Resistance and Rebellion

The English administration and the settlers continued to feel vulnerable and were wary of the threat of revolt against them. In 1628, rumours of a planned invasion by the Irish emigres on the Continent, with Spanish help, led to the arrest of Turlough Roe O’Boyle.

“O’Boyle was accused of receiving letters and many visitors who had travelled from Spain at his house at Kiltoorish, including Neachtan O’Donnell, a relative of the 1st Earl of Tyrconnell. Neachtan had participated in the Flight of the Earls in 1607 and had been serving ever since in the Spanish army in Flanders. O’Boyle certainly received news of the plans of the exiled earls as it was common knowledge ‘amongst the servants of the house that Spaniards would come into this kingdom before it were long…and the Killybegs the place of their landing’.

Very serious allegations were made against Turlough by his butler, Edmond O’Grady, who alleged that ‘all the young men about his master’s habitation, as many as he doth trust, were all combined and resolved to join with the Irish Regiments and Spaniards if they came; and that there was not a boy belonging to his master or his friends, but were all armed with scians (daggers) and darts at the least, and others better’.

Although these accusations may indicate one of the first organised attempts by the Gaelic natives to attack the Ulster plantation, they are probably not credible. Lord Deputy Falkland took an interest in the goings-on in Boylagh and had Sir William Stewart arrest O’Boyle and Neachtan O’Donnell…. O’Boyle was ‘sent to the jail of the Lifford there to remain till he be delivered by true course of law or until Your Lordship [Falkland] signify your further pleasure’. O’Donnell was also in the jail of Lifford and Stewart advised Falkland to ‘send for him, for I believe he hath something in his mind, that he may be made to discover’.

However, O’Donnell would ‘confess nothing’ to Stewart. If Turlough O’Boyle had indeed been plotting an attack on the settlers in Donegal, he would surely have been executed as were a group of unfortunate Gaelic nobles in Co. Derry in 1615. In the end, O’Boyle was simply released.”[McGettigan p 34-35.]

But by 1641 a rising was definitely being planned in an attempt by the remaining Irish nobility to regain the lands and power they had lost. The rebellion merged into ‘The War of the Three Kingdoms’ and was only brought to a close by the Cromwellian forces in 1653.

Despite the leaders’ intentions for a surgical military operation, in the northern counties it quickly degenerated into a series of skirmishes and attacks on the civilian settler population. Turlough Roe seems to have been involved from the outset and may have taken a leading role in the planning as he is frequently mentioned as a leader of the Irish.

A number of settlers later made depositions concerning their treatment at the hands of the rebel Irish. [1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin. https://1641.tcd.ie/

Mrs Ann Dutton gives a long list of rebels including:

“Tirloghe Roe ô Boyle of Killdurris Esquire [and] Tirloghe oge ô Boyle his sonne” as being among the rebels who “are or Lately were in actuall Rebellion: and carry armes with for and amongst the other Rebells against his Maiesties Lojall subjects are & Comitt divers outrages: & some wherof hadd & forceibly tooke away theis deponents said goods”.

John Ravenscroft also names

“Tirlogh Roe o Boyle of Killdurris Esquire Tirlogh oge o Boyle his sonne and Teig oge o Boyle brother to the said Turlaghe all of the County of Donnegall, And further sayth That 4 Barronies within the said Countie wherein many english and Scottishe were planted, are all wasted & spoyled by the Rebells, and a greate number of the English & Scotts there slaine by the Rebells: & some escaped by flight

James Kennedy claimed that

“Turloghe Roe ô Bojle of Boilogh Esquire is another dangerous Rebell within the said County of Donnegall, whose brother Teige oge ô Boyle a notorious Rebell & now prisoner in the Castle of Donnegall publiquely said That they had a Comission from the king for what they did & the [ ] best mens handes in Engld Scotland & Ireland for it, And that the King should have beene in Ireland about the tenth of May next after the begining of the Rebellion And saith further that the Sept of the ô Bojles alsoe murthered one Robert Bard a protestant, … And one William Carn{e} a gent of good Ranck, was alsoe cruelly hanged to death by the Septs of the ô Bojles and Mc Awards: And as this deponent was credibly informed a gentlewoman by name Mary the wife of Mr James Tweedy & her three children were all alsoe murthered by the Rebells”

Kennedy’s deposition is interesting in that he states that the O’Boyles were aware of the claims of Sir Phelim O’Neill (the rebel leader) to have a commission from King Charles I for his actions. Though the commission is now believed to have been a forgery, it highlights that the rebels saw themselves defending the King’s interests against his enemies, the Scottish Covenanters and the English parliamentarians, in order to win concessions from him, including the restoration of their estates.

From their base in east Donegal the Scottish settlers organised themselves rapidly into the Laggan Army, a formidable militia that was better armed and with more experienced officers than the Irish who were defeated again and again. At a battle in the early days of the rebellion near Killybegs (described in some sources as a “fierce battle”, but elsewhere as just a skirmish) where Turlough Roe was a leader, along with the sons of the MacSweeney Banagh, the Irish were routed by the settlers under Rev. Andrew Knox. As the settlers gained the upper hand, it was stated that “thousands of the poor Irish starved in woods, bogs, dens and caves”.

The Gaelic nobles were about to give up and scatter to the rest of Ireland when Col. Owen Roe O’Neill arrived from Flanders at Doe Castle in NW Donegal with experienced troops and supplies. O’Neill succeeded in imposing order on events, and as the native Irish formed an alliance with the still-Catholic Old English,

Turlough Roe took on a more political role, representing Ulster in the Catholic Confederation general assembly, and was a member of the 9th Supreme Council during 1647-8 [Cregan,1995]. The confederation was prone to factional splits, but Turlough supported O’Neill and was trusted by him to negotiate on his behalf. Along with Bishop Heber MacMahon he negotiated with royalist emissaries and was treated as ‘a commissioner on the behalf of General Owen O'Neill and his adherents’ and in 1649 he and MacMahon signed ‘Articles of agreement’ with the royalists.

The death of Owen Roe O’Neill (from illness) and the arrival of Cromwell on the scene spelt the end for the Irish. At the last pitched battle of the war at Scarriffhollis near Letterkenny in 1650, it is estimated that 2,500 of the 3,000 Irish troops were killed. An Irish scholar, Conchobhar Ó Luinín, writing after the battle, laments the destruction wrought on the Irish:

“The rout of the Swilly alias Letterkenny was suffered by the Irish. That was the place in which the nobility of Ulster were brought to the point of being exterminated as a kin-group, possession of Ireland was given without a fight to the men of England”.

He goes on to list the “Most Illustrious Noblemen who fell in that battle from the province of Ulster”, including Toirrdhealbhach Óg O Baoighill, the son of Toirrdhealbhach, LEU COL. The English account of the battle also lists “Lieutenant-Colonel Terlough Oboyle” among the casualties. It is likely that this was the son of Turlough Roe.

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