Mór of Ross, some minor MacCarthy chiefs in Bere and Bantry, and O'Mahony of Kinelmeaky in Cork.[1]
The attainder of these chiefs opens a new era in the history of confiscation in Ireland. None of them had had any titles from the Crown valid in English law. Yet it was assumed that they held the whole territory of their clan in demesne—an assumption quite untenable not only according to Irish law, but according to the admission of English lawyers in other cases.[2] Hence it was held that by the attainder of these chiefs all the lands of their clansmen had fallen to the Crown; and these lands were accordingly allotted to the Undertakers.
But here a totally unexpected difficulty presented itself. MacCarthy Mór claimed that the lands of Coshmaing, Eoghanacht O'Donoghue, Clan Donnell Roe, and Clan Dermond were his; and that the sub chiefs and all the inhabitants were only his tenants at will, and that therefore on the attainder of these chiefs the lands should naturally pass back to him. And a similar claim was put in by MacCarthy of Carbery to the lands of Kinelmeaky. These claims were utterly preposterous from the Irish point of view. Both O'Donoghue in Kerry, and O'Mahony in Cork had been in possession of their lands for centuries be-
- ↑ Three MacCarthys of Clan Donnell Roe, and one of Clan Dermond, both districts in Bere and Bantry, are mentioned.
- ↑ Cal. State Papers, 1591—92, p. 467. By the attainder of O'Rourke only his own lands came to the Crown, and the other great lords of Connaueht, O'Kelly and others are in like case. "Not one acre of land (in Leitrim) but is ownered properly by one or other, and each man knows what belongs to himself." {Ibid., p. 469).
