This article is about the queen consort of Tyrconnell. For the 15th-century Irish noblewoman, see Finola O'Donnell.
Lady Fiona O'Donnell[a] (Irish: Fionnghuala Ó Dhomhnaill; née McDonnell; fl. 1567–1611), also styled as Dame Fiona O'Donnell, was a Scottish aristocrat and queen consort of Tyrconnell.[2] She is better known by her Irish nickname Iníon Dubh[b] (pronounced in Ulster Irish and Scots Gaelic as in-NEEN DOO; "Black-Haired Daughter").[5][6]
She was the second wife of Sir Hugh McManus O'Donnell, King of Tyrconnell, and mother of eight children, including Hugh Roe, Rory, Nuala and Cathbarr. Her Scottish connections meant she had access to the Redshanks, which she regularly used to subjugate her family's rivals. The Most Rev.Miler Magrath described her as "a cruel, bloody woman who has committed sundry murders".[1]
She had significant influence over the reigns of both her husband and son. Historian Emmett O'Byrne has called Iníon Dubh "one of the most remarkable Gaelic woman of the sixteenth century".[2]
Once Turlough Lynagh O'Neill became Lord of Tír Eoghain, he offered an alliance to the MacDonalds. In November 1567, he asked for either Fiona or Agnes' hand in marriage. By April 1568, the MacDonalds had decided that Agnes would marry O'Neill, and Fiona would marry Sir Hugh McManus O'Donnell, King of Tyrconnell.[2] Fiona married Sir Hugh around 1569.[9]Women in early modern Scotland did not use their husband's surnames after marriage.[10][11]
Iníon Dubh had a major influence in Sir Hugh's lordship. Her powerful connections ensured a healthy recruitment of ScottishRedshanks from Clan Donald to Sir Hugh's armies,[7] and she regularly travelled to Scotland to enlist her kinsmen. In March 1572, her growing power over her husband was noted by government officials. It is believed that Sir Hugh's decision to maintain his alliance with O'Neill was due to her influence.[2]
She bore four sons, including the last two reigning Kings of Tyrconnell, Hugh Roe and Rory. When her husband grew senile in his old age, she took over the effective leadership of the territory.[12] She is described in the Annals of the Four Masters as "like the mother of Machabees who joined a man's heart to a woman's thought".[13]
In May 1580, Sir Hugh and O'Neill sent their wives to Scotland to procure more mercenaries. Iníon Dubh and Agnes' efforts were successful - 2000 Scots arrived in Lough Foyle that August, eliciting much fear in the English.[2]
In 1588 she had her nephew, Hugh Gavelach O'Donnell, assassinated. According to the Annals of the Four Masters:
"Hugh had constantly sided with the descendants of Calvagh O'Donnell, who were all conjointly leagued with Turlough Lynagh O'Neill, who was always at war with O'Donnell and his son-in-law, the Earl O'Neill (Hugh, son of Ferdorcha). Moreover, her dearly beloved brother, Alexander, had been, as we have before stated, slain by Hugh, son of the Dean, and besides these she had many other causes of enmity towards him; and it was sickness of heart and anguish of mind to her that revenge was not taken of him for his pride and arrogance. She complained of her troubles and injuries to the Scottish auxiliaries, who were constantly in her service and pay, and who were in attendance on her in every place; and they promised that they would be ready at her command, to wreak vengeance upon their enemies, whenever they should meet with them. Hugh one time happened to be coming up, in pride, vigour, and high spirits (without remembering the spite or the enmity against him ) towards the place where she was, at Magh-gaibhlin. When he had come to the town, she addressed her faithful people, i.e. the Scots; and begged and requested of them to fulfil their promise. This was accordingly done for her, for they rushed to the place where Hugh was, and proceeded to shoot at him with darts and bullets, until they left him lifeless; and there were also slain along with him the dearest to him of his faithful people."[13]
In February 1589, when an English garrison arrived to occupy Donegal Castle, they found it engulfed in flames on Iníon Dubh's orders. She had departed for Scotland to secure additional troops.[2]
In 1590, Iníon Dubh's stepson through her husband's first marriage, Donal O'Donnell, attempted to depose his father and seize power. In response, Iníon Dubh gathered an army of all those still loyal to her husband, including Clan Sweeney, O'Doherty, and many Redshanks from Clan Donald. When their armies came to blows, Donal was defeated and killed by Iníon Dubh at the Battle of Doire Leathan on 14 September 1590. Throughout this period she made repeated attempts to secure Red Hugh's release or escape from Dublin Castle.[7][2]
When Red Hugh finally escaped and returned to Tyrconnell in 1592, Iníon Dubh temporarily bought off the remaining claimant, Niall Garve O'Donnell, with a dynastic marriage to her stepdaughter Nuala O'Donnell. Historian Hiram Morgan has alleged that the coronation of Red Hugh as The O'Donnell Chief of the Name at the Rock of Doon, near Termon, in 1592 was, "a stage managed affair in which the influence of his mother was paramount".[14] According to Kate Newmann, Iníon Dubh's "military strength and influence is seen as the decisive factor" in Hugh Roe's succession as King of Tyrconnell.[1]
During Hugh Roe's reign, Iníon Dubh continued to play a major role as a diplomat. In September 1597, Hugh Roe sent her to stop her brother Angus MacDonald from taking revenge on their ally Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (the Earl had jilted Angus's daughter).[2]
During 1599, she bought arms and once again recruited mercenaries for the Irish alliance. She nursed her husband until his death in 1600.[2]
In June 1601, Hugh Roe appointed her as governor of Sligo Castle. That October, Iníon Dubh and her daughter were captured in Collooney Castle by Sir Henry Docwra. In 1602, Hugh Roe died in Spain and his younger brother Rory submitted. Iníon Dubh was released, and it seems she retired to Mongavlin near Lough Foyle.[2]
In 1608, with all her sons dead, she implicated her estranged and treacherous son-in-law, Niall Garbh, in alleged complicity in O'Doherty's rebellion and saw him sent to the Tower of London until he died there in 1626. In her later years, she also maintained Mongavlin Castle, a small fortress on the banks of the River Foyle, as a residence just south of St Johnston, The Laggan, East Donegal.[2]
She probably died shortly after May 1611, when she was last referenced as receiving land in the Plantation of Ulster.[2]
^Concannon believed Siobhán was born c. 1569, and that her mother was Iníon Dubh,[iii] who married Sir Hugh around that time. However, Siobhán married Hugh O'Neill in 1574, making that date of birth unlikely. Casway and Walsh believe Siobhán's mother was Sir Hugh's first wife.[iv][v]
^In a letter dated 31 January 1591, O'Neill references Siobhán's recent death.[v]
^Her death date has alternately been given as 1639, 26 April 1640, or sometime after 31 March 1642.[v]
^Sources disagree on Henry's date of death: 1610,[iv] c. 1620,[xix] or c. 1626.[viii] It is clear that he died sometime before the publication of Philip O'Sullevan's Historia Catholica in 1621.[v]
^ abConcannon, p. 218-219 "Siobhan was probably the eldest of the family, and must have been born not later than 1569." "We know little of Siobhan, who can hardly have been more than one-and- twenty, when she died in 1590."
^ abHill 1873, page 222. "Sir Randal Macdonnell was married about the year 1604 to Ellis or Alice O'Neill, the third daughter of Hugh earl of Tyrone. This lady, who was born in 1583, was in her twenty-first year at the time of her marriage, and was younger than either of her sisters, lady Macmahon or Lady Maginnis. She was older than her brother Hugh, the baron of Dungannon."
^Cokayne 1910. "[The 1st Earl of Antrim] m., 1604, Alice, da. of Hugh (O'Neill), Earl of Tyrone [I], by his 2nd wife, Joanna, da. of Hugh McManus O'Donnell."
^Cokayne 1910. "[The 1st Earl of Antrim] m., 1604, Alice, da. of Hugh (O'Neill), Earl of Tyrone [I], by his 2nd wife, Joanna, da. of Hugh McManus O'Donnell."
^Concannon, p. 218 "The inscription on the tomb in San Pietro in Montorio shows that her eldest child, Hugh, was born in 1585."
^Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1867, p. 459: "..he died unmarried on the 23rd of September, 1609, aged twenty-four... and was buried in the church of St. Peter's in Montorio..."
^ abRoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1867, p. 459
^Ó Domhnaill, Niall; Na Glúnta Rosannacha (1952), page 87
^Annals of the Four Masters: "1590: ...the son of O'Donnell himself, who, being unable to display prowess or defend himself, was slain at Doire-leathan, on one side of the harbour of Telinn, on the 14th of September."
^Annals of the Four Masters: "1602:...O'Donnell should take the disease of his death and the sickness of his dissolution; and, after lying seventeen days on the bed, he died, on the 10th of September, in the house which the King of Spain himself had at that town (Simancas)...""
^ abSilke 2006 "Hugh Albert O'Donnell, born [to Rory and Bridget] about October 1606, was the only son of this marriage, Mary Stuart O'Donnell being born about a year later."
^Bagwell 1895 "About ninety persons sailed with the earls, among whom were Tyrconnel's son Hugh, aged eleven months..."
^Ulwencreutz, Lars (2013), Ulwencreutz's The Royal Families in Europe V, Lulu.com, p. 136, ISBN978-1-304-58135-8 "Hugh O'Donnell, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell (1606-1642) Prince and Lord of Tryconnell".
^Casway 2009. Casway gives her birthdate as c. 1575
^Concannon, p. 218 "O'Clery tells us that Nuala was already married to Niall Garbh in 1592. This will place her birth-year with some degree of probability about 1577 — not later."
^Annals of the Four Masters: "1608: Niall Garv O'Donnell, with his brothers Hugh Boy and Donnell, and his son, Naghtan, were taken prisoners about the festival of St. John in this year."
^According to the English officials who wrote the Calendar of State Papers, Hugh Roe personally killed Niall Garve's four-year-old son (also his own nephew)
^Concannon, p. 218 "Manus may have been born about 1579 or 1580. He was old enough to play a man's part in the battle in which he met his death at the hands of Niall Garbh (A.D. 1600)"Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh names the sons in the order of their birth: Hugh Roe, Ruairi, Manus and Cathbar.
^O'Donnell, Eunan; Reflection on the Flight of the Earls; Donegal Annual, Bliainiris Dhún na nGall, Journal of the County Donegal Historical Society, No. 58 (2006); pp. 31-44.