Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s travel narrative relating the journey of the earls from Rathmullan via Louvain to Rome needs to be firmly located in the political, religious and cultural milieu of the Irish Franciscan community at St Anthony’s College, Louvain. The first modern travel narrative in the Irish language, the text was composed in Rome in … Read more
The political background In September 1607 the cream of Ulster’s Gaelic aristocracy, including the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, embarked from Rathmullan, Co. Donegal. Destined for Spain and the court of Philip III, their erstwhile ally, they sought military aid to facilitate a speedy return, the restoration of their estates and the overthrow of the … Read more
I mí Mheán Fómhair na bliana 1607 sheol príomhthaoisigh na nGael i gCúige Uladh ó chéibh bheag in aice le Ráth Maoláin i bhFánaid, i dtuaisceart Thír Chonaill, agus amach trí bhéal Loch Súilí. ‘Pearsa d’uireasa ar chéad is ea a bhí sa long’ a deir tuairisc chomhaimseartha, agus é ar intinn ag Aodh Mór … Read more
Four centuries ago on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September 1607, an unnamed 80-ton French warship weighed anchor at Rathmullan, Co. Donegal, and sailed out of Lough Swilly for La Coruña, Spain. Among the 99 persons on board were Hugh O’Neill, second earl of Tyrone, recently restored to his earldom, … Read more
After their untimely deaths, variously from disease, exhaustion and deprivation, at least seven but possibly as many as eleven or more members of the O’Neill and O’Donnell exiles, including the earls themselves, were buried between 1608 and 1623 in San Pietro in Montorio. The form of the burials, the surviving grave-slabs and their inscriptions, the … Read more