Sorley Boy MacDonnell
| Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1505 |
| Died | 1590 (aged 84–85) Dunanynie Castle, Ballycastle, present-day Northern Ireland |
| Resting place | Bonamargy Friary |
| Predecessor | Colla MacDonnell (brother) |
| Successor | Randal MacDonnell (fourth son) |
| Spouse(s) | 1. Mary, dau. of Conn Ó Neill 2. Unknown, a dau. of Turlough O'Neill |
| Children | 4 sons, 5 daughters. |
Somhairle Buidhe Mac Domhnaill (Somerled of the yellow hair, son of Donnell, anglicised Sorley Boy McDonnell, or MacDonald in Scotland) (c. 1505 – 1590), Scoto-Irish prince or flaith and chief, was the son of Alexander MacDonnell, lord of Islay and Kintyre (Cantire), and Catherine, daughter of the Lord of Ardnamurchan. MacDonnell is best known for establishing the MacDonnell clan in Antrim and resisting the campaign of Shane O'Neill and the English crown to expel the clan from Ireland. Sorley Boy's connection to other Irish Catholic lords was complicated, but also culturally and familiarly strong: for example, he married Mary O'Neill the daughter of Conn O'Neill.
The MacDonnells of Antrim were a sept of the powerful Clan Donald of the royal Clann Somhairle, (see Lords of the Isles), that the English crown had attempted to cultivate since the early 14th century in its efforts to influence the course of politics in Scotland. At the end of that century an ancestor of Sorley's, Iain Mhoir Tanistear Mac Dòmhnaill, had married Margaret Bisset, of the lordship on the Antrim coast known as the Glynns or Glens, which union would eventually lay the basis for Sorley Boy's claim to the lordship of that territory in Ireland. MacDonnell migration to the Glynns and Rathlin Island increased in the early 16th century (by way of swift galleys propelled by oar and sail), after the clan had rejected overtures from an increasingly powerful James IV, King of Scotland. However, the last known lord of the Mac Eoin Bissetts, a supporter of the O'Neills, was slain in battle in 1522, and it is only after this that the MacDonnells somehow emerge as claimants to the lordship. The precise circumstances of this transfer or encroachment have been lost to history, but the English authorities, themselves preparing to claim overlordship in Ulster and the rest of Ireland, still recognised the Bissetts as the lords of the Glynns as late as 1515.
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