some credence in them, he thought it prudent, considering the prospect of a war with France and Scotland, to restrict himself to a ‘sharp message’ requiring ‘to knowe his resolute mynde, as well for his repaire unto me, as also for the delyvery of his brethren, whiche he hathe long kepte in captyvite very cruelly.’ But O'Donnell seems to have had no intention of behaving disloyally. He had promised to be in Dublin at midsummer, and he kept his word, somewhat to St. Leger's astonishment. He brought his brothers Egneghan and Donough in chains with him; but his appearance was very gratifying to St. Leger, who reported him to be ‘a sober man, and one that in his wordis moche deasyreth cyvile ordre,’ who, ‘yf he may be assueredly won to your Majestie, as I think he is, is more to be estemed than manny others of this lande, that I have sene.’ At St. Leger's request, he consented to release his brothers, and to restore them to their position and lands. While O'Donnell was in Dublin, Tyrone also came thither, and St. Leger seized the opportunity to settle certain long-continued disputes between them arising out of the lordship of Inishowen. In order to strike at what was supposed to be the real cause of the constant quarrels between them, the authority of each was confined to the strict limits of their respective counties. And at the same time, ‘cum indecorum sit patre vivente filium usurpare castrum suum,’ Hugh O'Donnell, O'Donnell's son by his wife, Judith O'Neill, the sister of Tyrone, was ordered to surrender the castle of Lifford. This, however, Hugh, at the instigation, it was supposed, of his uncle, refused to do; but in 1544 Manus, with the assistance of Calvagh and a number of English soldiers, wrested the castle from him.
But whether it was that Calvagh was dissatisfied at not having the castle of Lifford assigned to him, or whether he was jealous of the influence of Hugh, he subsequently in 1548 took up arms against his father, but, with his ally O'Cahan, was defeated by Manus at Strath-bo-Fiaich, near Ballybofey. Sir Edward Bellingham in 1549, and St. Leger in 1551, interfered in the interests of peace; but in 1555 Manus was defeated and taken prisoner by Calvagh at Rossreagh. He appears to have been placed under easy restraint, and to have assisted Calvagh with his advice against Shane O'Neill in 1557; but his confinement offended the clan, and, though he never recovered his authority, he was shortly afterwards liberated. He died at his castle of Lifford, at a very advanced age, on 9 Feb. 1563–4, and was interred in the monastery of St. Francis at Donegal. According to the ‘Four Masters,’ he was ‘a man who never suffered the chiefs who were in his neighbourhood or vicinity to encroach upon any of his superabundant possessions, even to the time of his decease and infirmity; a fierce, obdurate, wrathful, and combative man towards his enemies and opponents, until he had made them obedient to his jurisdiction; and a mild, friendly, benign, amicable, bountiful, and hospitable man towards the learned, the destitute, the poets and ollavs, towards the orders and the church, as is evident from the old people and historians; a learned man, skilled in many arts, gifted with a profound intellect, and the knowledge of every science.’
Manus O'Donnell's name is chiefly associated with the castle of Portnatrynod (Port-na-dtri-namhad), situated on the Tyrone side of the river Finn, opposite Lifford, close to the present town of Strabane. The castle, begun and completed by him in 1527, was intended as a frontier fortress against the inroads of O'Neill, who unsuccessfully tried to prevent its erection. It was there that Manus resided during the lifetime of his father, and it was there that, under his direction, was completed in 1532 the compilation of the voluminous ‘Life of St. Columbkille,’ in Irish, now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Rawlinson, B. 514), of which a Latin abstract by Colgan was published at Louvain in 1647. The best description of the manuscript is in Reeves's ‘Adamnan's Life of Columba.’ Coloured facsimiles of its pages are given in the ‘Historical Manuscripts of Ireland,’ vol. ii. The colophon states that it was Manus who dictated it out of his own mouth with great labour—in love and friendship for his illustrious saint, relative, and patron, to whom he was devotedly attached.
Manus O'Donnell married either four or five times. His first wife was Joan, daughter of O'Reilly, by whom he had Calvagh, his eldest son (noticed separately), and two daughters—Rose, who was married to Niall Conallagh O'Neill, and Margaret, married to Shane O'Neill [q. v.] By his second wife, Judith, sister of Con Bacach O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, he had three sons: Hugh, the father of Hugh Roe and Rory O'Donnell (both separately noticed); Cahir, and Manus. In 1538 he married Eleanor, daughter of Gerald, earl of Kildare and widow of Mac Carthy Reagh, who appears to have left him after a short time. A fourth wife, Margaret, daughter of Angus Mac Donnell of Isla, is recorded to have died on 19 Dec. 1544. A fifth wife, but in what order is uncertain, is said to have been a daughter of Maguire of Fermanagh.
