Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/47

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THE TUDOR CONFISCATIONS
35

notions. For instance, Mr. T. D. Sullivan in his "Bantry, Berehaven, and The O'Sullivan Sept" says: "The kinsmen of Prince Donal did not all quit the country after his overthrow: they were not all killed; what happened was that they were robbed, despoiled, disinherited." A glance at the list of landholders in Bere and Bantry in 1641 as given in the Down Survey—one of the maps of which he actually published—would have shown him the absurdity of this statement.[1]

Among isolated confiscations worthy of note are that of Idrone, which I have already spoken of, Shilelagh which I shall mention later on and the Mac Mahon territory of West Corcabaskin in Clare. The ground for this last was the death of the chief while in rebellion—he was accidentally killed by his son. His territory was handed over to Daniel O'Brien founder of the renowned line of the Viscounts Clare.

Furthermore Walter, Earl of Essex, obtained in 1575 a grant of the territory of Farney in Monaghan, an ancient Crown manor which for over a century and a half had been occupied by a branch of the Mac Mahons of Oriel, who held it, nominally at least, tenants of the Crown. Technically, therefore, there was no confiscation here.

To sum up; at Elizabeth's death the area of actual confiscation and colonisation extended to about half Queen's County, one-third of King's County, large and scattered territories in four of the six counties of Munster, and scattered estates in Connaught, Leinster, Tipperary, and Clare.

  1. So O'Rourke's lands after his execution at Tyburn were granted to his son.