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O'Brien
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O'Brien

the disease which attacked him, and in which his hair and beard fell off. He returned the head, with an offering of gold. He marched to Ardee, co. Louth, to attack the Oirghialla and the people of Ulidia, in 1075, but met with no success. In 1077 he led his troops against the Ui Ceinnseallaigh of Leinster, and captured Domhnall the Fat, their chief. In 1080 he marched to Dublin and took hostages from the city. He plundered the district known as Muintir Eolais, co. Leitrim, in 1085, and captured its chief, Muireadhach MacDuibh. Turlough had long been ill, since his robbery from Clonmacnoise in 1073, say the chronicles, and died, after much suffering and intense penance for his sins, at Ceanncoradh, co. Clare, 14 July 1086. Archbishop Lanfranc wrote to him in 1074 as 'magnifico Hiberniæ regi Terdelvaco' (Usher, ep. 27); but his only claim to the title of king of Ireland was his descent from Brian, whose title was purely one of conquest, and not of hereditary right. He married Gormlaith, daughter of O'Fogartaigh, a chief of the district in Ormoud called Eile Ui Fhogartaigh, now Eliogarty, co. Tipperary, but who was a descendant of Eochaidh Balldearg, king of Thomond in the fifth century, and therefore belonged, like her husband, to the Dal Cais, the greatest tribe of North Munster. He had two sons: Murtough [q. v.], who succeeded him as king of Munster; and Tadhg, who died in July 1086, and left sons who fought with Murtogh till peace was made between them in 1091.

[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vol. ii. Dublin, 1851; Annnls of Ulster, ed. MacCarthy, vol. ii; Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy (Rolls Ser.); O'Flaherty's Ogygia, London, 1685; Ussher's Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge.]

N. M.


O'BRIEN, WILLIAM, second Earl of Inchiquin (1638?–1692), born about 1638, was the son of Murrough O'Brien, sixth baron and first earl of Inchiquin [q. v.] Brought up in London at the House of Philip Percival, his father's friend, he was a companion to his guardian's son, afterwards Sir John Percival. On 7 April 1658 Henry Cromwell, protector in Ireland, informed Thurloe that Lord O'Brien, as Inchiquin's son was called in his father's lifetime, had come to him in Ireland without pass or permission. But most of his early life was spent with his father in foreign military service in France or Spain. In February 1659-60 he accompanied the earl on his way to Lisbon With a French force, destined to assist the Portuguese against Spain. Almost within sight of Lisbon, the vessel in which the earl and his son were sailing was attacked by an Algerine corsaire, under the Turkish flag. In the consequent encounter O'Brien lost an eye, and, together with the earl, he was carried into Algiers. The council of state in England made a demand on the dey of Algiers for their release. O'Brien at once returned to England, but his son remained as a hostage. Early in 1674 he was appointed captain-general of his majesty's forces in Africa, and governor and vice-admiral of the royal citadel of Tangier (ceded by the Portuguese as a part of the marriage portion of Catherine of Bragania). He held the post for six years. He was gazetted colonel of the Tangier (or queen's own) regiment of foot on 5 March 1674, and was sworn of his majesty's privy council. He succeeded to the title as second Earl of Inchiquin at his father's death on 9 Sept. 1674.

Lord Inchiquin welcomed the Prince of Orange in 1688, and in 1689 he and his eldest son, William (afterwards third earl), were attainted by the Irish parliament of King James II, and their estates sequestrated. Joined by his relatives of the Boyle family, he thereupon headed a large body of the protestants of Munster to oppose the progress of the catholics. He was, however, so ill sustained by the government in England that his troops were dispersed by the superior forces of Major-general Macarthy, and, along with his son, he was obliged to take refuge in England. He was present at the battle of the Boyne, accompanied King William III to Dublin, and subsequently appears to have passed some time in co. Cork with Captain Patrick Bellew (nephew to Mathew, first lord Bellew of Duleek), afterwards portreeve of Castle Martyr, co. Cork.

After the revolution in 1689-90 he was appointed governor of Jamaica. On his arrival an assembly was immediately summoned; its first act was to offer him a bill abrogating the laws passed in the late reign of tyranny and terror. He was overwhelmed with addresses and congratulations upon the victory of William III. But when discussions arose in the assembly respecting a bill for the defense of the island, he intemperately rejected the congratulatory address of the house to himself, and `threw it to them with some contempt.' When the war was declared by England against France, French cruisers committed continual depredations on the seaside plantations, and a large sum was raised by Inchiquin for the relief of the sufferers. Subsequently the runaway negroes grew troublesome; they came down from the woods, robbed the neighboring settlements, and committed atrocious cruelties. The anxieties of his position, increased by his own want of tact, ruined his health, and sixteen