Brian O'Rourke
| Sir Brian O'Rourke (Brian na Múrtha Ó Ruairc) |
|
|---|---|
| King (Lord) of West Breifne | |
| Reign | 1566-1591 |
| Predecessor | Aodh Buidhe Ó Ruairc |
| Successor | Brian Oge O'Rourke |
| Born | c. 1540 West Breifne, Ireland |
| Died | 3 November 1591 (aged 50–51) Tyburn, England |
| Consort | Mary Burke Elenora Fitzgerald |
| Issue | Eóghan (d. 1589) Tadhg (d. 1605) Brian Óg (d.1604) Art |
| House | O'Rourkes of Dromahair |
| Father | Brian Ballagh Ó Ruairc |
| Mother | Grainne Ní Catháin |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Sir Brian O'Rourke (Irish: Brian na Múrtha Ó Ruairc) (c. 1540 – 1591) was firstly king, then lord, of West Breifne in Ireland from 1566 until his execution in 1591. He reigned during the later stages of the Tudor conquest of Ireland and his rule was marked by English encroachments on his lands. Despite being knighted by the English in 1567, he would later be proclaimed a rebel and forced to flee his kingdom in 1590. He travelled to Scotland in early 1591 seeking assistance from King James VI, however he was to become the first man extradited within Britain on allegations of crimes committed in Ireland and was sentenced to death in London in November 1591.
O'Rourke was a member of one of Gaelic Ireland's foremost dynasties, and was remarked upon as a handsome and unusually learned Gaelic lord. He assumed leadership of the dynasty in the mid-1560s having assassinated his elder brothers, but his territory of west Bréifne on the border of Ulster soon came under the administration of the newly created Presidency of Connacht. His territory was centred on the banks of Lough Gill and in the area of Dromahair. Foundations of an O'Rourke tower house can be seen today at Parke's Castle, close to Dromahair.
Although the English knighted O'Rourke, in time they became unsettled by him. The English lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, described him in 1575 as the proudest man he had dealt with in Ireland. Similarly, the president of Connacht, Sir Nicholas Malby, put him down as, "the proudest man this day living on the earth". A decade later Sir Edward Waterhouse thought of him as, "being somewhat learned but of an insolent and proud nature and no further obedient than is constrained by her Majesty's forces".
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