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Donal of the Pipes, 17th Prince of Carbery

Donal na Pipi MacCarthy Reagh (Irish: Domhnall na bpíopaí Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach) (died 10 October 1612) was the 17th Prince of Carbery from 1593 to 1606,[1] when he surrendered the principality to the English Crown under the policy of Surrender and Regrant.

Donal MacCarthy Reagh
Prince of Carbery
Coat of arms
Tenure1863–1606
PredecessorOwen MacCarthy Reagh
Died1612
Spouse(s)Margaret FitzGerald
Issue
Detail		Cormac & others
FatherCormac na Haoine MacCarthy Reagh
MotherJulia MacCarthy (Muskerry)

He belonged to the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty as a son of Cormac na Haoine, the 13th Prince of Carbery.[1][2] His epithet "of the Pipes" (na bpíopaí in Irish) originates from when several pipes of wine washed up on the beach at Burren, which was traditionally believed to be a sign of good fortune for him.[3]

Birth and origins

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Donal was born the eldest son of Cormac MacCarthy Reagh and his wife Julia MacCarthy. His father was the 13th Prince of Carbery. His father's family were the MacCarthy Reagh, a Gaelic Irish dynasty that branched from the MacCarthy-Mor line with Donal Gott MacCarthy, a medieval King of Desmond, whose sixth son Donal Maol MacCarthy Reagh was the first independent ruler of Carbery.[4]

His mother was a daughter of Cormac Oge Laidir MacCarthy, 10th Lord of Muskerry. She had married his father after the death of her first husband, Gerald Fitzmaurice, 15th Baron Kerry. Her father's family were the MacCarthys of Muskerry, another cadet branch of the MacCarthy Mor.

Family tree
Donal MacCarthy Reagh with wife, parents, and other selected relatives.[a]
Donal
12th Prince
c. 1455 – 1531		Eleanor
FitzGerald
Cormac
na Haoine
13th Prince
1490–1567		Julia
MacCarthy
Muskerry		Finghin
14th Prince		Donogh
15th Prince
d. 1576		Owen
16th Prince
1520–1863
of the
Parliament
Donal
17th Prince
d. 1612
of the pipes		Margaret
FitzGerald		Florence
MacCarthy
1560–1640
Cormac
MacCarthy
d.v.p.*		Eleanor
Fitzgibbon		David
7th Viscount
Fermoy
1573–1635		Owen
MacCarthy
Reagh
Donal
Kilbrittain
d. 1636		Ellen
Roche		Charles
1st Viscount
Muskerry
d. 1641		Daniel
MacCarthy
d. 1666
Charles
Kilbrittain		Eleanor
MacCarthy		Denis
MacCarthy
d. 1712
Springhouse
Legend
XXXSubject of
the article		XXXPrinces
of Carbery		XXXViscounts
Muskerry		XXXViscounts
Fermoy
*d.v.p. = predeceased his father (decessit vita patris)

Marriage and children

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Donal married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Ruadh FitzGerald and Ellice Power. She was a granddaughter of James FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Desmond. Ellice Power was a daughter of Sir Richard Poer, 1st Baron le Power and Coroghmore, and Catherine Butler, daughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond.

Donal and Margaret had six sons:[b]

  1. Cormac, who predeceased his father but had a son Donal who married Ellen Roche, daughter of David Roche, 7th Viscount Fermoy
  2. Florence of Banduff, whose grandson was Lt. Col. Finghin of Benduff, the last Chief of the Name MacCarthy Reagh.
  3. Donogh of Kilbrittain, died without issue
  4. Owen, from whom descended the Springhouse branch, which would produce the Counts MacCarthy Reagh of Toulouse
  5. Taig, died without issue
  6. Donal, died without issue

—and two daughters:[8]

  1. Julia, married Edmond, Lord Barry as his 2nd wife
  2. Ellen, married Taig MacCarthy of Ballykay

17th Prince

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According to English custom he would have succeeded his father as Prince of Carbery at his death in 1567, but brehon law was applied and all his three paternal uncles ruled before him. He succeeded as the 17th Prince of Carbery at the death of his uncle Owen in about 1593.[10][5]

Surrender and regrant

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Although he surrendered Carbery to the Crown in 1606, he does not appear to have been granted a peerage in return as would typically have been the case. However, as seen in the 1607 pedigree, he is listed being "Lord of Carbery"[1] and as such the family was able to retain a vast yearly income. Donal na Pipi's son, Cormac, predeceased him leaving an only son, Donal of Kilbrittain, who died in 1636.[11] Upon his death an inquisition was taken of the family[12] and it was determined that the MacCarthy Reagh was still collecting yearly rents from various Irish chiefs that all totaled £207 16s 11¼d per annum.[12][13] This sum doesn't include any revenue from his 70½ demesne ploughlands,[13] and is approximately equivalent to £1,056,000 in 2018.[14]

Conflict with Florence

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Donal na Pipi is widely known due to his conflict with his cousin, Florence, over the succession to the chiefship as Prince of Carbery. Donal notoriously broke a promise to Florence when he violated his bond with Florence for £10,000 and surrendered the territory and lordship of Carbery to King James I in 1606.[15] Although it can only be speculated, it seems Donal may have realized that English conquest was by now a sure thing, and the best way (despite his personal ambitions) to preserve Carbery was to opt for surrender and regrant. The family's native Irish allegiance can hardly be called into question, as just fours years earlier, although Donal na Pipi remained visibly neutral, his cousin fought alongside The O'Sullivan Beare against the English at the Battle of Kinsale.

A projection of the Principality of Carbery, circa 1606, upon a modern map of Ireland's baronies. This map would have been the extent of the territory surrendered by Donal na Pipi.

Carbery

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By comparing William F.T. Butler's map, 'The Barony of Carbery in Tudor Times,' with modern land surveys, we can estimate that at the time Donal surrendered Carbery, it comprised the modern baronies of West Carbery (East and West Divisions), East Carbery (East and West Divisions), Kinalmeaky, and Ibane and Barryroe. Which would equate to 436,478.1 acres (682 square miles) in size, or just over 2% of Ireland's total size. In medieval Ireland (prior to its incorporation as a petty kingdom) it was the largest barony, and that superlative would remain true today. In fact, if it were reestablished today as its own kingdom it would rank a respectable 180th out of the world's recognized 225 countries and dependencies by land area.[16]

Ancestry

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Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^ This family tree is based on a tree showing the MacCarthy Reagh lords of Carbery[5] and genealogies of the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty.[6][7]
  2. ^ Lainé and John O'Hart agree that Donal and Margaret had six sons and two daughters, but they disagrre on the birth order except that Cormac was the eldest son and Julia the elder daughter.[8][9] The order given below follows Lainé.

Citations

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  1. ^ a b c Pedigree of MaCarthy Reagh and MaCarthy Mor, Lords of Carbery, of Fyall, c.1500-1687. National Library of Ireland, Dublin: Genealogical Office. 1607. pp. 233–234. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Pedigree of MacCarthy, Kings of Desmond, Mac Carthy Reagh, the Bernard MacCarthys and Leader MacCarthys 1045-1937. National Library of Ireland, Dublin: Genealogical Office. 1937. pp. 459–463. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ McCarthy, S.T. (April 1912). "The Clann Carthaigh (continued)". Kerry Archaeological Magazine. 1 (8): 452. JSTOR 30059797.
  4. ^ Gibson 1861, p. 84, line 9. "There were at this time [15th & 16th centuries] four distinct chieftainships of the Mac Carthys; the Mac Carthys Mor, or lords of Desmond, and their off-shoots, namely, the Mac Carthys Reagh of Carbery, the Donough Mac Carthys of Duhallow, and the Mac Carthys of Muskerry."
  5. ^ a b Moody, Martin & Byrne 1984, p. 157. "13 Domhnall na Pibe [r.] 1593–?"
  6. ^ O'Hart 1892, pp. 118–121.
  7. ^ Lainé 1836, pp. 79–102.
  8. ^ a b Lainé 1836, p. 93, bottom. "Donall a eu de cet mariage, selon l'enqête de 1614, six fils et 2 filles ... "
  9. ^ O'Hart 1892, p. 120.
  10. ^ McCarthy 1922, p. 120. "Donal-na-Pipi succeeded, as Prince of Carbery, on the death of his uncle Owen, which occurred about 1592."
  11. ^ O'Hart 1892, p. 120, left column, bottom. "122. Cormac, son of Donal ... This Cormac died before his father."
  12. ^ a b MacCarthy, Samuel Trant (1922). The Mac Carthys of Munster; the History of a Great Irish Sept. Dublin: Gryphons Publishers. p. 365.
  13. ^ a b Butler, W.F.T. (April 1904). "The Barony of Carbery". Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. 10 (62, Ser. 2): 1–10–73–84.
  14. ^ "Measuring Worth - Purchase Power of the Pound". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  15. ^ Dunlop 1893, p. [1]. "In 1606 Donal-na-Pipi, regardless of his promise to Florence and his bond of 10,000l, surrendered the lordship of Carbery and received a grant of the same to hold in the English tenure."
  16. ^ "Largest Countries in the World by Land Area - Worldometers". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 1 August 2019.

Sources

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