Siege of Donegal

The siege of Donegal took place from August to September 1601 during the Nine Years' War in Ireland, when a Gaelic Irish army led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell laid siege to the town of Donegal. The garrison of the town was a mixture of English troops and allied Gaelic troops led by Niall Garve O'Donnell. Heavy fighting took place during the month-long siege in which Donegal Abbey was destroyed by an accidental gunpowder explosion. Having suffered several repulses, Hugh Roe O'Donnell abandoned the siege and moved his army southwards to Munster where a Spanish force had arrived to support the Irish which culminated in the Battle of Kinsale. In his absence, Crown forces were able to use Donegal as a base to capture the strategic town of Ballyshannon.

Conn O'Donnell was killed during the siege, while fighting for the Crown.

Citations

Sources

• McGurk, John (2006). Sir Henry Docwra, 1564–1631: Derry's Second Founder. Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-948-2.

Further reading

Primary sources

• . CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. 2008 [1636].
• Mahaffy, Robert Pentland, ed. (1912). . His Majesty's Stationery Office.
• O'Clery, Lughaidh; O'Clery, Cucogry; Murphy, Denis (1895). . Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013. Dublin: Fallon & Co.
• O'Sullivan Beare, Philip (1903) [1621]. . Translated by Byrne, Matthew J. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. from the original on 10 March 2024.

Secondary sources

• Clavin, Terry (October 2009). . Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:. Archived from on 3 January 2024.
• Dunlop, Robert (1894). "O'Donnell, Hugh Roe". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 436–440.
• McGinty, Matthew (29 November 2024). . Tales from Early Modern Ireland.
• McGettigan, Darren (2005). . Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-8518-2887-6. OL .
• O'Neill, James (2017). . Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-754-9.
• . The Irish Penny Journal. 1 (24): 185–187. 12 December 1840. doi:. ISSN .