Fiach Mc Hugh O'Byrne - Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse

In 1592 O'Byrne involved himself in another escape from Dublin Castle. Hugh Roe O'Donnell (later Earl of Tirconnell) had escaped the castle in the previous year, only to be betrayed while on the run. His second attempt was a success, and although he suffered frostbite O'Donnell was guided to Glenmalure, whence O'Byrne despatched him home to the province of Ulster. The grave of Art O'Neill (son of Shane O'Neill), a fellow prisoner who died during the escape, lies south-west of Granabeg towards Glenmalure, in the townland of Oakwood.

O'Byrne fell quiet again, but Lee insisted throughout the period 1594-96 that he was a traitor to the crown, and a new initiative against him was directed by the lord deputy, Sir William Russell. After the Christmas festivities of 1594, Russell drove O'Byrne from Ballinacor in a three-day offensive and garrisoned his house. On their approach to the ramparts of Ballinacor a drum had been accidentally sounded before the troops could reach the gate, which put O'Byrne on his guard, and the gate was defended while those inside fled to safety. It was a mark of how close the government was coming in its efforts to tame the Wicklow highlands, and a reward of £150 was posted for O'Byrne's capture (or £100 for his head).

O'Byrne and his second wife, Rose O'Toole, were proclaimed traitors. But days later the Dublin suburb of Crumlin was burned by his son-in-law, Walter Reagh. The flames of the raid were seen in the center of Dublin, and Russell ordered the city gates opened as he sent cavalry in pursuit, but to no avail. In response, a fort was built at Ballinacor with 100 O'Byrne laborers, and the pressure on the clan territory was increased. Walter Reagh Fitzgerald was captured and hanged alive in chains for 24 hours before being impaled on a spike.

Russell set up spring camp at Shillelagh, hunting and fishing and receiving the heads of rebels. But O'Byrne was elusive, even as he intrigued with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The O'Byrnes executed an attack at Athy, but Fiach denounced the raid. At about this time his wife, Rose O'Toole, was captured and, upon her conviction for treason by a Dublin jury, sentenced to death by burning; her life was spared, only because she had been convinced to convey information to Feagh that his son Turlough was betraying him. Consequently O'Byrne delivered over Turlough, who, refusing to engage in any more schemes to betray his father, was executed.