Historical Information Appeal
Jan 5th, 2010 | By Bock | Category: HistoryI bumped into a gentleman who’s writing a historical novel set in Elizabethan Ireland, and he asked me if I might be able to help him dig out a few historical details.
I said I’d be delighted.
We’ll ask the Bockites, I told him, and see if somewhere in their booze-addled brains there might lurk a vestigial memory or two.
In particular, he’d like to find out about a bishop — Donnnchadh Ó Taidhg, also spelled Donat or Donatus — who pissed off the queen mightily by blessing Shane O Neill’s troops before they attacked Lord Sussex’s army.
Not he smartest of moves, you might have thought, since Queen Bess was never noted for a sense of humour. And Sussex, or Tom Radclyffe as both his friends knew him, was little better. A miserable piece of work.
And so it happened that Donnchadh Ó Taidhg had to go on the run, eventually winding up at his birthplace in Adare, County Limerick, where, in true Irish tradition, someone ratted him to the Feds and he ended up being tortured and killed horribly according to the custom of the time.
Anyway, I’m straying from the point.
What our author friend wants to know is this: has anyone got any leads on poor old Donnchadh / Donat / Donatus? Any source material? All suggestions on where to look will be gratefully accepted, so get head-scratchin’!
After a lazy google i came across this: http://www.jstor.org/pss/29742437.
It seems he was a cleric in Limerick with Ulster connections. He was also the first Irish cleric to be appointed Primate of Armagh in over 200 years. However, note that the article highlights the fact that there is “meagre” biographical information and I reckon that your author friend may have to rely on second/third hand information or researching folklore on the bishop. He may find this information in the Folklore Commission archives.
Not all the information is online, unless he has access through an institution (Mary I/UL perhaps?). but if he can afford to do the research he could go to the National Library and seek the Journal of theArmagh Diocesan Historical Society or Seanchas Ard Mhaca as they might call it, i haven’t seen the journal myself.
The article seems to have been written by W.P. O’Brien in 1990.
Your right. Information on this character is scant, which is why our friend is appealing to the kindness of your heart. We should be able to dig out a bit of background here and there.
Is there a date for Donnchadh’s betrayal/death? According to what I’m reading now, he was Primate from 1560-62, Shane O’Neill wasn’t killed by the Highland Scots until 1567. Couldn’t Donnchadh have sought refuge with Shane who was fairly secure in Tyrone during that time rather than doing a dangerous runner to Limerick?
I’m understanding how your author friend is feeling, there’s more questions than answers.
Limerick’s hurlers last won an All Ireland around that period if that’s any help, handy talk, I know, I know.
Did the blessing do any good – how did O’Neill’s troops get on against Sussex? That’s the rub. If they did well, he would be a dangerous dude to interfere with, in case he had peculiar powers. If it made no bleddy difference, what was the point in hunting him down?
Nuts
Your man could drop a mail to Des Kenny who runs Kenny’s Bookstore in Galway.
Unfortunately his permanent store is no more but he still runs an on-line version. I’ve never consulted Des myself but oftentimes I was in the store when it existed outside cyberspace and heard him point people in the direction of books and sources he would recommend on the most obscure of historical topics.
If the bould Bishop was Galway based Des would almost definitely have a handle on him, but he’s still worth a shot anyway …
Bloody bishops, interfering bastards etc
UK / Rome sources might have more on him if he was a bit of a thorn to their majesty’s reformed religous set up. To my dim recall the English were originally given a blessing to invade because the Irish church had strayed a little from the Roman manner of doing things. A native hierarchy would only have had Rome’s approval and support after the reformation.
No info from I’m afraid, sorry.
I checked Leslie’s ‘Clergy of Armagh’ for information but discovered the two traditions parted company in 1543, seventeen years before O’Taidhg was Primate.
http://www.archive.org/stream/armaghclergypari00lesl#page/4/mode/2up
Great presentation Ian, but I’m fascinated by all those apostrophes. Presumably people in the 9th century would not have used anglicised versions of their names.
I suspect not!
Contemporaneous to O’Taidhg’s primacy, there was a bishop of Limerick called Hugh Lacy who seems to have played for both sides according to Brady’s Episcopal Succession.
http://www.archive.org/stream/episcopalsuccess02braduoft#page/n45/mode/2up
Lacy would have been bishop there at the time of O’Taidhg’s execution.
So this Lacy character might have been rubbing his hands as Donnchadh got the chop?
Mwooooha-ha-haaa!!
If Donnchadh was executed in Limerick under church authority, Lacy would presumably have been aware, if not present at the execution.
Bock dear sir
Help please how does a poor moron like me post a Historical request on this blog
Please advise
Best regards
Mike a
Mike,
The best method is email to the chief hisself and it’ll get done.
Try: bock(at)bocktherobber(dot)com