Donal III O'Donovan

Donal III O'Donovan (Irish: Domhnall Ó Donnabháin), The O'Donovan of Clancahill, born before 1584, was the son of Helena de Barry and Donal II O'Donovan, The O'Donovan of Clancahill. From the inauguration of his father in 1584 to the date of his own accession to the chiefship in 1639, the O'Donovan family had risen to become one of the most prominent Gaelic families remaining in all the province of South Munster or Desmond, from a position of semi-obscurity in the mid-16th century, although this was in part due to the misfortunes and sad decline of several once more prominent families, as happens in all ages. Donal II had also been an aggressive seizer of lands during and especially following the Nine Years' War and his son's inheritance, thought to have been approaching 100,000 acres (or possibly greater considering all septs and territories under his control), was colossal for a Gaelic family of the time. His father also living to a great age, Donal III is believed to have been in his late 50s or early 60s when he began his career as Lord of Clancahill. He died in 1660 at the age of 80 or greater.

The great wandering Scottish poet Maol Domhnaigh Ó Muirgheasáin (Muldony O'Morrison) refers to Donal III as the Dragon of Clíodhna in a 1639 ode celebrating his accession to the chiefship of Clancahill. This is edited and translated in its entirety, with notes, by Ronald Black in Scottish Gaelic Studies XIII, Part I, being the sole subject of the article. The poem discusses Donal's ancestry, virtues, regional fame, as well as the ancient lineage of his wife Gylles O'Shaughnessy and her qualities (selected stanzas below):

O'Donovan, and a number of his kinsmen, joined the so-called Irish Rebellion of 1641 under Donagh MacCarthy, along with the MacCarthy Reagh (Cormac) and the O'Sullivan Beare, and together they besieged Cork city for three weeks in 1642 with over four thousand men. But their force was opposed and defeated by the government supported Murrough O'Brien. Complaining of O'Donovan's other activities in 1642, the Reverend Urban Vigors writes:

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