345:
31:
261:, a man named Gregory Hickman stated that: "Conor O’Brien, gentleman, in a most rebellious manner seized upon the deponent's corn"; and, later, "Conor O’Brien, of Lemaneagh, accompanied by Mary Brien with force of arms came to the deponent's house and took away fourteen English swine and a parcel of household stuff; also 400 sheep". Some of those raided by O'Brien reputedly perpetuated rumours that she was a witch.
234:
289:", propose that O'Brien married between 12 and 25 Cromwellian officers. Folklorist sources suggest that these numbers relate to love affairs had by O'Brien. These apocryphal stories claim that after every marriage or love affair, she killed each suitor, including killing one with a kick to the stomach. In one such legend O'Brien challenged a local man, with whom she had a dispute, to ride to the
278:
she arrived at the
Limerick camp of Henry Ireton. Here, dressed in blue silk and lace, she reportedly proclaimed that she was willing to marry any of the officers. Some sources suggest that she made this offer as proof of her husband's death. In other sources it is suggested that she may have wanted to marry a Cromwellian officer in an effort of secure her property and land from seizure.
277:
sent five of his best men to shoot Conor O'Brien, and one of them succeeded in wounding him. Mary captured and hanged the man, called her sons and advised them to surrender to the
Cromwellian forces, and set off in her coach to Limerick. Travelling through all the devastation and sorrow of his death,
364:, the entry for O'Brien records her death as "conventional", and that "in poor health" in her seventies she made a will. Signed on 7 June 1686, her will requested that she be buried at the abbey of Ennis, and though there is no marker, it is possible she is buried there alongside her second husband,
272:
at the pass of
Inchecrogan. Some stories suggest that he was returned to Leamaneh by O'Brien's own troops, gravely wounded, and that she nursed her husband on his death bed. Other stories suggest that his body was returned by Cromwellian troops, and that, in order to avoid confiscation of her lands,
321:
Still an Irish
Catholic but attending English Protestant mass, O'Brien reputedly had a dispute with the local rector, which resulted in her building Coad Church. For the rest of her life she reputedly attended Mass at this church. Legend suggests that she did this to upset the vicar and to show she
297:
describes parallels between some of these stories, such as challenging suitors to ride a wild stallion, and those of traditional Irish sovereign-goddess myths. Other stories claim that O'Brien had hung servants, who had displeased her, from the corbels of the castle; the males by the neck and the
356:
O'Brien is reported to have died an extraordinary death, with one legend stating that she was sealed into a hollow tree in the avenue of
Carnelly Forest. Other legends state that she was flung from a horse into a forked branch of a tree where she choked, or hung by her own hair from a tree.
313:
By 1653, Máire Rua O'Brien (then Cooper) is recorded as the wife of a former
Cromwellian officer, Cornet John Cooper and was living with him in Limerick for a period after their marriage. She later stayed with her O'Brien cousins in Inchiquin Castle, before returning to Leamaneh during
318:. Cooper and O'Brien are believed to have had a son, Harry, and possibly a daughter. It is Cooper that O'Brien was alleged to have killed with a kick in the stomach, but sources show that they remained married until her death - although they most likely lived apart.
371:
Folklore and legends claim that
Lemenagh Castle is one of the most haunted castle ruins in Ireland, with O'Brien's ghost wandering the halls of the ruin, accompanied by the sounds of an evil laugh and the screams of her supposed victims.
375:
There are three known portraits of O'Brien, one held by the O'Brien family, and two in
Dromoland Castle Hotel. The jewellery worn by O'Brien in one of these portraits, dating from the 1640s, includes a "curious" mermaid-shaped pendant.
205:
in County Clare, and had three sons with him; William, Daniel and
Michael. She was widowed, while her children were still young, when Neylon died in 1639. She managed the large Neylon estate until her eldest son William came of age.
329:. These allegations were reputedly made by her cousins' political opponents in parliament. Although she received a royal pardon in 1664, the trial went ahead and she wrote in 1665 of her "extremitie & troubles in England".
305:, to become the custodian of the O'Brien estate. She was able to secure the land for her children, but she could not retain Leamaneh Castle, which fell to the Cromwellian army and was turned into a garrison.
623:, p. 27: "tradition says that she had several other friendships from time to time, and that whenever she wanted to rid herself of an unwanted one, hanging him from the castle turret was an easy matter"
241:
It is with
Leamaneh Castle that some of the stories of O'Brien's claimed violent actions are associated. It is alleged she would hang servants who displeased her, that she victimised trespassers, and denied
222:. An inscription on the castle reads: "This was built in the year of Our Lord 1648 by Conor O'Brien and Mary ní Mahon alias Brien wife to the said Conor". The couple had eight children, the eldest of whom,
226:, was born in 1642. The other known children were Teige, Turlough, Murrough, Honora, and Mary, with two other daughters who are believed to have died during the plague which affected the area during the
170:. However, after her second husband was killed in 1651, she married a Cromwellian officer; in a reputed attempt to save her estate. Remaining on her estate at Leamaneh for several decades, her son
273:
she claimed that the dead man was not her husband and that she was already a widow. Lady Chatterton's account, in 1839, says that during the battle of the pass of Inchicronan,
186:
Born in 1615 or 1616, and named Máire (Mary) MacMahon, she became known as Máire Rua or Red Mary due to her red hair. She was the daughter of lord of East Corcabaskin or
198:, but it is likely she was born at Clonderalaw. O'Brien family tradition gives her place of birth as Urlan More, but she may have been fostered rather than born there.
178:
where she lived until her death in 1686. A sometimes notorious figure in Irish folklore, a number of exaggerated stories and legends are associated with her life.
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201:
In 1634, she married colonel Daniel Neylon who fought in the English army in the Spanish war, the marriage having been arranged. She lived with Neylon at the
814:
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In 1662, O'Brien was indicted for the murder of a local English landlord, which related to her apparent involvement with her second husband's
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The Antiquities of the Northern Portion of the Co. Clare: Including the Forts, Raths, Castles, Churches, Abbeys, and Grosses of the District
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561:: "Some of these attacks were allegedly led by Máire Rua herself and she had many enemies happy to perpetuate the witchcraft legend"
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during the preceding century. O'Brien is reported to have ridden with her husband during some raids. In depositions relating to the
301:
According to historical texts, soon after her husband's death in battle, O'Brien petitioned Charles I's Lord Deputy in Ireland,
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253:, her husband led and financed one of the five militia companies of Clare which raided tower houses of English settlers
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could do what she liked. In her will, O'Brien left a large amount of money to both Ennis Abbey and Quinn Abbey.
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142:(1615/1616 – 1686) was an Irish aristocrat who married three times to retain family lands. Born into the
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368:. Others contend that she is buried at Coad Church in Kilnaboy parish, with two of her daughters.
835:"'Goeth over onely to obtaine breeding': William O'Neylon's certificate of passage to Spain, 1652"
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on her wild blind stallion - with the expectation that he would be killed. The folklorist
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of Leamaneh. The couple extended the O'Brien tower house at Leamaneh, creating
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as "less credible" and an attempt to present O'Brien as a type of "female
264:
Conor O'Brien was commissioned as Colonel of Horse in 1650 in the army of
380:
195:
147:
190:, Sir Torlach Rua MacMahon and his wife Mary, the youngest daughter of
834:
387:, and associated with Máire Rua O'Brien, was cataloged in 1976 by
343:
232:
162:. With her second husband, she backed the Royalist cause against
921:"Collection List No. 143 - Inchiquin Papers - Maire Rua's Will"
798:"Irish Scary Sites Volume 3: Haunted Houses and Spooky Ruins"
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in north County Clare, after his death in 1639, she married
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in the 1680s, where she lived the final years of her life.
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Seven months after Neylon's death, she married her cousin,
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woman by the hair, and would cut off their breasts.
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828:(4). Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society.
332:Her son, Donough, moved the O'Brien family seat to
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896:. Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
845:. Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society.
150:. First married to Daniel Neylon (O'Neillan) of
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352:collection, reputed to be of Máire Rua O'Brien
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680:. Ireland: Ballinakella press. p. 150.
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854:. In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.).
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194:. Some sources have her place of birth as
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860:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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902:"Clare People: Maire Rua (1615 - 1686)"
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251:Confederate Wars in Ireland (1641–1653)
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327:raiding parties during the early 1640s
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174:moved the family seat to the larger
865:O'Byrne, Robert (19 October 2016).
192:Connor O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond
604:"The Burren: Legends of Maire Rua"
14:
839:North Munster Antiquarian Journal
822:North Munster Antiquarian Journal
796:Griffin, Joe (30 October 2019).
348:17th century portrait, from the
131:Sir Donough O'Brien, 1st Baronet
752:. Dublin: Oifig an tSoláthair.
930:. National Library of Ireland.
852:"O'Brien, Máire ('Máire Rua')"
1:
892:. In Cochrane, Robert (ed.).
857:Dictionary of Irish Biography
700:: CS1 maint: date and year (
362:Dictionary of Irish Biography
228:Siege of Limerick (1650–1651)
340:Death and subsequent legends
68:Ennis Abbey (or Coad Church)
678:Maire Rua: Lady of Lemenagh
664:National Library of Ireland
977:
815:"The Story of Máire Ruadh"
144:MacMahon family of Thomond
84:Retaining family lands at
956:17th-century Irish people
867:"The Legacy of Máire Rúa"
800:. Ordnance Survey Ireland
749:Ceol Rince na hÉireann II
413:"Costume in County Clare"
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886:Westropp, Thomas Johnson
850:Murphy, Maureen (2009).
833:McInerney, Luke (2018).
775:Curran, Robert (2005).
676:O'Neill, Maire (1990).
283:Thomas Johnson Westropp
259:Irish Rebellion of 1641
210:Life at Leamaneh Castle
51:, County Clare, Ireland
513:"MacMahon, MacMathúna"
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238:
813:Hanley, Mary (1991).
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237:Leamaneh Castle ruins
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203:Dysert (O'Dea) Castle
744:Breathnach, Breandán
906:www.clarelibrary.ie
389:Breandán Breathnach
255:planted in the area
224:Sir Donough O'Brien
152:Dysert O'Dea Castle
890:"Lemaneagh Castle"
871:The Irish Aesthete
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246:through her land.
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42:Máire Rua MacMahon
781:. O'Brien Press.
168:Eleven Years' War
164:Cromwell's forces
140:Máire Rua O'Brien
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60:1686 (aged 70/71)
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188:Clonderalaw
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73:Nationality
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395:References
309:Later life
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266:Charles II
182:Early life
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888:(1900).
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746:(1976).
385:Mall Rua
381:slip jig
196:Bunratty
148:red hair
127:Children
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