped by his mother in cow hides to protect him from the enemies of his father.

Life

Donal is best known for allegedly slaughtering approximately fifteen of his own kinsfolk, and dispossessing still more, to become O'Donovan, Lord of Clancahill. The events as they have come down to later generations are as follows.

References

• Burke, Bernard and Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Irish Family Records. London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. 5th edition, 1976.
• Burke, Bernard and Ashworth Peter Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland. London: Harrison & Sons. 9th edition, 1899. pp. 341–2
• John Collins of Myross, Pedigree/History of the O'Donovan(s) family. Extracts from unpublished early 19th-century manuscript (probably now lost), based on earlier accounts (lost).
• Fiants of Queen Elizabeth. Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland.
• Hooker, John, The Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew, Kt.. Late 16th century. Ed. w/ intro. & notes by John MacLean. London: Bell & Daldy. 1857.
• O'Donovan, John (ed. & tr.), Annala Rioghachta Eireann. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616. 7 vols. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. 2nd edition, 1856. Volume V, pp. 1762–3. Volume VI, Pedigree of the O'Donovan family, pp. 2441, also 2439–40
• O'Donovan, John, The Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society. 1844. pp. 444–450
• O'Hart, John, Irish Pedigrees. Dublin: James Duffy and Co. 5th edition, 1892. pp. 199–200
• Ó Murchadha, Diarmuid, Family Names of County Cork. Cork: The Collins Press. 2nd edition, 1996.

Further reading

• Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, Carberiae Notitia. 1686. extracts published in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume XII, Second Series. 1906. pp. 142–9
• FitzPatrick, Elizabeth, Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Boydell Press. 2004.
• Nicholls, K. W., Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 2nd edition, 2003.
• Smith, Charles, eds. Robert Day and W. A. Copinger, The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork. Volume I. Volume II. 1750. Cork: Guy & Co. Ltd. 1893.