Cathbarr O'Donnell Cathbarr Ó Domhnaill
Tomb of Cathbarr and his brother Rory in San Pietro in Montorio
Born	c. 1583 Tyrconnell, Ulster, Ireland
Died	15 September 1608 (aged about 25) Rome, Papal States
Father	Hugh McManus O'Donnell
Mother	Iníon Dubh

Cathbarr O'Donnell (Irish: Cathbarr Ó Domhnaill; c. 1583 – 15 September 1608) was an Irish nobleman and member of the O'Donnell dynasty of Tyrconnell. His name is often anglicised as Caffar. It is latinised as Calfurnius on his tomb inscription.

Born c. 1583,^[1] Cathbarr was the fourth and youngest son^[2][3] of Sir Hugh McManus O'Donnell, an Irish Gaelic lord who ruled Tyrconnell from 1566 to 1592. His mother was Hugh McManus's Scottish second wife, Iníon Dubh.^[4] His older brothers were Hugh Roe (Lord of Tyrconnell, 1592–1602),^[5] Rory (Earl of Tyrconnell, 1602–1608)^[6] and Manus (died 1600).^[7] He also had several sisters, including Nuala, Mary and Margaret.^[3]

His elder brother Hugh Roe was a key confederate leader during the Nine Years' War (1593–1603).^[5] Cathbarr and his brothers supported Hugh Roe during the war. In 1599 he fought alongside his brothers at the Battle of Curlew Pass, which resulted in a crucial victory for the Irish confederacy. In 1601 he accompanied them on the march to Kinsale in County Cork,^[4] where Spanish reinforcements had arrived.^[8][9] Cathbarr fought at the Siege of Kinsale^[4] where the confederacy faced a crushing defeat.^[9] After the battle he returned to Lower Connacht with Rory.^[4] Despite attempts to recover the military initiative, the confederacy was severely weakened. Hugh Roe died in September 1602 and Rory surrendered to the Crown at Athlone in December.^[6]

Cathbarr married Rosa O'Doherty, the sister of Cahir O'Doherty, Lord of Inishowen, who fought on the Crown's side during Tyrone's rebellion but later launched O'Doherty's Rebellion by burning Derry. In 1607, Cathbarr and Rosa accompanied Rory in the Flight of the Earls to Continental Europe.^[10]

In early July 1608, Cathbarr travelled to Ostia, a coastal town fifteen miles west of Rome, in order to "make holiday and take a change of air". He was accompanied by his brother Rory, Hugh O'Neill, 4th Baron Dungannon, and Donal O’Carroll, Vicar General of Killaloe. Unfortunately, the men "all agreed that that particular place [was] one of the worst and most unhealthy for climate in all Italy". Rory died of fever on 28 July 1608.^[11] Cathbarr also became ill, and similarly died of fever on 15 September 1608 in Rome.^[4][12] He is buried in San Pietro in Montorio.^[11]

The leadership of the O'Donnells passed to Rory's young son Hugh Albert O'Donnell.^[10]

After Cathbarr's death, Rosa remarried to the Irish soldier Owen Roe O'Neill.^[13]

Cathbarr had a son with Rosa named Hugh O'Donnell, who was aged two years and three months at the time of the Flight of the Earls in September 1607. This puts Hugh's birthdate around June 1605.^[14] Hugh became a Captain in the Spanish Army, serving in his stepfather's regiment in Flanders. He was killed in 1625 during the Siege of Breda.^[15][4]

Cathbarr also had an illegitimate son, named Conn, with another woman. According to Darren McGettigan, Conn was born with six toes on one foot.^[4] According to Francis Martin O'Donnell, it was Cathbarr's son Hugh who had six toes on one foot.^[16] In 1608 Sir John Davies stated that the O'Donnell family had high hopes for Conn "for they affirm that one of their saints of Tyrconnell hath prophesied that when such a one, being of the sept of O'Donnell, shall be born, he shall drive all the Englishmen out of Ireland". Conn was raised in the household of Lord Deputy Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland.^[4] Conn was also raised by Captain Basil Brooke at Donegal Castle.^[17] He was later imprisoned in London prison, and then in 1629 escaped to Flanders alongside his cousins Mary Stuart O'Donnell and Hugh O'Rourke.^[4]

• Casway, Jerrold (1984), Owen Roe O'Neill and the Struggle for Catholic Ireland, University of Pennsylvania Press
• Concannon, Helena (1920). "'The Woman of the Piercing Wail' (The Lady Nuala O'Donnell)". The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. 16. Dublin: John F. Fowler.
• McGettigan, Darren (2005). Red Hugh O'Donnell and the Nine Years War. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-8518-2887-6. OL 11952048M.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "O'Neill". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 107–111.
• O'Clery, Lughaidh; O'Clery, Cucogry; Murphy, Denis (1895). Beatha Aodha Ruaidh ui Dhomhnaill. The life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, prince of Tirconnell (1586-1602). Boston College Libraries. Dublin, Fallon.
• O'Donnell, Eunan (2006). "Reflection on the Flight of the Earls" (PDF). Donegal Annual (58): 31–44.
• Walsh, Paul (1930). Walsh, Paul (ed.). THE WILL AND FAMILY OF HUGH O NEILL, EARL OF TYRONE [WITH AN APPENDIX OF GENEALOGIES] (PDF). Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles.

• McCavitt, John (2002). The Flight of the Earls. Gill & MacMillan.

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