Brighid Nic Gearailt

Bridget FitzGerald, Countess of Tyrconnell and later Viscountess Barnewall ( – 1682), was an Irish noblewoman and poet. The wife of Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, she was left behind in Ireland during the Flight of the Earls in 1607. She later remarried to Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall.

Early life

Bridget FitzGerald was born circa 1589. Her parents were Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Nottingham. When her father died in 1597 she was sent to live with her grandmother, Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare, in Maynooth.

First marriage Bridget married Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, either in 1604 or around Christmas 1606. Their only son, Hugh Albert, was born around October 1606. Due to increasing hostility from the English nobility, Rory fled Ireland in September 1607 whilst Bridget was pregnant with their second child. Rory was joined by about ninety people - his extended family (including Hugh Albert), the family of wartime ally Hugh O'Neill, and various followers. Bridget never saw her husband or son again. Rory died in Rome on 28 July 1608.

Second marriage and death Bridget presented her daughter at the English court with a personal appeal to King James I. Bridget sufficiently roused the king with an emotional telling of her plight and financial troubles, and he granted Bridget a pension of £200 from Tyrconnell's escheated estates. Mary was placed under the patronage of the King and Bridget was sent back to Ireland. In 1609, Bridget returned to her family's estates in Kildare. She raised Mary there

Children With Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell:

Hugh Albert O'Donnell, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell ( October 1606 – 1 July 1642); married Anna-Margaret de Hénin in 1632 Mary Stuart O'Donnell ( – after 1638); married Dudley O'Gallagher in 1630 Mabel Barnewall (died February 1699); married Christopher Plunket, 2nd Earl of Fingall Richard Barnewall Colonel James Barnewall Mary Barnewall (died May 1642) One other son and two other daughters

Ancestry