JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HJSTORICAL SOCIETY was applauded by everyone. On 13lh February, 1627, Pope Urban V:l>ll wrote commending her :tz.nd in defence of R~ligion. J\II.ary appears to have been a bit of a wEd and romantic charac ~er ·by nature and at tunes her conduct was frowned upon lby Hugh Albert. He had never heard that h:c had a sister and was some·Nhat incredulous about the whole thing. She fr~quently masqueraded in male attire and her behaviour generally did not meet with his rupproval. In July, 163L he complained to Fr. Luke Wadding that Mary Stuart was ::rn irnpos:er defaming the House of O'Donne~l by her conduct. He ask:o:d the friac to use his influence to have her exposed and punished. .l\lhout this time she rr:arried an Irishman named Don ..John Edward O'Gallagher, by whom she had two children, both dying in infancy. Mary was now falling on lean times. Eady in 1632 she was living in poor quarters in Rome and petitioned the Pone to alleviate her extreme want. Wpat the outcome of the apueal was I do not know. Of her ultimate End there is no record. Earl Rory's brother, Caffar, who accompanied him on the Flight Mias destined to follow him to his ,gr.ave within a few weeks. His widow, Rose O'Doherty, subsequently married Owen Roe O'Neill. The English had succeeded in breaking the power of the Royal House of Tyrconnell and effective steps were taken to ensure that. it would not rise again. Its remaining members. deprived of their hereditary dominions ;cJnd titles were transplanted as meye tenants to Connaught. But Rn :O'Donnell is an O'Donnell to his follorwers, irrespective of his circumstances, and the descendants of the Chieftains continued to be afforded the same loyalty, resoect and devotion by the old natives as if their rule in Tyrconnell had remained ul'.'.disturbed. Writing a little over a century ago Matthew O'Conor stat267. ed in his "Military :Memoirs of the · Irish Nation" :- ''The O'Donnells who remained in Ireland after the flight of the Earl lapsed into poverty and but few of them preserved any authentic trace of their descent .... Ignorance and money, and the shameless compliances of dishonest heralds have framed pedigrees for them that have no foundation . . . . The O'[)onnells of the present day cannot by grants, inquisitions or other memorials trace their pedigree for t ve generations." These were very serious charges indeed, but they did not go unchallenged. Quickly cam£ Dr. John O'Donov.an's ~itriolic rerply that it can be shown "on the evidence of many monuments and memorials which Matthew O'Conor, son of Denis, son oj Charles the historian; did not take the trouble to examine that the pedigrees of many branches of the O'Donnells now living in Ireland, and others living abroad, can be traced with certainty to thlO old stock of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell." The branches to which the learned doctor refers are those of Newport, Larkfield and Castlebar with offshots to Spain and Austria. Dr. O'Donovan backed up his words with deeds and gave up his famous Appendix to the Four Masters, in which he proved beyond all doubt the genuineness of these O'Donnell pedigrees. He followed this up later with his monumental work "The O'Donnells in Exile"-one or the greatest documented famHy records ever presented to the public. With the passing of Hugh A~bert. son of Rory, Earl of Tyrconnell. the descendants of Sir Hugh O'Donnell and the Ineen Dubh became extinct in the male line. It is necessary, therefore, to turn to Con, son of Calvagh, from whom Sir Hugh held the Chieftainship. He had many sons but only three left issue. These were
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