Rory O'Donnell

Rory O'Donnell was born on June 28, 1967 in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.

O'Donnell's only son, Hugh, was three weeks shy of his first birthday when the Earls sailed from Lough Swilly, and was raised in Louvain, Spanish Flanders. In time he joined the service of the King of Spain, and was killed in action when his ship engaged a French vessel in August or September 1642 and caught fire. He succeeded his father as Earl of Tyrconnell, but left no offspring; the title of Earl would have descended to his first cousin Domhnall Oge's line were it not meanwhile attainted in 1614.

She made her way to Brussels to the court of Archduchess Lady Isabella Clara Eugenia whom she begged for financial support. Here Mary could have ended a rift between the O'Neill and O'Donnell families by agreeing to marry Sean O'Neill, but she refused this and went against the wishes of her brother Hugh and the King of Spain. Disgraced and cast out by her brother, Mary and her lover left for Genoa where she married her lover Dudley O'Gallagher. The couple had two children that died as infants after Mary wrote to the papacy for help on numerous occasions stating that she had been reduced to a wretched state and was living "in two miserable rooms". Help did not come and Mary's family survived on a small sum from the archduchess and her husband's army wages. Mary's husband died in Austria in Imperial service in 1635 and it seems Mary married again to an Irish naval captain in 1639, nothing more is known of her life.

Rory O'Donnell (Irish: Rudhraighe Ó Domhnaill) (1575 – 30 July 1608) was the last King of Tyrconnell and 1st Earl of Tyrconnell.

There was much fury in Ireland and England that he and Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone had been treated so gingerly after allegedly committing treason (this became known as the Sham Plot), but time was on the side of the English authorities. On 14 September 1607, with the discovery that he and Tyrone were to be arrested and imprisoned, both Earls set sail from Lough Swilly with their families and followers for eventual exile in Spanish Flanders and Rome (see Flight of the Earls). Tyrconnell died in Rome in 1608.

In 1602, O'Donnell succeeded his recently deceased brother Hugh as King of Tyrconnell and head of the clan O'Donnell. Having submitted in London to the new King, James I, he was created Earl of Tyrconnell per letters patent of 4 September 1603, with the subsidiary title Baron of Donegal reserved for his heir apparent. He was further granted the territorial Lordship of Tyrconnell per letters patent of 10 February 1604.

O'Donnell married Bridget, daughter of Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare, by whom he had two children: Hugh and Mary. Hugh succeeded Rory as 2nd Earl. After his death Bridget married Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall (1592–1663) with whom she had five sons and four daughters that survived him.

O'Donnell was one of nine known children of Sir Hugh O'Donnell, who reigned from 1566 until he abdicated in favour of his eldest son by his second wife, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, in 1592. By this point the sons of his first wife had been disabled or killed, mostly by his Scottish-born second wife the Inion Dubh.