O'Donnell (Ó Domhnaill), Conchobhar

O'Donnell (Ó Domhnaill), Conchobhar (d. 1342), king of Tír Conaill, was son of Áed O'Donnell (qv) and Derbforgaill, daughter of Magnus O'Connor (qv; see Cathal O'Connor), king of Connacht. Nothing can be discerned about his life till his accession to the kingship of Tír Conaill on his father's death (1333). The outset of his reign was troubled as he had to fight off the designs of his disgruntled half-brother Art on the kingship, capturing and killing him in the same year. After this inauspicious beginning, Conchobhar consolidated his position and a long peace followed. In 1339, however, Toirrdelbach O'Connor (qv), king of Connacht, broke the long established alliance between the Irish royal houses of Connacht and Tír Conaill by abandoning Dearbháil, his wife and seemingly Conchobhar's sister. In her place he installed Sláine, daughter of Toirrdelbach O'Brien (qv) of Thomond and widow of Edmond Albanach de Burgh (qv) of Clanricard. The reorientation of the O'Connor alliances obviously stung Conchobhar's sense of dynastic pride, as he led his army into Connacht during 1340. However, dynastic divisions came back to haunt Conchobhar with a vengeance in 1342. During a nocturnal assault on his fortress, Conchobhar was killed by his own half-brother, Niall Garbh O'Donnell, who assumed the kingship for himself. Niall's suzerainty was abruptly ended by his defeat in battle (1343) by Conchobhar's son Aonghus O'Donnell (d. 1352) with the support of Domhnall Dubh O'Boyle (Ó Baoighill) and the O'Dohertys (Uí Dhochartaigh). But the real figure behind Aonghus's reclamation of his father's throne was King Aodh Reamhar O'Neill (qv) of Tír Eóghain, and it was with O'Neill's approval that Aonghus was elected as king. However, Niall Garbh was to prove a doughty opponent and soon launched a counter-coup in the same year. Hurriedly Aonghus formed an alliance with the now refugee Clann Mhuircheartaigh O'Connors by granting them his lands of Tír Aodha (Tirhugh, Co. Donegal). This alliance proved sufficient to dispense with Niall Garbh's threat, but he remained dangerous till his assassination at Ballyshannon by Maghnus Meabhlach (‘the deceitful’) O'Donnell (1348). It seems that Maghnus steadily emerged as a contender for the kingship, building up his power to the detriment of Aonghus, and it is likely that he was the Maghnus O'Donnell who killed Aonghus (1352). Surprisingly it was not Maghnus who succeeded Aonghus but Felim (Feidhlimidh), uncle of Aonghus, who failed to reconcile the followers of Aonghus led by his brother Seaán O'Donnell (c.1322–80), and civil war broke out yet again amongst the feuding O'Donnell factions. The struggle culminated in Seaán's probable capture of Feidhlimidh and his son Raghnall (1356), and his later murder of them both (1357). The few surviving annalistic references to the period of Seaán's kingship indicate the decline of the O'Donnells, of which the crushing victory of Tadhg O'Connor (qv) over Seaán (1366) was symptomatic. Also it seems the Tír Conaill lordship of Lurg had fallen under the sway of the powerful Pilib Maguire (qv) of Fir Manach, as he brought a great fleet against Seaán to avenge the death of his O'Muldoon (Ó Maelduin) vassal, with considerable success (1369). Seaán's miserable reign, along with his life and that of his son Maolsheachlainn Dubh, were brutally ended (1380) in the monastery of Assaroe by Toirdhealbhach an Fhíona O'Donnell (qv) and the O'Connors.