The O’Connors and the O’Mores
The initial cost would be small, and might be more than covered by Crown rents, to be exacted afterwards from the settlers. If the colony is a success, it would introduce an element favourable to English Rule and law, and accustomed to English ways and speech, whose influence time, it was hoped, permeate and ” civilise ” the entire population. But up to Henry’s death in 1547 nothing had been done.
the Midland septs, whose proximity to the Pale gave them peculiar opportunities for harassing its inhabitants, none had proved more troublesome than the O’Connors I of Oifaly and the O’Mores of Leix. Offaly comprised the eastern part of King’s Co, with the middle-west of Kildare and the north of Queen’s Co.; while the much smaller territory of Leix consisted of the cast, south-east and middle of Queen’s Co.
In the Geraldine rebellion, Brian, the reigning O’Connor chief, had played a prominent part, till finally compelled to a submission. In respect of a part of his lands, O’Connor paid certain dues to the Earl of Kildare. He was therefore regarded by the English Government as Kildare’s vassal, and these lands held to be forfeit to the Crown by feudal law, owing to the treason of his suzerain.
The O’Mores, by their constant raids and rebellions, had also incurred the displeasure of the Government, and Sir Edward Bellingham, in accordance with his policy, erected forts in both the Offaly and the Leix territories. Some English settlers had come to dwell under the shelter of these forts and the protection of their garrisons. But the original lords of the soil, the O’Connors and O’Mores, gathered together and murdered or drove them out. By the end of Edward’s reign few of these settlers remained.
St. Leger, who had been Deputy since the beginning of the reign, and whose leanings had always been rather to conciliation, was recalled in 1556, and Lord Fitzwalter (later Earl of Sussex) succeeded him. Ireland, and especially Leinster, was just at this time more than commonly disturbed. There was raiding and devastating both within and without the Pale. The O’Mores and O’Connors, having got rid of the foreign intruders, had returned to their old lands and their old ways. It was these two clans that the Queen singled out to be the first victims of the new policy.
