From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 1 - Ballyboyle - our ancient ancestors
O'Donnells' Wars (cont.)
“On the next day O'Donnell ordered his people to send away all their cattle-spoils and plunders home to their houses, and to let their servants and the unarmed and wounded go along with them. Among those of their chiefs who were mortally wounded at this time were Teige Oge, the son of Niall, son of Niall Roe, son of Turlough Bearnach O'Boyle; and Duigin, the son of Maccon, son of Cucogry O'Clery; who were both accidentally wounded by another party of O'Donnell's people, as they were attacking Clar-mor upon the Earl of Thomond. The two aforesaid died on the road, returning home; and they were both carried to their territories, and were buried at Donegal.”
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Having asserted his dominance by plunder and destruction of his recalcitrant neighbours, Hugh Roe responded to overtures from Hugh O’Neill to form an alliance against the English. Over the following nine years they resisted the encroachment of the English in a series of skirmishes and pitched battles. Though later generations perceived the war as a nationalistic struggle of Irish vs. English, it is probably more accurate to view it as an attempt by Gaelic lords to preserve their independence of action within their own domains in the face of the centralizing authority, which happened to be English.
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Throughout this period the O’Boyles seem to have stayed loyal to the O’Donnells; at least there is no evidence to the contrary, and they are recorded as accompanying O’Donnell on raids into other chiefdoms in Connacht. And when Hugh Roe’s successor, Rory O’Donnell received a pardon for himself and his followers, “the Gentry and Yeomen of Tyrconnell” for their involvement in the war, it also names forty-three O’Boyles.
There are also indications that some of the O’Boyles were already moving away from their traditional territory. Turlagh MacHenry O'Neill was a half-brother to Hugh O’Neill and chief of the Fews, a barony in south Armagh. Sandwiched between his powerful half-brother and the English of the Pale, Turlough attempted steer a middle course and to play both sides. Before the start of the war, the English paid him to maintain a force of 50 horsemen and 200 kern (light infantry soldiers), though at times he deployed this force in support of Hugh against the English.
Nevertheless, he obtained a pardon at the war’s end, and a census of his territory was conducted in 1602 to identify those to be included in the pardon. By this time his forces have been decimated, and among the landholders and peasants the census lists only 20 horsemen and 21 kerns, but four of the kerns are O’Boyles - Shane, Brian, Tohile and Richard. It is possible that when at full strength the force had many more O’Boyles, perhaps a group of mercenaries who sold their services to the highest bidder, or maybe a unit assigned to Turlough in a deal with the chief of the O’Boyles. Three hundred years later, we find a cluster of Boyles in south Armagh/north Louth. Are these the descendants of these 16th century soldiers?