which took place at his house in Chapel Street, Westminster, on 24 May 1749. He left a widow, who was well known and esteemed by William Oldys the antiquary. The latter wrote of Odell: ‘He was a great observator of everything curious in the conversation of his acquaintance; and his own conversation was a living chronicle of the remarkable intrigues, adventures, sayings, stories, writings, &c. of many of the Quality, Poets and other Authors, Players, Booksellers who flourished especially in the present century. … He was a popular man at elections, but latterly was forced to live reserved and retired by reason of his debts.’
In addition to ‘The Chimera,’ Odell wrote: 1. ‘The Smugglers, a Farce,’ 1729, performed with some success at the little theatre in the Haymarket, and reissued in the same year as ‘The Smugglers: a Comedy,’ dedicated to George Doddington, esq. Appended to the second edition is ‘The Art of Dancing,’ in three cantos and in heroic verse: a somewhat licentious poem, in which the fabled origin of the order of the Garter is versified. 2. ‘The Patron; or the Statesman's Opera of two Acts … to which is added the Musick to each Song.’ Dedicated to Charles Spencer, fifth earl of Sunderland [1722?]. This was produced at the Haymarket in 1730. 3. ‘The Prodigal; or Recruits for the Queen of Hungary,’ 1744, 4to; adapted from the ‘Woman Captain of Shadwell,’ and dedicated to Lionel Cranfield Sackville, earl of Middlesex. It owed a small temporary success to the popularity of Maria Teresa in London at this moment. It is noticeable that none of these pieces were produced at Odell's own theatre. He is said by Oldys to have been engaged at the time of his death upon ‘an History of the characters he had observed and conferences with many eminent persons he had known in his time,’ and the antiquary also saw in manuscript ‘A History of the Play House in Goodman's Fields’ by Odell. Neither of these is extant.
[Baker's Biographia Dramatica; Yeowell's Memoir of William Oldys, together with his Diary and choice notes from his Adversaria, 1862, pp. 30, 31; Whincop's Compleat List of English Dramatic Poets, 1747, p. 270; Thespian Dictionary, 1805; Disraeli's Curiosities, vi. 385; Genest's History of the Stage, iii. 274, 320, 398, 522, iv. 196; Chetwood's History of the Stage; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 161; Daily Advertiser, 2 June, 1731; Doran's Annals of the Stage, i. 367.]
O'DEMPSEY, DERMOT (d. 1193), Irish chief, called in Irish writings Diarmait Ua Diomusaigh, was son of Cubroghda O'Dempsey, who died in 1162. He claimed descent from Ros Failghe, eldest son of Cathaoir Mór, king of Ireland in the second century, and was thus of common descent with O'Conchobhair Failghe, from whom Offaly takes its name. He became chief of Clan Mailughra on his father's death. This was the territory of the O'Dempseys, and lay on both banks of the Barrow in the King's and Queen's Counties, and as far as the edge of the great heath of Maryborough. He afterwards became chief of the whole territory of the group of clans allied to his, all descended from Ros Failghe; this territory included not only the modern baronies of East and West Offaly, co. Kildare, but also the baronies of Portnehinch and Tinehinch, Queen's County, and that part of the King's County which lies in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. His chief stronghold was a stone fort, afterwards replaced by a castle, of which the ruins remain on the Rock of Dunamase, a hill in the Queen's County which commands a wide view over the lands of his septs. He was the only O'Dempsey who became king of the whole territory, though after his time, owing to the dispossession of O'Connor Faly by the Fitzgeralds, the O'Dempseys were long the chief clan of the district, in which many of them still remain, though they have prospered little since their share in the massacre of Mullachmaisten or Mullaghmast in 1577. Dermot founded in 1178 a Cistercian abbey at Rosglas, co. Kildare, now known as Monastereven, from a more ancient church of St. Eimhín, which stood on the site of the monastery. The abbot sat in the Irish parliament. The site is now occupied by the house of the late Marquis of Drogheda. O'Dempsey died in 1193. He left a son Maelseachlainn, who was killed by O'Maelmhuaidh of Fircal in 1216.
[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vol. iii. Dublin, 1851; Leabhar na Gceart, ed. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1847; Cath Muighi Rath, ed. O'Donovan, Dublin, 1842; local Knowledge.]
O'DEVANY or O'DUANE, CORNELIUS (1533–1612), called in Irish Conchobhar O'Duibheannaigh, Roman catholic bishop of Down and Connor, born in 1533, a native of Ulster, became at an early age a member of the order of St. Francis at the convent in Donegal. After having for some years officiated zealously as a priest in his native district, O'Devany, on 27 April 1582, was appointed to the vacant bishopric of Down and Connor, at the instance of the cardinal of Sens, and received episcopal consecration at Rome. On his return to Ireland he endeavoured, notwithstanding the exist-
