Richard 2nd Earl of Clanricarde (Part II)

© Donal G. Burke 2014

The politics of Clanricarde and the neighbouring territory of the O Briens of Thomond on Clanricarde’s southern border were inextricably intertwined in the mid sixteenth century. Murrough O Brien was created first Earl of Thomond by the king at the Court in Greenwich in 1543 on the same day that Ulick na gceann Burke was created first Earl of Clanricarde. Ulick died not long after his elevation to the peerage of Ireland and his son Richard ‘Sassanach’ Burke eventually succeeded to the Clanricarde title.

Richard ‘Sassanach’ 2^nd Earl of Clanricarde married Margaret O Brien, daughter of Murrough, 1^st Earl of Thomond sometime before 1548 and by her had one son, Ulick.[i] Richard’s father-in-law died in 1551 and was succeeded by his nephew Donough O Brien as the second Earl of Thomond. When Donough, 2^nd Earl of Thomond died in April of 1553 his eldest son Conor O Brien was regarded under English law as the next in line to succeed to the Thomond earldom. However, Conor was opposed by his uncle Donnell O Brien, who was inaugurated as the O Brien chieftain of Thomond under Gaelic law. As such Donnell provided support for those rebels opposed to the Crown and was allied with those who were locally opposed to the loyalist Earl of Clanricarde.

Clanricarde put aside his first wife about this time and in November of 1553, seven months after the death of his father-in-law, he married Margaret, the daughter of Donough, the new Earl of Thomond, thus maintaining his close alliance with the sitting earls of Thomond.[ii] As such, his second wife would appear to have been a generation younger than his first.

Donnell O Brien provided support for the rebel O Connors and O Moores of the Midlands, whose lands about Offaly and Leix were designated by the Crown for confiscation and plantation with English settlers. In 1553 he raided deep into Leinster as far as Leix.[iii] In response the Earl of Clanricarde offered his support to the Lord Deputy Sir Anthony St. Leger and was provided with one hundred English soldiers whom he maintained at his own expense for ten weeks. He later claimed that he harassed O Brien to the extent that the rebel was forced to remain confined to his own territory in Thomond and quit his support for the Midland rebels.[iv]

At this stage Clanricarde was still facing considerable opposition within his own territory and Donnell O Brien provided support for those internal opponents. Among those opponents were the Burkes who held the castle of Benmore, near the modern village of Bullaun, north of the Earl’s chief town of Loughrea. That same year of 1553 O Brien entered the territory of Clanricarde and ‘drove the Earl of Clanricarde from the castle of Benmore to which he was laying siege on John Burke.’[v] Benmore was the residence of the descendants of John ‘na bhfiacail’ Burke, who was a son of Ulick roe a former MacWilliam of Clanricard. Prior to his death in 1507 John na bhfiacail held the position of tanist or prospective successor to the MacWilliam title during the later years of the MacWilliamship of John’s brother Ulick finn Burke. As such he and his descendants were senior members of the wider ruling house under the old Gaelic inheritance system and more senior genealogically than the line of Ulick na gceann and successive earls of Clanricarde. While the identity of this John Burke who was besieged in 1553 is unclear, he appears to have been either a son or grandson of this John na bhfiacail and it would appear members of this branch were opposed to Richard, the new Earl of Clanricarde.[vi]

The Earl still also faced opposition in Clanricarde from Sir Ulick Burke and the other sons of Richard oge Burke, based about Derrymaclaughna in the parish of Lackagh, north-east of the town of Galway. In 1554 Donnell O Brien again entered the territory of Clanricarde, after a failed attempt to take a castle in Thomond from his rival Conor son of the last Earl of Thomond ‘and he committed a great depredation upon some people of that country. From thence he proceeded to Dun-Lathriagh (in the county of Galway), to which the descendants of Richard oge and the descendants of Meyler Burke repaired, and received fosterage and wages from him.’[vii]

Various early services to the Crown

The Earl of Clanricarde had only been installed in control of his territory with the support of the Crown’s Lord Chancellor in Ireland late in 1550. In these early years he and the Crown maintained a more or less mutually beneficial political and military relationship. Clanricarde availed of the opportunity of conflict between the two dominant houses of the O Connors of Connacht; O Connor Don and O Connor Roe and took from their control the castle of Roscommon, installing a ward in his own service there.[viii] In or about 1553 the Earl went to meet with the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Cusacke at Athlone and, on the understanding that he would be compensated in some way, handed over control of Roscommon castle to the Lord Deputy ‘to be kept to the King’s use.’ Control of Roscommon was seen as strategically important by the government, given its proximity to the administrations local base at Athlone and to the more northerly territories of Connacht and southern Ulster. With a strong garrison there acting in concert with a garrison at Athlone and a loyal Earl of Clanricarde, the Crown’s officials saw these as a means to bring the more troublesome territories to obedience.[ix]

In the O Madden’s neighbouring territory of Síl Anmchadha, to the east of Clanricarde, the rebel O Connors and O Moores found refuge at Meelick Castle on the River Shannon. In July of 1557 the new Lord Deputy, the Earl of Sussex, moved against the O Moores and O Connors and their O Madden allies and took Meelick and the nearby castle at Brackloon, forcing the insurgents to flee the territory. While the Earl of Clanricarde was not directly involved in the engagement, he attended upon Sussex with ‘six score horsemen, three hundred and twenty galloglass, six score shots, with a number of kerns well appointed’ in the event of his being required.[x]

In Thomond, to Clanricarde’s south, his brother-in-law, Conor O Brien, eldest son of the deceased Donough 2^nd Earl of Thomond, was opposed not only by his uncle Donnell O Brien but also by his kinsmen Teige and Donough O Brien. Queen Mary settled upon placing Conor as Earl of Thomond in place of Donnell and wrote to the Earls of Clanricarde and Desmond in March of 1558, requiring them to assist Sussex in doing so. Clanricarde attended on Sussex when the Lord Deputy entered Thomond to depose Donnell O Brien, bringing a large band of horsemen, galloglass, shot and kern. He remained in Thomond until Sussex had laid waste the country, forced O Brien and his kinsmen to flee and stripping him of his rule of the territory, set up Conor O Brien as the new Earl of Thomond.[xi]

To the north of Clanricarde, the Earl, in early September of that same year and in the absence of Sussex, heavily defeated a band of 1,100 Scottish galloglass led by two cousins of the Earl of Argyle who had entered Connacht at the instigation of the rebel Richard an Iarainn Burke of Mayo.[xii] ‘When the Earl of Clanricarde heard that this foreign host had arrived in his neighbourhood, he collected the greatest number that he was able of mail-clad warriors and ordnance and did not halt till he had arrived at the place where the Scots were, by the Moy.’ Both cousins were among the seven hundred Scots killed and the defeat was such that the annalists held that ‘the power of the Scots was enfeebled in Connacht for a considerable time after this attack.’[xiii]

Accession of Queen Elizabeth I

The Catholic Queen Mary died on 17^th November 1558 and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, a Protestant.

In February of 1559, soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne, Clanricarde petitioned the new Queen for the leading or ‘Captainship’ of Connacht, the Crown revenues, ‘the cockets and customs’, of Galway, in addition to the keeping of the castles of Roscommon, Meelick, Mockallen and Tyaconny, the fee farm of the nunnery of ‘Kylcrenaght’, the confirmation of all his patents and grants made to him by former Kings and that (Ulick) the son by his first wife may inherit after him notwithstanding his divorce and that his other sons by his present wife might be his heirs after his first son successively.[xiv] To support his case in relation to the revenues of Galway, The Archbishop of Tuam, the Earl’s uncle Roland Bishop of Clonfert and the Mayor and Commons of the town of Galway wrote to the Queen from Galway simultaneously, requesting the same and confirming the benefits they saw under ‘the government of the Earl’, cited his recent service in the defeat of the Scots the previous September.[xv]

The favour with which the Earl was regarded at Court at this time in view of his loyalty to the Crown is evidenced in the Queen’s response to his petitions. On the advice of her Council, Elizabeth directed in mid July 1559 that ‘because we perceive that the Earl of Clanricard is very well disposed and given to his duty of obedience towards us’, the Lord Deputy should have him appointed as the captain of the province if he think it appropriate.[xvi] Sussex was further instructed to ensure Clanricarde was given a plot of land suitable to his needs within the Pale, near Dublin, as was supposed to have been given to his father. With regard to the custody of the castles of Meelick and ‘Bostonam’, the Queen left it to the Deputy himself to decide. She conceded the grant of the nunnery to the Earl and significantly, with regard to the future succession to the earldom, the Queen directed that, as this could only be done by an Act of Parliament, it should be done by an Act of the upcoming Parliament.[xvii]

Clanricarde continued his support for Conor, the Crown’s 3^rd Earl of Thomond into the Summer of 1559, coming to Thomond’s aid when Conor found himself opposed by a large force under the Fitzgerald Earl of Desmond, who had entered the O Brien’s territory in support of Donnell O Brien’s cousins Teige and Donough. In the words of the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’ the Earl of Clanricarde ‘did not wait to be asked a second time, but set out immediately and did not stop until he reached the location where the Earl of Thomond was.’ Both Clanricarde and Thomond set up camp close to one another near ‘Baile Uí Aille’ in Thomond. Both Earls clashed with Desmond, the fight continuing to ‘the summit of Cnoc Fuarchoilli’ where Desmond and his O Brien allies inflicted a defeat on Clanricarde and Thomond. Both Earls, Clanricarde and Thomond, survived the battle but among the dead on the day of battle was Edmond son of Rory mór MacSweeny, who held the office of Chief Constable of Clanricarde and his nephew Colla MacSweeny, together with the MacSweeny Constable of Thomond and others of that family.[xviii]

The Earl of Clanricarde continued his service to the Crown throughout this period and served with Sussex in the autumn of 1561, alongside the Earls of Kildare, Ormond, Desmond and Thomond, on an expedition into Tyrone against Shane O Neill, who had been proclaimed a rebel and traitor.[xix]

Clanricarde and O Neill remained bitterly opposed to one another and on the 15^th October 1565 Clanricarde wrote from ‘Balloughreugh’ (ie. Loughrea) to Sir William FitzWilliam, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland and Treasurer at War, advising him that O Neill had camped in O Rourke’s country and O Connor Sligo’s and MacDermotts ‘and afterwards burned the corn and spoiled the whole country, carrying away 3,000 cattle’, requiring in addition an annual tribute that had formerly been due to the Irish Kings. Clanricarde offered to act against O Neill and asked what the Lord Justice and the Council will determine.[xx] O Connor Sligo sent word to Clanricarde while the Earl was camped about the castle of Dunmore and he immediately broke camp and advanced over two days into O Connor Sligo’s lands, forcing O Neill to retreat.[xxi]

Sir Henry Sidney appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland 1565

In the autumn of 1565 Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales and brother-in-law of the former Lord Deputy Sussex, was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland but it was January of the following year before he arrived in the country.[xxii]

Although their relationship would alter significantly over the years, the Earl and the new Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney established a mutually beneficial working relationship about this time. At this point in his political career, while he was still struggling to strengthen his position in the lordship, the Earl clearly aligned himself with the English authorities, utilising the support of English soldiers to advance his campaign. The Lord Deputy Sidney regarded the Earl at this time as ‘probably the only loyal man in Connacht’ but ‘harassed by his own kinsmen and neighbours’ to the extent that ‘he does not dare to leave his country for fear of losing it in his absence.’ The relationship was reciprocal and, while the Earl would attend the Lord Deputy on his campaign for a period, the English administration had sent two hundred English soldiers to assist him but early in 1566 he made a failed attempt to seize a castle in which he lost a piece of ordnance and the English soldiers were forced to retreat ‘in poor order.’[xxiii] Clanricarde’s territory had been spoiled in February of 1566 by Shane O Neill, who held sway over a large area in the North by this time and by the 1^st March Sidney would report that the Earl was under severe pressure and was ‘greatly distressed.’[xxiv]

A certain degree of pressure may have been alleviated temporarily by August of 1566 as reconciliation was effected between the Earl and Sir William (also known as Ulick) Burke by the middle of that month.[xxv]

Rivalry among the sons of the Earl

Within his domestic life, the Earl faced considerable difficulty in relation to his marital situation and his own children. While his father had been married on three occasions, Richard, the 2^nd Earl, had several wives and concubines, almost all of whom were living at the same time. By two of his wives he had at least four sons.

In 1566 Ulick, the Earl’s eldest legitimate son, married Honor, daughter of Shane oge Burke of Cloghroak in the parish church of Athenry. At the time of their marriage, Ulick’s wife was then aged about thirty-four years.[xxvi] The Earl had at least thirteen years earlier divorced or put away Ulick’s mother, his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Murrough 1^st Earl of Thomond, accusing her of practicing witchcraft against him.

Ulick’s mother was still alive when the Earl took to himself his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Donough 2^nd Earl of Thomond, by whom he had his next eldest son, named John and two other sons, one unnamed and one of whom would appear to have been the Earl’s youngest surviving son William, and at least one daughter.[xxvii]

One of the earl’s sons by this second marriage was unnamed in the records but appears to have died at a relatively young age. William was still very young at this time and only played a more active part in affairs of the territory in later years. Both Ulick and John were ambitious and from an early age were at odds with one another over who would eventually be their father’s principal heir. Each brother had their own supporters and allies and their infighting had the capacity to spread wider than the confines of their father’s territory and contributed significantly the disorder in the province.

The damage caused by the sons of the Earl

Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, departing Dublin on a progress through Ireland. On either side of the gate’s bridge fly flags bearing the arms of the Queen of England and the arms of Sidney.

Sir Henry Sidney, preceded by his distinctive red pensell or standard bearing his ragged staff badge, journeyed into Munster early in 1567.[xxviii] In March he took the rebellious Earl of Desmond prisoner at Kilmallock. From there he conveyed his prisoner through Limerick, Galway and Athlone to captivity in Dublin. On route to Galway through the south west of the territory of Clanricarde he halted at O Shaughnessy’s castle, who impressed upon him his desire to be free of the exactions imposed upon him by the Earls of Clanricarde and Thomond.[xxix]

On arrival at the town of Galway the Lord Deputy found that the disorder was such that the citizens of Galway watched their walls nightly and guarded their gates daily with armed men, resembling in the mind of Sidney a ‘towne of warre, fronteringe upon an enemye, than a civill towne in countrie under one Sovereigne.’[xxx] They complained a great deal to Sidney of the wars then current between the Mayo Burkes and the nearby O Flahertys against Clanricarde’s two sons ‘which he hath by two wives and bothe alive and thies two yonge boyes in the life of their father, yet likelie long to live, doe strive who shal be their father’s heire.’ Before arriving at Loughrea Sidney visited the town of Athenry, which appears to have suffered about this time also, with the Lord Deputy describing it as a great and ancient town. Though he found it both large and well-walled, it was in a pitiful state with its population dramatically depleted to the extent that it was near abandonment. The poor people of the town of Athenry appealed to the Lord Deputy for assistance and as Sidney held that the Earl could not deny that ‘he helde a hevie hande over them’, he ordered Clanricarde to cease taking exactions the town and make some recompense to the citizens.[xxxi]

The Lord Deputy Sidney was at ‘Clanrycard’s house of Ballyloghreogh’ (ie. Loughrea) in early April 1567. There, he had the Earl of Thomond and his rival Sir Donnell O Brien attend upon him to resolve their differences in the presence of a number of the leading men of Clanricarde. The Earl’s residence served on this occasion as a gathering place for several of the principal men of Connacht, Ulster and elsewhere who descended upon the town to meet with the Lord Deputy. On the 4^th of that month, at the Earl’s residence, Sidney knighted Hugh O Donnell of Ulster, Donal O Conor Sligo and Rory O Shaughnessy.[xxxii]

On his departure Sidney took both of the Earl’s sons with him and, having made arrangements for the construction of a new bridge at Athlone to provide greater access for the government to the west, was back in Dublin by the 20^th of the month, on which date he reported to the Queen upon the political and military situation.[xxxiii] Of the Earl, he believed him to be ‘equall in all good partes with the best of his cote of this countries breed’, but he was ‘so over ruled by a putative wife, as oft tymes when he best intended she forceth hym to doe worste.’[xxxiv] Sidney left Munster and Connacht convinced of the need of the imposition of a new post of Lord President over each province to properly govern and reform the country in the absence of any native leaders either disposed, or in a position, to do so.[xxxv]

The Earl’s brother John and his claim to the title

Within his own immediate family the Earl was also opposed by his brother John, son of their father’s third wife.[xxxvi]  Younger than Richard, he appears to have been contesting the validity of Richard’s mother’s marriage to their father as he was pursuing a claim before the English authorities by 1566 to be the rightful son and heir of Ulick 1^st Earl of Clanricarde.[xxxvii] The Earl’s brother was still claiming by late 1567 the title of Earl of Clanricarde, as son and heir of Ulick Burke, 1^st Earl of Clanricarde and travelled to England to further his case. He sought that ‘Richard Burke usurping that name’ be called to England to answer John’s claims there.[xxxviii]

The Earl’s petitions of 1567

As recompense for his service against the Irish and Scots rebels, the Earl sought of the Crown in 1567 fifty-nine monasteries that the Queen had at her disposal in Connacht. He sought the Captaincy of Connacht as he claimed he formerly held it in the time of Sir Edward Bellingham. Among his other requests were that he have a £30 annuity that was his due, greater title to his lands about Dublin and to be granted a stone house in Galway. He also sought a grant of Meelick ‘if he builds a bridge over the Shannon.’ Although the town of Athenry was in a poor condition and almost abandoned, he also sought that the friary of Athenry be preserved ‘for the burial of his house and other lords of that province and that it may be converted into a school house.’[xxxix]

External pressures from various sides were also bearing down on Clanricarde at this time. He had long committed to attend upon the Queen in England and had indicated that he would accompany the Lord Deputy Sidney about October of 1567. He baulked at the journey at the last minute. He wrote to the Queen in late October of that year, excusing himself on the basis of a want of shipping at the appropriate time and from fear of an attack on his country in his absence from the north by O Donnell. The Earl claimed that O Donnell threatened to burn his territory as Clanricarde’s daughter was unwilling to marry him. He sought the Queen assistance in the form of a letter from the Queen to O Donnell insisting he ‘desist from his malicious attempts. Clanricarde availed of the opportunity to again ask the Queen to supplement his lands with additional lands of suppressed religious houses in Connacht, lands he claimed which were at that time waste or little value.[xl]

The Queen issued instructions later that same year to the Lord Deputy in response to Clanricarde’s petitions and his brother’s case against him. In relation to John Burke’s petition that the Earl be called to England, the Queen ordered John to return to Ireland. As she held the Earl to be ‘in quiet possession of the Erldom and is reputed a good subject and servant to the Crown’, she considered it more appropriate that the Earl answer the case in Ireland ‘according to the form of the laws in the realme’, providing that John’s case be not disadvantaged in so doing.[xli]

Acquisition of suppressed religious houses

Following Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church and the policies pursued by his daughter Elizabeth’s officials, monasteries and other religious houses faced suppression and the confiscation of their lands by the state. As a loyalist and one of the most powerful landholders in Connacht, Clanricarde was well placed to acquire many of the houses in his own immediate territory. The acquisition of Church property by the Burkes of Clanricarde was not only confined to their own traditional territory but also extended deep into O Madden’s territory of Síl Anmchadha (the barony of Longford) on the eastern borders of Clanricarde and elsewhere in the general vicinity. The list of abbeys of the barony of Longford bears witness to the amount of church property acquired by the Clanricarde family in the wake of Crown confiscations and the financial benefits to be derived from professing loyalty to the Crown when it came to the disposal of Church lands. In the then barony of Longford alone, the Earl himself held the Franciscan friary at Meelick, Abbeygormacan and the abbey of Portumna while Clonfert abbey was held by the Earls cousin, Roland Burke, Bishop of Clonfert. As the Burkes remained loyal to the Roman Catholic faith, the abbeys and friaries that came under their control appear to have received a measure of protection not accorded to all of the foundations acquired by the Crowns supporters.

The Earl’s uncle, William Burke of Rahaly, brother of Ulick, 1^st Earl of Clanricarde, had earlier been granted a lease for twenty-one years sometime after 1554 of the suppressed priory and lands of Clontuskert Uí Maine in O Kelly’s country on the border of O Madden’s territory.[xlii] From 1567 William’s nephew, Redmond ‘na scuab’, half-brother of Richard 2^nd Earl of Clanricarde, leased the site of the priory, together with the rectories of Clontuskert, Kilclooney and Aughrim Ui Maine from the Queen for a period of twenty-one years.[xliii] In the Bishop of Clonfert’s visitation of his diocese in that year he described Redmond as the farmer of the Clontuskert property.[xliv]

The Earl’s immediate family circa 1568

In 1568 the Earl’s second wife Margaret, Countess of Clanricarde, died. She was the daughter of Donough, 2^nd Earl of Thomond and apparently the mother of the earl’s younger sons John and William and another unnamed son.[xlv] At her death the Irish annalists described her as ‘the most famous woman in Ireland and the supporter of her friends and relations.’ The Lord Deputy Sidney, however, only a year before her death had referred to her as the ‘putative’ wife of the earl, a reference to his complicated marital status and the uncertainty regarding this Margaret’s standing as the earl’s lawful wife. She was, in his opinion, an unfortunate influence over the earl’s political decisions. In her absence, however, the earl would still move further from his earlier alignment with the English administration in Connacht.

Not long after the death of his second wife and in the same year Clanricarde married a third time. His third wife was Gille or Cecilia, widow of Edmund Butler, 1^st Baron Dunboyne. Within three or four years, however, he would also put her away.[xlvi]

In addition to his various wives, the Earl had a number of concubines during his lifetime, including Onora, daughter of McBryen Ara and one Saunyowg or Sawny Owg, ‘a gentlewoman of Clanricard.’[xlvii] Both of these he was said to have ‘kept a while and put away again.’ He later took for a concubine Julia Brown, a merchant’s wife of Galway, whom he reportedly married but later also put away and then ‘brought home’ his former concubine McBryen Ara’s daughter. All of these, with the inclusion of his first wife and exception of his second, were alive about the year 1580. In addition to these, Sir George Carew gave another of the earl’s concubines as Cicely O Kelly, who would afterwards marry Richard Bermingham, Baron of Atherny.[xlviii]

The Earl had a number of children, and as he had a number of concubines, it is likely a number of his daughters were children of the latter. Not all of the names of his daughters have survived in available records. His daughter Mary married Brian O Rourke and would later marry secondly one John More, while another, Margery was married to Con O Neill, Earl of Tyrone.[xlix] Margaret, another daughter, married firstly Richard Burke of Derrymaclaughna and secondly Theobald Bourke, Lord Brittas.[l] His youngest daughter was Honora Burke, who would marry Garrett McCoghlan. A near contemporary described Honora as the ‘base daughter’ of the Earl and Onora Burk, illegitimate daughter of Roland Burke, Bishop of Clonfert who was wife of the Bishop’s eventual successor Stephen Kirwan.[li]

By this end of the 1560s the Earl was a grandfather. Ulick, the Earl’s eldest son, and his wife Honor had two children about 1568, Richard and Mary, both of whom died young. Their third child, another Richard, was born in 1572.[lii] Ulick and Honor Burke would go on to have at least four other sons; Thomas, John, William, and Edmund.[liii] Although Ulick would appear to have been regarded by the English as the likely rightful heir to the earldom in the future, the relationship between father and son may not have been close at this particular time. In February of 1568 the Queen wrote to the Lord Justices in Ireland, directing them to ‘devise some means to induce the Earl of Clanrycard to receive into his favour Ulick Burke, his eldest son, and to acknowledge him as his heir.[liv] It was in conjunction with his son John that the earl was jointly granted a lease of the Manor of Meelick in December of 1570.[lv]

The Earl’s brothers and uncle

The Earl had at least three brothers or half-brothers living in 1568; John, Redmond na scuab and Edmond Burke of Ballylee.[lvi] Another brother, Thomas farranta, apparently older than the earl, had been killed twenty-three years earlier during a raid into O Madden’s country. Thomas had been chosen as the custodian of his father’s castles during the minority of Richard but he may have been illegitimate, as he does not appear to have been a clear contender for the title. Of the surviving brothers the Lord Deputy wrote that they, and the Earl’s kinsman, Roland, Bishop of Clonfert, could ‘neither speak nor understand in manner anything of their prince’s language.’[lvii]

John, the Earl’s brother, who claimed to be the rightful heir to the title in the 1560s but was rebuffed, held the castle of Lakafinna about 1574, near the modern village of Bullaun, in the barony of Loughrea. His castle lay on the border of the parish of Kilconickny, immediately north of the town of Loughrea, between the ancestral lands of the Dolphin family and the town.

Redmond na scuab Burke was a prolific figure in the lordship in the late sixteenth century. He would appear to have been a half-brother of the Earl as his mother was given by MacFirbisigh in a genealogy of the family as Fionnghuala, daughter of O Kelly.[lviii] He held property primarily within the eastern region of the territory, such as Clanricarde’s castle of Beallanenean in the barony of Leitrim on the border of O Madden’s territory.[lix] Having acquired the lease of the priory of Clontuskert Uí Maine in O Kelly’s country in 1567, he was identified on several occasions as Redmond Burke of Clontuskert, indicating that he may have resided at or about the priory for a time.[lx] (Redmond was seated there into the following decade when he was described as ‘Redmund Bourke mcUllyck of Clontoiskirt, Co. Galway, gentleman’ when he received a pardon from the Crown in July 1581 alongside his wife Anable ny Madden and his kinsman Redmond Burke of Tynagh, illegitimate son of Roland Bishop of Clonfert.)[lxi]

The Earl’s brother Edmund was seated in the south-west of the territory of Clanricarde, at the tower house of Ballylee, later celebrated as the residence of the poet W.B. Yeats.[lxii]

Ballylee Castle, on the bank of the Streamstown River in the barony of Kiltartan, viewed from the north-east, the residence of Edmund, brother of Richard 2nd Earl of Clanricarde and his descendants in the late sixteenth century.

Given the marital and domestic relations of his father, the Earl may have had a number of sisters, not all of whose names were recorded.

Of the wider immediate family of the Earl, his uncle William was seated at Rahily (or Rahale or Rahally in the barony of Kiltartan) and appears to have had at least son, Richard, born about 1551, also seated at Rahily into the late sixteenth century, a first cousin of the Earl.[lxiii] The family resided at the castle at Rahily into the seventeenth century.

The sons of Richard oge 

Of the various internal opponents of the earl within his own lordship, one of the most prominent family groups was that of the immediate descendants of Richard oge Burke based in a wide area about the parish of Lackagh, north east of the town of Galway. Sir Ulick Burke (also known as Sir William), the senior-most descendant of the once powerful sons of Richard oge Burke, had suffered a reverse when the Earl was installed with force and his captaincy terminated about 155o by the Lord Chancellor. He was still alive in 1568, however, when, in February of that year, the Queen issued an order to the Lord Justices in Ireland that both he and Lord Bermingham of Athenry should have their estates re-granted to them.[lxiv] Sir Ulick would appear to have had at least one son, Thomas, who as ‘Thomas Ballese alias Thomas Burke son of Ulisses Burke, knight,’ was pardoned by the Crown in 1551.[lxv]

This family branch of the sons of Richard oge maintained their important position within the territory of Clanricarde. The descendants of Thomas Burke, the next eldest of Sir Ulick’s brothers, held lands at Derrymaclaughna and thereabout. Later references to members of the family of Derrymaclaughna, giving their descent, bear out this Richard oge as son of Ulick Roe Burke. John, a son of this Thomas, was drowned in the River Suck in 1572 and was referred to by the Annals of the Four Masters as ‘John the son of Thomas son of Richard Oge son of Ulick Roe son of Ulick of the Wine.’ Indicative of the fore-most position the family held within the barony of Clare, the office of seneschal of that barony would later be given to ‘Riccard Boorke fitzJohn of Derevigklaghne’, who appears to be the son of this John.[lxvi]  The same man is again described as ‘Rickard the son of John son of Thomas son of Rickard oge Burke from Doire mic Lachtna’ at his death in August of 1598.[lxvii] Both Richard and John appear to be of the one line, son and grandson of the same Thomas, and give the line of the Derrymaclaughna family as descended from Richard oge son of Ulick roe. Thomas’s daughter Sadhbh married Tadhg son of William O Kelly and died, a highly respected woman among the Irishry, in 1579.[lxviii] Among the tower houses in the late medieval period associated with this branch were Claregalway, Derrymaclaughna, Lackagh and Anbally. (Claregalway, however, was held of the Queen and from about its taking by the Lord Deputy in 1538 appears to have been held by a ward or tenant of the Crown.) Their continued senior status within the wider family and the territory of Clanricarde was taken into account in the Composition of Connacht in 1585.

Continued at Part III