Page 60 - my-people-abbie-harris-beck

THE LAST GAELIC RULING HOUSE

In April 1608, grievous dissensions arose between the Governor of Derry, namely
Sir George Pawlett and the House of O'Doghyerty, headed by Sir Cahir Rua, the son of
John Oge; it was not only that a foreign-born Governor abused him in language, with
scorn, and contempt, upon the very land of his forefathers, but also inflicted on him a
personal castigation, so that he preferred death to life, rather than endure the insult and
dishonour he received...so that what he did was, to advise with his faithful friends how he
should be avenged for the insult he had received. The unanimous resolution they came to
in the first place was, on the 3rd of May, that he should invite Captain Hart, who was in
Culmore, a place which lay on the banks of Lough Foyle... and he kept him prisoner until,
he obtained the fort for his release. He then immediately proceeded, at the dawn of day to
Derry, and fiercely attacked the planer garrison by surprise; the Governor was killed by
Eochy, son of Niall, son of Gerald O'Dogherty... and many others were also slain, Captain
Henry Vaughan and the wife of the Bishop of the town were taken prisoners; they
afterwards burned the town, and carried off much booty from it. ODogherty ravaged the
settlements of the English occupation forces in various parts of Derry, Donegal and
Tyrone, and defeated them in various engagements. The English Lord Deputy of Ireland,
Sir Arthur Chichester, offered a reward of 5,000 marks for Cahir's head sending a strong
army of 4,000 men under Marshall Wingfield and Sir Oliver Lambert, against the uprising.
Wingfield then advanced against Burt Castle , the main residence of O'Dogherty, near
Lough Swilly, whose garrison surrendered on condition to save lives, but Wingfield put
most to the sword.
ODogherty had various encounters with the English forces and maintained his
ground for about three months in Donegal. On the 18th of July, Cahir's forces were
encamped at a place called Doon Rock, in close vicinity to a place called Doon Well, near
Kilmacrennan, long associated with the inaugurations of the chiefs of Tir Chonaill. Cahir
was shot dead with a musket ball by an English soldier, who took deliberate aim at him,
recognising the audacious chief amidst his men, from his waving plume and lofty stature.
His body was quartered between Derry and Culmore, and his head was sent to Dublin to
be publicly exhibited; many of the Gaelic nobles and chiefs of the province, too numerous
to be mentioned, were put to death in an effort to complete the English conquest and
widen their land confiscation policy. The last remnants of Cahir's forces were seized by
the English in September on Tory island off the coast of Donegal. The extensive estates
of O'Dogherty were confiscated and transferred to Sir Arthur Chichester . Chichester,
counseled by Davies and Caulfield, seized the able-bodied peasantry, who were deemed
to be sympathetic to the Gaelic order, and sent them off in the thousands to perish in
Livonia and Russia, under the banners of Gustavus Adolphus, then fighting the battle of
Protestantism against the Catholic House of Austria. In this way they cleared Inishowen
of six thousand of its in habitants who were inhumanely compelled to shed their blood in a
cause their consciences could not have approved.

(copied from 1995 Clan newspaper)

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