Person:Donough MacCarty (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Sir Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty (1594–1665), was an Irish magnate, soldier, and politician. He succeeded as 2nd Viscount Muskerry in 1641. He rebelled against the government, demanding religious freedom as a Catholic and defending the rights of the Gaelic nobility in the Irish Catholic Confederation. Later, he supported the King against his Parliamentarian enemies during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, a part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, also known as the British Civil War.

He sat in the House of Commons of the Irish parliaments of 1634–1635 and 1640–1649 where he opposed Strafford, Charles I's authoritarian chief governor. In 1641 he contributed to Strafford's demise. He joined the Irish rebellion of 1641 when it reached his estates in Munster. He fought the government at the Siege of Limerick (1642) and the Battle of Liscarroll. He joined the Irish Catholic Confederates and sat on their Supreme Council. He led the Confederates' peace party, which opposed the clerical faction led by Rinuccini, the papal nuncio. He fought in the Irish Confederate Wars, commanding the infantry at the Battle of Cloughleagh in June 1643. He negotiated the cease-fire of September 1643, and the peace of 1646 between the Confederates and the King. In 1646 he dislodged the Parliamentarians from Bunratty Castle. During the Cromwellian conquest, he lost the Battle of Knocknaclashy in 1651 but held on until 1652, being one of the last to surrender.

In 1653 during the Commonwealth he stood trial for war crimes but was acquitted. In exile on the continent, Charles II created him Earl of Clancarty. He recovered his lands at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

1. ↑ Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.