Donal of the Skins or Hides , also called Peltry O'Donovan or simply Donal I O'Donovan , was The O'Donovan

O'Donovan

O'Donovan or Donovan is an Irish surname, as well as a hereditary Gaelic title. It is also written Dhonnabháin in certain grammatical contexts, and Donndubháin, being originally composed of the elements donn, meaning lord or dark brown, dubh, meaning dark or black, and the diminutive suffix án...

 Mor, Lord of Clancahill from his inauguration with the White Wand

White Wand

The White Rod, White Wand, Rod of Inauguration, or Wand of Sovereignty, in the Irish language variously called the slat na ríghe and slat tighearnais , was the primary symbol of a Gaelic king or lord's legitimate authority and the principal prop used in his inauguration ceremony...

 circa 1560 by the MacCarthy Reagh

MacCarthy Reagh

The MacCarthy Reagh dynasty are a branch of the great MacCarthy dynasty, Kings of Desmond, deriving from the ancient Eóganachta, of the central Eóganacht Chaisil sept. The MacCarthys Reagh seated themselves as Princes of Carbery in what is now southwestern County Cork in the 13th century...

, Prince of Carbery

Barony of Carbery

Carbery, or the Barony of Carbery, was once the largest barony in Ireland, and essentially a small, semi-independent kingdom on the southwestern coast of Munster, in what is now County Cork, from its founding in the 1230s by Donal Gott MacCarthy to its gradual decline in the late 16th and early...

, to his death in 1584. Although not recorded his inaugurator was probably Cormac na Haoine MacCarthy Reagh, 10th Prince of Carbery

Cormac na Haoine MacCarthy Reagh, 10th Prince of Carbery

Cormac na Haoine was the 10th Prince of Carbery from 1531–1567. He belonged to the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty.He was the eldest son of Donal MacCarthy Reagh, 9th Prince of Carbery Cormac na Haoine (1490–1567) was the 10th Prince of Carbery from 1531–1567. He belonged to the MacCarthy Reagh...

.

He was the son of Teige of Dromasta, The O'Donovan Mor, and Helena O'Donovan, daughter of Denis O'Donovan MacEnesles of Moyny.

Fostered by the O'Leary

O'Leary

O'Leary is an Irish name, an anglicized version of the original Gaelic patronym Ó Laoghaire or Ó Laoire.The Uí Laoghaire clan, today associated with the Uibh Laoghaire parish in County Cork, is considered by scholars to have originated on the south-west coast, in the area of Ros Ó gCairbre , of...

 of Carrignacurra, Donal married his daughter Ellen O'Leary, after having already had by her Diarmaid O'Donovan, slain or hanged by Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare in 1581, and "other sons", who in 1592 were declared illegitimate

Legitimacy (law)

At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...

 (i.e., bastards) by the Lord Chancellor Adam Loftus

Adam Loftus (Archbishop)

thumb|right|200px|Archbishop Adam LoftusAdam Loftus was Archbishop of Armagh, and later Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1581. He was also the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.-Early life:...

. He was succeeded in 1584 by his eldest "lawful" son by Ellen, Donal II O'Donovan

Donal II O'Donovan

Donal II O'Donovan , The O'Donovan of Clann Cathail, Lord of Clancahill , was the son of Ellen O'Leary, daughter of O'Leary of Carrignacurra, and Donal of the Skins, The O'Donovan of Clann Cathail....

. The younger Teige attempted to contest the succession, alleging Donal II was also a bastard, but failed in his attempt.

Epithet

Donal's epithet na g-Croiceann or "of the Skins" is believed to come from his being, when a child, wrapped by his mother in cow hides to protect him from the enemies of his father.

Life

Donal is best known for allegedly slaughtering possibly in the area of several hundred of his own kinsfolk, and dispossessing yet still more, to become O'Donovan, Lord of Clancahill. The events as they have come down to later generations are as follows.

Further reading

• Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, Carberiae Notitia. 1686. extracts published in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume XII, Second Series. 1906. pp. 142–9
• FitzPatrick, Elizabeth, Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–1600: A Cultural Landscape Study. Boydell Press. 2004.
• Nicholls, K. W.
  Kenneth Nicholls
  Kenneth W. Nicholls Irish academic and historian is one of the most widely respected Irish historians of the twentieth century. He came to national and international prominence as the author of the seminal Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages, first published in 1972, and reprinted 2003...
  
  , Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 2nd edition, 2003.
• Smith, Charles, eds. Robert Day and W. A. Copinger, The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork. Volume I. Volume II. 1750. Cork: Guy & Co. Ltd. 1893.