Hugh Maguire (Lord of Fermanagh)

Hugh Maguire Aodh Mág Uidhir
Memorial in Garravagh, Co. Cork
Lord of Fermanagh
Reign	1589-1600
Predecessor	Cú Connacht Óg (died 1589)
Successor	Cú Connacht Óg (c. 1570–1608)
Born	Before 1570 Fermanagh, Ireland
Died	1 March [N.S. 11 March] 1600 near Cork, Ireland
Consort	Margaret O'Neill, daughter of Hugh O'Neill
House	Maguire Dynasty
Father	Cú Connacht Óg Mag Uidhir
Mother	Nuala O'Donnell
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Hugh Maguire (Irish: Aodh Mág Uidhir;^[1] before 1570^[a] – 1 March [N.S. 11 March] 1600) was an Irish nobleman and military commander who served in the Nine Years' War. As Chief of the Maguire clan and Lord of Fermanagh, he was the first^[2][3] of the Gaelic chiefs to openly rebel against Elizabeth I's conquest of Ireland.

In early 1593, the appointment of an English Sheriff of Fermanagh led to Maguire making the first strikes against the Crown's governance in Ireland.^[4] The subsequent conflicts, which included the Battle of Belleek and the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits, were among the first of the Nine Years' War. Maguire held command at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, which resulted in a crucial victory for the Irish confederacy. In 1600, he was shot and killed by British officer Warham St Leger in a skirmish near Cork.

Hugh Maguire was the eldest son of Cúconnacht Maguire (Chief of the Name Maguire, 1566–1589) and Nuala O'Donnell, daughter of Manus O'Donnell.^[5][6][1] His siblings included younger half-brothers Brian and Cúconnacht.^[1] His family's country was in southern Ulster - a terrain of difficult access as it was covered with forest, lakes and rivers.^[7]

The Crown's authorities made sporadic attempts to subdue his clan.^{[citation needed]} As a young man, Maguire had repeated run-ins with the English governance in Dublin. In 1586 he surrendered to the English. He was pardoned in return for an agreement to pay 500 beeves to the crown,^[6][5] of which 200 were appropriated by Lord Deputy John Perrot as his perquisite to make Maguire's Gaelic lordship recognised by English law. This was not carried through, even though Maguire had lodged three pledges for his loyalty in Dublin Castle.^[6]

In 1587 Maguire, along with Art O'Neill's forces, attacked and plundered a party of Scots which had invaded Down. On their return towards the river Erne, for unknown reasons Maguire attacked O'Neill's men and killed and wounded many of them.^[6] In 1588 he was in league with Sir Brian O'Rourke, the Burkes and the Spanish following the wreckage of the Spanish Armada on the north and west coasts of Ireland.^[5] Thereafter, he was implicated in the plot of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to murder Conn MacShane O'Neill, who petitioned Lord Deputy William Fitzwilliam for protection.^[6]

Hugh Maguire succeeded to the lordship upon his father's death in 1589.^[5][4][6] He was inaugurated as Lord of Fermanagh and Maguire clan chief by his military ally Donnell O'Donnell,^[8][9] son of O'Donnell clan chief Hugh McManus O'Donnell.^[10] As Maguire clan chief, Hugh Maguire inherited lands in Fermanagh with a retreat in the islands of Lough Erne which were considered impregnable.^[5][6]

In the summer of 1590, Maguire travelled to Dublin and met with Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam. They discussed the appointment of a Sheriff of Fermanagh, who would govern Maguire's lands on behalf of the Crown - Maguire was only willing to accept a sheriff "chosen of his own name".^[4] In October 1591, he bribed Fitzwilliam and Henry Bagenal (Marshal of the Irish Army) with 300 beeves to postpone the appointment of a sheriff.^[4][6]

In 1592, Maguire provided refuge for Hugh Roe O'Donnell after his escape from imprisonment in Dublin Castle.^[5][11][12]

In early 1593, Maguire learnt that Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam would be appointing Captain Humphrey Willis as sheriff.^[5] Maguire argued that this violated the deal they had made, and retorted to Fitzwilliam that "your sheriff shall be welcome but let me know his eric [price of compensation for his death] that if my people should cut his head off I may levy it upon the country".^[6][12] Nevertheless, in spring 1593 Willis invaded Maguire's country and asserted himself as Sheriff of Fermanagh.^[4]

Willis commanded at least 100 men,^[4][13] and he quickly began pillaging and raiding Fermanagh. He had similarly pillaged Tyrconnell the previous year in his capacity as Sheriff of Tyrconnell (kingdom of the O'Donnell clan). Willis's marauding was not justified by authorities in Dublin.^[14] Disaffected members of the Maguire clan were encouraged to defy their chief.^[12]

It was after Willis' first offensive^[4] that Maguire, O'Donnell and Brian Oge O'Rourke met in Enniskillen Castle on 8 May 1593.^[15] Maguire and O'Donnell wrote letters addressed to Philip II of Spain, requesting urgent reinforcements from the Spanish army. They tasked Catholic Archbishop of Tuam James O'Hely with delivering their messages.^[16][17]

Initially Maguire was not in a position to militarily oppose Willis. However, he was able to gain reinforcements of 100 men led by Tyrone’s half-brother Cormac MacBaron O'Neill, and 120 men under the commands of Donnall and Donough O’Hagan.^[14][18] Later the same year, Maguire besieged the sheriff and his men by driving them into a church.^[12] Driving Willis and his men into a church was the same technique Hugh Roe O'Donnell used to expell Willis from Tyrconnell in 1592.^[19][20] Maguire planned to starve them out, but Tyrone (then an ally to the Crown) intervened and negotiated their rescue.^[12] After six to seven days, Willis and his men were conducted safely out of Fermanagh. Maguire used the opportunity to push them into the lands of his rival, loyalist Connor Roe Maguire.^[15]

From an English perspective, Maguire's response was extreme. However it came at a time of high tension between Ulster lords and the Dublin government. The 1590 execution of Lord Hugh Roe MacMahon had caused anger across the Ulster lords.^[15] Additionally neighbouring kingdom Tyrconnell had suffered heavily under Willis's command.^[21] By the end of May, Maguire was openly at war with the Crown.^[15]

Encouraged by the Catholic archbishop of Armagh, Edmund MacGauran, but opposed by Tyrone, Maguire invaded Connacht straight away and met with the army of Sir Richard Bingham, president of the province, on mid-summer eve. The battle of Sciath na Feart took place at Tulsk, in a fog so dense that the sides only realised their proximity when their cavalries were almost upon one another. Bingham's men fled to their camp, and Maguire pursued but was repulsed and in his turn pursued. The Irish lost MacGauran; the English lost William Clifford. Maguire retired into his country with considerable spoil.^{[12][citation needed]}

At the end of 1593, Maguire was wounded in an attempt to prevent Sir Henry Bagenal and Tyrone from crossing the Erne. In June of the following year he besieged Enniskillen with Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell.^[22] Sir Henry Duke sought to relieve the garrison, but Maguire intercepted him at the Arney River and defeated him in the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits (Beal atha na mBriosgaidh).^[23] In the following year he devastated Cavan and was again proclaimed a traitor by the English.^[12]

During the Irish Nine Years' War (1593–1603), Maguire participated in the Battle of Clontibret in 1595, a significant early defeat for the English, and commanded the cavalry at Mullaghbrack in 1596. He sent in his submission to the government later in the year.^[22]

In 1598, he held a command at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, at which Bagenal was slain and the English army annihilated. In 1599, he helped raid Thomond and took Inchiquin Castle in County Clare.^[22]

Maguire was one of six confederate witnesses present at a riverside conference with English officers on 7 September 1599.^[24][25][26] This was a follow-up to the well-known riverside parley between Tyrone and Lord Deputy Essex earlier that day.^[27][28] Ironically, Warham St Leger, the man who would kill Maguire, was also present.^[24][25]

In early 1600, Maguire commanded Tyrone's cavalry in the Leinster and Munster campaigns.^[22][12]

On 1 March [N.S. 11 March] 1600,^[b] Maguire and a small party were conducting reconnaissance a mile from Cork.^[32][5][22] They were intercepted by British officers Sir Warham St Leger and Sir Henry Power.^[12] Maguire, undaunted, rode his horse into the midst of the enemy party. He was shot by St Leger, but managed to thrust his lance through St Leger's helmet and into his skull, killing him instantly.^[12][5] Maguire had not passed far from the scene of the battle when he died of his wounds.^[37] His body was buried with full military honours, in an unknown plot around Inniscarra.^[38][39]

On 4 March, Power informed the council of Maguire's death. Maguire's foster father, his priest, and all the commanders of his regiment were also killed.^[22] St Leger is not to be confused with his better-known uncle, also named Warham St Leger (c. 1525–1597).^[33]

On 17 May 1593, Fitzwilliam reported that Maguire was to marry Margaret O'Neill, Tyrone's daughter. Their marriage occurred shortly after the report.^[40][41]

Maguire had at least three children: Seaan Ruadh, Aodh and Eamonn. Maguire's eldest son (possibly Seaan Ruadh) was killed in the same skirmish as his father. Paul Walsh points out that this eldest son would not been the child of Margaret O'Neill.^[3]

In 1607, the Earl of Clanricarde referenced a son of Maguire and Margaret.^[3]

Maguire's death was a blow to the rebel cause.^[5] He had educated and advanced notions of cavalry warfare; so too did St Leger, and their meeting was as much one of minds as of force.^{[citation needed]} It is assumed that Maguire's death was the reason Tyrone abruptly left Munster and returned to Ulster.^[5][42]

The Annals of the Four Masters (c. 1630) describes the reaction to Maguire's death: "[his death caused] a giddiness of spirits and depression of mind in O'Neill and the Irish chiefs in general; and this was no wonder, for he was the bulwark of valour and prowess, the shield of protection and shelter, the tower of support and defence, and the pillar of the hospitality and achievements of the Oirghialla, and of almost all the Irish of his time".^[5][22][12]

The lordship of Fermanagh was contested by two rival claimants - Connor Roe Maguire (grandson of a former chief) and Cúconnacht Maguire (Hugh Maguire's younger half-brother). Tyrone favoured Connor. At a banquet attended by the claimants and Tyrone, Hugh Roe O'Donnell proclaimed Cúconnacht as chief, presenting them with a fait accompli. After many years of rivalry, in 1603 Cúconnacht defeated Connor in battle and was accepted as Maguire clan chief. Cúconnacht departed Ireland with Tyrone during the Flight of the Earls in 1607. On 12 August 1608, he died of a fever in Genoa.^[1]

As part of the Plantation of Ulster, almost all of Fermanagh was confiscated by the Crown and populated by English settlers and lowland Scots,^[43] particularly border reivers.^[44]

On 29 April 2001, a monument commemorating Maguire was erected in Garravagh, near Cork.^{[30][31][45][46]}

Maguire's bard, Eochaidh Ó hÉoghusa (English: O'Hussey), composed an ode upon his patron's death. Centuries later it was translated into English by James Clarence Mangan.^[47][32] An extract reads:

Tho’ he were even a wolf ranging the round green woods,
Tho’ he were even a pleasant salmon in the unchainable sea,
Tho’ he were a wild mountain eagle, he could scarce bear, he,
This sharp sore sleet, these howling floods.^[48]

In his 1861 poem Eirinn a' Gul ("Ireland Weeping"), Uilleam Mac Dhunlèibhe, an important figure in 19th century Scottish Gaelic literature, recalled the many stories about his fellow Gaels in Inis Fáil (Ireland) he had heard in the Ceilidh houses of Islay, before that island was emptied by the Highland Clearances. He then lamented the destruction wreaked upon the Irish people by both famine and similar mass evictions ordered by Anglo-Irish landlords. He particularly laments the loss of the Chiefs of the Irish clans, who led their clansmen in war and provided "leadership of the old and true Gaelic kind". Mac Dhunlèibhe comments sadly that the mid-19th century fighters for Irish republicanism had none of the heroic qualities shown by Red Hugh O'Donnell, Hugh O'Neill, and Hugh Maguire during the Nine Years' War. Sadly, but expressing hope for the future of the Irish people, Mac Dhunlèibhe closes by asking where are the Irish clan warriors who charged out of the mist and slaughtered the armies of the Stranger at the Battle of the Yellow Ford and the Battle of Moyry Pass.^[49]

• Macauley, Iain. "Rebellion & The Nine Years War" (PDF). Enniskillen Castle Museums. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
• Donegal County Archives. The Flight of the Earls Document Study Pack. p. 10.