Succession
The head of the dynasty was traditionally also called "The O'Donnell", and inaugurated as Chieftain in an elaborate ceremony, under the Laws of Tanistry, part of the ancient Brehon Code of Law. Since the collapse of Gaelic Rule and the Brehon legal system, the succession of the "Chiefs of the Name" has followed the principle of male primogeniture.
On this basis, the current nominal head of the O'Donnell Clan (Clan Dálaigh), who bears the courtesy title of "The O'Donnell", i.e. the latest in the line of Chiefs of the Name of O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, customarily recognised as a Prince, is Fr. Hugh O'Donel, O.F.M., a Franciscan priest in Dublin who recently retired from missionary work in Zimbabwe. His widely-recognised Tánaiste (or heir apparent) as The O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, Prince and Chief of the Name of O'Donnell, is S.E. Don Hugo O'Donnell, Duke of Tetuan, a Grandee of Spain. He is known as S.E. Don Hugo O'Donnell y Duque de Estrada - the latter appendant Duque de Estrada is not a title but a maternal family name. Don Hugo is an active member of the Clan Association of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, and a member of the nobiliary Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta, i.e. a Knight of Malta.
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