Edmund O'Dwyer

Edmund O'Dwyer (died 25 August 1654). also spelt O'Dwyre, was an Irish landowner and officer of the Confederate Irish forces in the Irish Confederate Wars, playing the leading role in Munster in the fight against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

Background Clan O'Dwyer dates from the days of Brian Boru in the 10th century. The last clan chief was Philip O'Dwyer of Kilnamanagh, who died in 1648. A landowner in the barony of Clanwilliam, Edmund O'Dwyer is believed to have been a cousin of Philip O'Dwyer, whose brother Donogh was one of Edmund O'Dwyer's colonels at the time of the fight against Cromwell. In The O'Dwyers of Kilnamanagh (1933), Sir Michael O'Dwyer describes Edmund O'Dwyer as "a near kinsman".

Career In 1640, O'Dwyer was listed among the cavalry raised by the Marquess of Ormond for King Charles I's war against the Scots Covenanters. In 1647, he fought for the Confederates at the Battle of Dungan's Hill, after which he was captured and held as a prisoner at Dublin Castle. He was still there in 1648, a longer captivity than foreseen.

At the end of 1651, O'Dwyer had five regiments and some 2,700 men. He led one infantry and one cavalry regiment himself, while three others of foot were commanded by Donogh O'Dwyer, a Colonel White, and a Colonel O'Meagher. However, Donogh O'Dwyer was then arrested for his part in the Cashel massacre of 1641 and in November 1652 was executed in Cashel.

In fiction Edmund O'Dwyer features as a character in the novel Rebel's Knot (2022) by Cryssa Bazos, set amid the historical events of Cromwell's invasion.