Fiach McHugh O'Byrne
| Fiach Mac Aodha Ó Broin Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne |
|
|---|---|
| Lord of "Clann Uí Bhroin" | |
| Reign | 1579–1597 |
| Coronation | 1587, County Wicklow |
| Predecessor | Hugh Mac Seáin Ó Broin |
| Successor | Féilim mac Fiach Ó Broin |
| Born | c.1534 Ballinacor |
| Died | 8 May 1597 Farranerin, County Wicklow |
| Spouse | Rose Ó Tuathail (second wife) |
| House | Ballinacor – Ranelagh |
Fiach Mac Aodha Ó Broin (anglicised as Feagh or Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne) (1534 – 8 May, 1597) was Lord of Ranelagh and sometime leader of the Clann Uí Bhroin, or the O'Byrne clan, during the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the O'Byrnes controlled territory in the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin, covering about 153,000 acres (620 km2). The fastness of the Ranelagh O'Byrnes lay toward the south, at Ballinacor in Glenmalure, where they maintained a fort near to a ford with a bridge and a castle at Drumkitt (now encompassed within Ballincar House). The territory included the oak wood of Shillelagh and part of Co. Wexford.
The Kiltimon, Downs, Cloneroe and Newrath branches of the clan were generally loyal to the Crown, having benefited under English law by primogeniture and the system of 'surrender and regrant'. The Ranelagh O'Byrnes were unsubmissive and were reckoned capable of fielding one hundred expert swordsmen, posing a constant threat to Tudor authority within the Pale through raids on the lowlands, which weighed in the balance of power between the Butler (Ormond) and Fitzgerald (Kildare) dynasties in Leinster.
The O'Byrne territory had been under the nominal authority of a sheriff, but in 1562 the task of bringing order to the border area was given to an English captain. So varied were the local allegiances, and so difficult did the territory prove to police, that little was achieved by the crown government and during the rest of the queen's reign (to 1603) the O'Byrnes proved adept at securing official pardons.
In 1569 the Ranelagh O'Byrnes, under the leadership of Fiach's father, Hugh, had given help to the rebels during the Desmond Rebellions. Fiach (in Irish, the raven) assisted the escape of the imprisoned Edmund Butler, when the latter fell from a rope while climbing from the battlements of Dublin Castle. Thereafter he proved wily and skilful, and ultimately betrayed an ambition to undermine Tudor authority in Ireland.
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