Senors O'Rourke & MacClancy

Finding refuge at Glencar De Cuellar recuperated for a short time while his wounds healed sufficiently for him to make the journey to Brian O’Rourke’s castle at Dromahaire. Many of the Spaniards were directed here and given assurances that a warm welcome awaited them. Here he joined seventy other survivors at the ancient stronghold of the Lords of Breifne. He was given a woollen ‘blanket’, or mantle to cover himself with and this helped to keep him warm. Francisco didn’t see Brian O’Rourke during his time at Dromahaire. He suggests the chieftain was away defending his territory against the English. He was, in fact, in the process of attempting to drum up support for a rebellion amongst the chieftains of neighbouring Lordships of the region. It seems O’Rourke misinterpreted the arrival of the Armada ships as that of an invasion force. Convinced that Spanish aid was at hand he joined together with the O’Connors, MacDonaghs and O’Harts of Sligo to attack the castle of Ballymote, the stronghold of George Bingham, sheriff of Sligo, in an attempt to topple the English administration in the northwest.

De Cuellar seems to have stayed only a day or two at Dromahaire. The following morning news came to the castle that there was an Armada ship at the coast picking up survivors of the ships that were wrecked. ‘….we were given news that a ship from Spain was at the coast, that it was a very big one and had come to pick up Spanish survivors. On hearing this news, all twenty of us left without further delay for the area where they said the ship was.’ This ship was most likely one of two ships which dropped anchor in the northern part of Donegal Bay. The galleass Girona was in Killybegs harbour undergoing repairs for damage sustained its hull and rudder. It was now about the end of the first week in October. The Girona had been docked in Killybegs for around three weeks and would remain at the small port until the end of the month. However it seems likely that the ship De Cuellar and his comrades were told about was one of the large supply ships that accompanied the Armada. This ship, carrying among other things 120 horses and 60 mules, had damaged its mainmast and had to be towed to safety by a coal ship. It was at Donegal town making emergency repairs before making the attempt to return to Spain.

Of the seventy Spaniards at Dromahaire De Cuellar says only twenty decided to attempt to reach the coast. This group set out in a hurry to meet the ship before it left Donegal. Once again De Cuellar was handicapped by his injured legs which were far from healed. Just as had happened before, he fell far behind everybody else. Unable to keep up he lost sight of his companions and then seems to have got lost. ‘….I didn’t reach the port where she had put in, as did the others who were with me. They embarked on her, as she was an Armada vessel that had put into harbour there in a great gale, and with her mainmast and rigging badly damaged. And, fearing that enemies might burn her or do further damage-something they would have done with all dispatch-the crew prepared to sail two days later. But what with the numbers she was already carrying and others she had taken on board, she ran aground again somewhere along the same coast. More than two hundred men drowned and those who swam ashore were taken by the English and put to the sword. God granted that I alone should remain of the twenty of us who went in search of her, so that I should not suffer the fate of the others.’ Francisco doesn’t indicate how far he managed to get in trying to reach ‘the port’ where the Armada vessel put in. He merely says he ‘encountered many obstacles on the way’. By following a route through Glenade valley to the coast he would have been confronted with deep bogs and swollen rivers to cross. The greatest of these was the river Erne which would have to be crossed at either Ballyshannon or, upstream, at Beleek. Both of these crossing points were dominated by castles occupied by the O’Gallagher clan, an important family under the O’Donnell’s of Tirconnell. Whether De Cuellar made it this far is impossible to tell.

Wandering about with no idea of where he was going Francisco happened to meet with a priest on the road he was traveling. They conversed in Latin while the priest shared with Francisco some food he carried. He was dressed as a lay person as it was too dangerous for priests to travel openly at this time. The priest knew of somewhere safe De Cuellar could go ‘and put me on the road to a castle that was about six leagues from there; a very strong castle belonging to a savage chieftain, a very brave soldier who was a great enemy of the Queen of England and anything to do with her. He is a man who has always refused to obey her or pay tribute to her, keeping to his castle and mountains, the source of his strength. So I headed off in that direction, suffering a lot of hardship on the way; and the greatest which caused me most pain, was my encounter on the road with a savage who tricked me into going with him to his hut, which was in a deserted valley.’ Francisco had been given directions to the castle of Tadhg og MacClancy, Lord of Dartry. He was one of the sub-chiefs of Breifne, another rebel chieftain and a right-hand man of Brian O’Rourke. His castle, at Rosclogher, was situated on Lough Melvin on the borders between Breifne and Ulster. He was one of the chieftains to shelter Armada survivors. De Cuellar was somewhere within a day’s hike of this castle as he set off on the directions of the priest. But he didn’t get that far.

Meeting with a blacksmith Francisco somehow allowed himself to be taken to this man’s home in a ‘deserted valley’ where he operated a forge. This valley is commonly believed to be Glenade, five miles over the mountains from Rosclogher and accessible by a mountain road from the lower end of the valley. Another possible location for this forge is the vicinity of the modern village of Garrison on the northeastern shore of Lough Melvin. A large iron foundry operated here in the early years of the seventeenth century. It, too, was within one day’s walk of MacClancy’s castle. Wherever this forge was located De Cuellar became imprisoned there, a captive of the blacksmith and made to work for him operating the bellows. ‘He told me I was going to have to live there for the rest of my life and he would teach me his trade: he was a blacksmith. I couldn’t think what to reply, nor did I dare, in case he shoved me into his forge. Instead, I looked cheerful in front of him, and set to work with my bellows for more than a week, much to the delight of the villainous savage blacksmith, since I took pains not to displease him or his hideous crone of a wife.’ Though De Cuellar described his captor as living in a deserted valley a blacksmith’s forge was a busy enterprise within any community. Though he doesn’t speak of seeing locals coming to the forge word must have circulated in the locality that there was a Spaniard working for the blacksmith. Curiosity alone must have drawn people down to see the spectacle. While Francisco laboured at the bellows word obviously reached the priest he had spoken to as, about a week and a half later, the priest arrived at the forge. ‘He was appalled to see me held there. I told him I had no choice in the matter since that savage refused to let me go as he had me working with him. The priest upbraided him severely and told me not to worry about it as he would speak to the chieftain of the castle to which he had directed me, and would see to it that I was sent for, as happened the following day.’

The priest must have gone straight to Rosclogher as, the following day, true to his word four of MacClany’s warriors accompanied by a Spaniard arrived at the forge to take Francisco back to his stronghold. He joined ten other survivors of the wrecks who were then with MacClancy. Limping into MacClancy’s village in abject state, without any clothes covering him other than straw matting, De Cuellar was an object of pity for the villagers. The ‘women even wept to see how badly I had been treated. They fixed me up as well as they could with the sort of blanket they wear, and I spent three months there…’ De Cuellar’s arrival at Rosclogher brought a period of respite for him. By now he had been in Ireland for almost a month wandering around a large tract of territory of the modern counties Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. It was mid-to-late October. Winter was beginning to set in. Exhausted, no doubt, after his travails he accepted the hospitality of Tadhg og MacClancy and decided to remain here in the remote, mountain lordship of Dartry.