The Tribes of Galway were 14 merchant families who dominated the political, commercial and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries. They were the families of Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, Font, French, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martyn, Morris and Skerritt. Of the 14 families, 12 were of Anglo Norman origin, while two — the Darcy and Kirwan families — were Normanised Irish Gaels.
Hugh O'Neill, was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone and was later created The Ó Néill Mór, Chief of the Name. O'Neill's career was played out against the background of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and he is best known for leading a coalition of Irish clans during the Nine Years' War, the strongest threat to the House of Tudor in Ireland since the uprising of Silken Thomas against King Henry VIII.
The Flight of the Earls took place in September 1607, when Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and about ninety followers, left Ulster in Ireland for mainland Europe. Their permanent exile was a watershed event in Irish history, symbolising the end of the old Gaelic order.
Richard Óge Martyn was a Galway lawyer and member of the Catholic Confederates of Ireland. He was of the senior line of the Martyn family, one of the Tribes of Galway. He lived at Dunguaire Castle, Kinvarra. He worked with his brother-in-law and first cousin, Patrick Darcy, against the Plantation of Connaught in the 1630s, and served on the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics in the 1640s. Martyn also served as Mayor of Galway, 1642–1643. He and Darcy were part of a network of Catholic lawyers in Galway who contrived to continue in practice in defiance of the Penal Laws, which barred Catholics from the professions. Richard was admitted to the King's Inns in 1631: he was suspended from practice at the Irish Bar in 1635 as a known Catholic, but permitted to resume practice in 1637, apparently because he had sworn the Oath of Supremacy.
Rory O'Donnell, younger brother of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, was the last King of Tyrconnell and 1st Earl of Tyrconnell.
Hugh Roe O'Donnell, also known as Red Hugh O'Donnell, was a sixteenth-century leader of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. He became Chief of the Name of Clan O'Donnell and Lord of Tyrconnell in 1593, following a lengthy succession dispute within the derbhfine of the O'Donnell dynasty, and after escaping a five-year imprisonment without trial in Dublin Castle. Along with his father-in-law Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone, he led an alliance of Irish clans in the Nine Years' War against the English government in Ireland. Hugh Roe led an Irish army to victory in the Battle of Curlew Pass. After defeat in the Siege of Kinsale, he travelled to Spain to seek support from King Philip III. Unsuccessful, he died in Spain and was succeeded by his younger brother Rory O'Donnell. He is sometimes also known as Aodh Ruadh II or Red Hugh II, especially in his native County Donegal.
The O'Donnell dynasty were the dominant Irish clan of the kingdom of Tyrconnell, Ulster, in medieval Ireland.
The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish alliance—led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell—against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the country, but mainly in the northern province of Ulster. The Irish alliance won some important early victories, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a decisive victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and led to the Plantation of Ulster.
Shane O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone was the youngest son of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire, was an Irish Franciscan and theologian, founder of the College of St Anthony of Padua, Leuven, and Archbishop of Tuam.
Donogh O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond and Baron Ibrickan, PC (Ire), was a Protestant Irish nobleman and soldier. He fought for Queen Elizabeth during Tyrone's Rebellion and participated in the Siege of Kinsale. He obtained the transfer of County Clare, where most of his lands lay, from the Province of Connacht to that of Munster. He was made president of Munster in 1605.
Edmond I de Bermingham was an Anglo-Irish lord.
Nehemiah Donnellan was Archbishop of Tuam.
John "na Seamer" Burke, Baron Leitrim, also known as John of the Shamrocks, was one of the notorious half-brothers called the meic an Iarla, whose conflicts with each other and their father, Richard Burke, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde, caused devastation to south Connacht several times between the late 1560s and early 1580s.
Sir Valentine Blake was an Irish merchant and Mayor of Galway, 1560 – 2 January 1635.
Walter Riabhac Ó Dorchaidhe, Irish merchant and founder of the Darcy tribe of Galway, fl. c. 1488.
Tibbot MacWalter Kittagh Bourke, 21st Mac William Íochtar was the first and last person to hold that title following its restoration. He was inaugurated at Kilmaine by Hugh Roe O'Donnell in December 1595 to secure Mayo for the rebel Irish Alliance during the Nine Years' War. His rule was opposed by many Bourke nobles, most notably by his arch-rival, the loyalist chief Tibbot na Long Bourke. The two men fought for supremacy over the MacWilliam Lordship throughout the war and control of the area changed hands on numerous occasions. Following Kittagh's flight to Spain in 1602, the MacWilliam chieftainship was abolished yet again, and Tibbot na Long would thereafter be made Viscount Mayo.
Cathbarr O'Donnell was an Irish nobleman.
Teigue O'Rourke (1576–1605) was the last king of West Breifne from 1603 until his death in 1605. He was the son of Brian O'Rourke and Mary Burke of Clanricarde. Raised by his mother in County Galway, he lived most of his life in exile from his kingdom, looking for allies to support his claim as king of West Breifne in opposition to his half-brother Brian Oge O'Rourke. Having initially supported the Irish alliance during the Nine Years' War, he switched allegiance to England following the Battle of Kinsale in 1602. With the support of English forces he invaded West Breifne in 1603, ousting his half-brother and ruling as king until his unexpected death in late 1605 at the age of 28.
