Sorley Boy MacDonnell - Military Leader

Military Leader

Once the invasion crisis had passed, the MacDonnells resisted efforts by the English and Scots governments to drive them from their lands in the Western Isles of Scotland and Ulster.

Sorley Boy was born at Dunanynie Castle near Ballycastle, County Antrim in Ireland, and came to prominence during the mid-to-late 16th century, when the Dublin administration waged periodic campaigns in the Route. During the first campaign in 1550, Sorley Boy was taken prisoner and confined in Dublin Castle for twelve months, and was finally released in exchange for certain prisoners held by his brother, James, who was leader of the clan.

After his release, Sorley Boy received a large ransom upon seizing the constable of Carrickfergus Castle, and went on to subjugate the MacQuillans. This clan was the immediate rival of the MacDonnells in Ireland, dominating the northern portion of Antrim - the Route - with their stronghold at Dunluce Castle, near the mouth of the River Bush. In 1558, the MacDonnell chieftain committed to him the lordship of the Route upon the death of his brother Colla, and Sorley Boy promptly raised a force of troops on the Scottish coast to confront the MacQuillans, former allies of the MacDonell clan. He landed at Marketon Bay in July 1559, where the MacQuillans were strongly posted at the foot of Glenshesk, his camp at Bonamargy was attacked with both suffering heavy losses. Sorley then attacked them at Beal a Faula, driving them south with heavy losses. Several bloody encounters followed, but at the battle of Slieve-an-aura the MacQuillans were defeated and routed from the Route.

Sorley Boy was now too powerful and turbulent to be neglected by Queen Elizabeth and her ministers, who were also being troubled by his great contemporary, Shane O'Neill. For the next twenty years, the history of Ulster consists for the most part of alternating conflict and alliance between MacDonnells and O'Neills, and attempts on the part of the English government to subdue them both. With this object Elizabeth aimed at fomenting the rivalry between the two clans; she came to terms sometimes with the one and sometimes with the other. One event that simplified the situation for the queen was the success in 1560 of the Protestant revolution in Scotland, which largely removed the threat of invasion her father had suffered in 1539. But complications were never wanting in Ulster, owing to the criss-cross of dynastic and political allegiances and betrayals. At this time Shane O'Neill was allied by marriage with the Campbells, the MacDonnell clan's chief rival in Scotland; yet Sorley Boy's wife was a half-sister of the same Shane.