Calvagh O'Donnell

Calvagh O'Donnell (Irish: Calbhach Ó Domhnaill, died 1566), eldest son of Manus O'Donnell, was an Irish King of Tyrconnell of the mid-16th century. He was king and chief of the O'Donnell dynasty based in Tyrconnell in western Ulster. He is best known for his conflict with Shane O'Neill - a dispute that involved the intervention of the English government in Ireland on Calvagh's side.

In the course of a quarrel with his father and his half-brother Hugh, Calvagh sought aid in Scotland from the Campbells, who with access to Scottish royal artillery were able to assist him in deposing Manus and securing the now very divided lordship of Tyrconnell for himself. Hugh then appealed to Shane O'Neill, chief of the neighbouring O'Neill dynasty, to restore him at Calvagh's expense. Shane accordingly invaded Tyrconnell at the head of a large army in 1557, desiring to make himself supreme throughout Ulster, and encamped on the shore of Lough Swilly. Calvagh, acting apparently on the advice of his father, who was his prisoner and who remembered the successful night attack on Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone at Knockavoe in 1522, surprised the O'Neills in their camp at night and routed them with the loss of all their spoils.

He married twice, first Janet Campbell, daughter of Archibald Campbell, 4th earl or Argyll by his first wife Lady Helen Hamilton, secondly with Julian or Catherine Maclean, daughter of Hector Mor Maclean, 12th Chief.

Calvagh was then recognized by the English government as lord of Tyrconnell; but in 1561 he and his wife were kidnapped by Shane O'Neill in the Franciscan friary of Killydonnell. His wife had previously been the wife of the Earl of Argyll, was kept by Shane O'Neill as his mistress and bore him several children, sources differ as to the level of ill-treatment she endured by her captor; as she divorced Calvagh and married Shane immediately upon their release. Calvagh himself was subjected to atrocious torture during the three years that he remained O'Neill's prisoner, complete with being held in a metal cage at the front of O'Neill's castle in Dungannon, Tyrone. He was released in 1564 on conditions which he had no intention of fulfilling; and crossing to England he threw himself on the mercy of Queen Elizabeth.

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