From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 1 - Ballyboyle - our ancient ancestors
The Wider World intrudes
Positioned at one of the furthermost corners of Europe, the O'Boyle homeland was indeed isolated from the major currents of world events, and without towns or roads or a diversified economy, it was a fairly self-sufficient and inward-looking society. But it was never completely cut off from events in the wider world, and even as early as the 12th century, the O'Boyles were fighting and dying to repel the incursions of Anglo-Norman Earl of Ulster, John de Courcy.
For much of the Middle Ages, the English were seen as just another player in the volatile world of dynastic struggles and inter-clan rivalries, and despite their efforts, the Gaelic lords maintained their independence and culture for several centuries. However, they failed to appreciate the much broader scope of the colonial expansionist mindset that developed in the Tudor period and were not well equipped to deal militarily or politically with the encroachment of the English Crown. The English became adept at using their internal conflicts to exert centralised control by engaging the Gaelic lords in the English system of government, either by force or persuasion,
Assuming the lordship in 1549, Turlough O'Boyle (Turlough, the son of Niall, son of Turlough Oge, son of Turlough More) becomes involved in these initiatives: in 1564 "O'Donnell (Calvagh) and O'Boyle (Turlough) repaired to Dublin to the Lord Justice, to confer with him", and they "received great honour and respect from him".
Later, in 1585, O'Boyle is one of those summoned by the head of the English administration, Lord Deputy John Perrot, to attend Parliament in Dublin. The annals describe it as follows:
A proclamation of Parliament was issued to the men of Ireland, commanding their chiefs to assemble in Dublin precisely on May-day, for the greater part of the people of Ireland were at this time obedient to their sovereign; and, accordingly, they all at that summons did meet in Dublin face to face...All these nobles assembled in Dublin, and remained there for some time; but the business of the Parliament was not finished this year. They then departed for their respective homes.
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However, the Ulster lords were invited, not as members of parliament (none of their names appear on the list of members), but probably as observers. Delegations from some forty-two Irish septs attended, and there was much pomp and ceremony, designed to impress on them the might and civility of the English.
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Perrot’s plan was to ‘shire’ their territories, i.e. to impose an English system of administration. The parliament passed a decree which stated that Tir Conaill and Inishowen were henceforth to be known as Donegal. This measure was strenuously resisted by O'Donnell who refused to accept any interference in the running of Tir Conaill and to this effect, he forbade the entrance of the English sheriff into his territory. However, by the time the Flight of the Earls had occurred some twenty years later, the name Donegal started to prevail in the vernacular.
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Turlough Roe I (Toirdhealbhach Rua Ó Baoighill)
This Turlough is the first Chief of whom we have enough information to construct a biography of sorts. From the middle of the 16th century, the details in the Annals become more elaborate (as the scribes are writing about events close to their own time). In addition, the encroaching English administration begins to record their contacts with the heretofore remote Gaelic nobles.
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After years of intra-family conflict, Turlough Roe succeeded to the chieftainship about 1549 on the death of Donnell (probably his brother as both are usually described as 'son of Niall'). It appears Turlough was married twice. His first wife was Eveleen, daughter of O'Donnell, but she died in 1549 and he married Catherine Maguire, daughter of Cuconnacht Maguire, lord of Fermanagh. She was described as “the best chieftain’s wife in Ulster” on her death in 1568. He had his fair share of tragedy, though maybe this was the norm for the time: His daughter, Joan, was drowned in 1576 as she was learning to swim, Two sons died at the hands of the Scots, one on Tory Island in 1551 and another, Tadhg (Teige) by MacAllisdair Gallda in 1561 and in 1583 yet another son Donough was slain on Inishkeel island by the O’Malleys.
When Turlough died in 1591, he was praised as
"the most distinguished man that had come of his tribe for a long time, a sustaining pillar of the learned and the destitute, an exalter of sanctuaries, churches, and science, the Guaire of his tribe in generosity and hospitality, and the supporter of the poor and the feeble, died at his own fortress, about the festival of St. Bridget, and was interred with honour at Donegal, in the burial-place of his ancestors.”
Teige Oge (Taidhgh Óg)
Possibly a few years before his death, Turlough was succeeded as chief by Teige Oge who was probably his grandson (as his son Teige was killed in 1561). Teige Oge was not to know it, but he was the last formally inaugurated Chief of the O'Boyles. He was immediately embroiled in the O'Donnells' internal strife and when the O'Donnells and O'Neills finally united to resist the English in the Nine Years' War, he became an essential element in Aodh Rua (Red Hugh) O'Donnell's forces. He died on the 3rd of May 1607 at Drumark, Ballyboyle, the site of one of of O'Boyles' castles just outside the modern Donegal town and was buried at Donegal alongside his wife, Mary O'Donnell who had died on the 6th November 1601. He left a young son, (yet another) Turlough Roe, who was just a child at the time, but who was to take a prominent role in the events of the following decades. Though regarded as the Chief, even by the English authorities, there is no record that Turlough Roe was ever formally inaugurated, perhaps indicating that the Gaelic political system was breaking down
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