Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/413

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

in the afternoon. They found the Irish unprepared; Roderic fled, and his army was routed. When Henry II visited Ireland in 1171, Roderic did not make submission to him, and in 1174 he defeated Strongbow at Thurles, and afterwards invaded Meath, whence he retired into Connaught, and in 1175 ravaged Munster. He sent, in the same year, Cadhla O'Dubhthaigh, his archbishop, with two other ecclesiastics, as envoys to Henry II. A treaty was concluded at Windsor. Roderic was to rule Connaught as before the English invasion, and was to be head, under Henry, of the kings and chiefs of Ireland. He was to acknowledge Henry as his liege lord, and to pay an annual tribute of hides. In 1177 his son Murchadh brought Milo de Cogan to attack Roscommon, but the English were defeated, and Murchadh captured by his father, who had his eyes put out. Another son, Conchobhar, allied with the English, invaded Connaught in 1186, and Roderic was driven into Munster; and, though afterwards recalled, and given a triochacéd or barony of land, he was deposed from the kingship of Connaught. When Conchobhar was slain in 1189, the Sil Muireadhaigh sent for Roderic, who came to Roscommon and received hostages, but was soon deposed by Cathal O'Connor [q. v.], called Crobhdhearg; and, after vainly asking help of Flaithbheartach O'Maoldoraidh, of the Cinel Conaill, of the Cinel Eoghain in Tyrone, and of the English in Meath, he went into Munster, and soon after entered the abbey of Cong, co. Galway, and died there in 1198. He was buried at Cong, and his bones were removed in 1207 to the north side of the high altar at Clonmacnoise. He is commonly spoken of in histories as the last native king of all Ireland, but Maelsechlainn II [q. v.] was the last legitimate Ard ri na hEireann, or chief king of Ireland, and Roderic's title to rule the whole island was no better than that of Henry II; both rested on force alone. If Ireland was the pope's to give away, it was justly Henry's; and if, as Roderic O'Connor had maintained, the sword alone could determine its sovereignty, then, also, Henry had the advantage over Roderic.

Roderic first married Taillten, daughter of Muircheartach O'Maeleachlain, and afterwards Dubhchobhlach, daughter of Maelsechlan mac Tadhg O'Maelruanaidh. His second wife died in 1168. He had two daughters and six sons: Conchobbar, Dermot, Turlough, Aedh, Murchadh, and Ruaidri. One daughter was married to Sir Hugh de Lacy, the other to Flaithbheartach O'Maeldoraigh.

Connor O'Connor, called by Irish writers Conchobhar Moinmaighe, succeeded his father as king of Connaught on his retirement to Cong. He defeated the English in the Curlew mountains in 1187, but was murdered in 1189 by Maghnus O'Fiannachta.

Connor was succeeded by his son Cathal Carrach O'Connor, whose title was at once disputed by his cousin Cathal O'Connor, called Crobhdhearg. He defeated his rival's allies, William Fitzaldhelm De Burgo and O'Neill, at Ballisadare, co. Roscommon, in 1198, but was slain in another battle of the same contest in 1201, at Guirtincuilluachra, co. Roscommon. He left one son, Maelseachlan. Aedh, Roderic's fourth son, in 1228 defeated his elder brother, Turlough, and became king of Connaught in 1228, but was slain in a battle with his cousin Feidhlimidh O'Connor, near Elphin, in 1233. Turlough had a son Brian, who died in Abbey Knockmoy in 1267, and after him no descendant of Roderic is mentioned in the chronicles. The ‘Annals of Loch Cé’ contain (i. 314) under the year 1233 an obviously ex post facto story to account for the extinction of his line, that he was so profligate as to have declined an offer from the highest ecclesiastical authority to permit him to have six lawful wives but no more.

[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vols. ii. and iii.; Annals of Ulster (Rolls Ser.), ed. MacCarthy, vol. ii.; Lynch's Cambrensis Eversus (Celtic Society Publications); Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Ser.); O'Flaherty's Ogygia, ed. 1685; O'Donovan's Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach, Dublin, 1844; Graves's Church and Shrine of St. Manchan, Dublin, 1875; Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy (Rolls Ser.), vol. i.; the O'Conor Don's O'Conors of Connaught, Dublin, 1891, p. 72, as to Henry II's treaty.]

N. M.

O'CONNOR, ROGER (1762–1834), Irish nationalist, born at Connorville, co. Cork, in 1762, was son of Roger Connor of Connorville by Anne, daughter of Robert Longfield, M.P. (1688–1765), and sister of Richard Longfield, created Viscount Longueville in 1800. The Connor family was descended from a rich London merchant, and its claims to ancient Irish descent are very doubtful. Arthur O'Connor [q. v.] was Roger's brother. Roger entered the university of Dublin in 1777, and joined the English bar in 1784. His early bias was in favour of the old tory régime; as a young man he entered the Muskerry yeomanry, and helped to hunt down ‘Whiteboys.’ He soon, however, changed his views, and joined the United Irishmen. In 1797 a warrant left Dublin Castle for his arrest, at the instance of his own brother Robert. He was imprisoned at Cork, was tried