Nuala O'Donnell

Nuala O'Donnell (Irish: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill; – ) was an Irish noblewoman of the O'Donnell clan. She took part in the Flight of the Earls, and was known as "the Lady of the Piercing Wail". whom he married in 1569. Historian Paul Walsh notes that, from the evidence available, Nuala's maternal heritage is unclear.

Casway estimates Nuala's birth year as . In contrast to Concannon, Andrea Knox believes Nuala was Rory's older sister. Francis Martin O'Donnell gives Nuala a birthdate of 1565. John J. Silke calls Nuala the older sister of Hugh Roe.

Based on Nuala's intellect and her later affiliations with the Franciscans, it is likely they were responsible for her education. Rory, Manus, Mary,

Clan politics Much of her family became engulfed in the violent O'Donnell succession dispute of the 1580s and 1590s, as various claimants attempted to secure the right to succeed her father as clan chief. In 1590, her elder half-brother Donnell was killed in battle by Scottish redshank mercenaries hired by Iníon Dubh, allowing her brother Hugh Roe to emerge victorious by 1592.

In 1591, Nuala made a dynastic marriage with Niall Garve O'Donnell, her cousin and a rival claimant to the O'Donnell lordship. Niall had failed in his ambitions to succeed Sir Hugh as chief, and this marriage was the family's attempt to temper his hostility and reconcile with Niall.

However Niall, along with three of his brothers and many followers, dramatically switched sides and began assisting Crown forces under the English commander Sir Henry Docwra who were operating out of Derry.

When Nuala heard of her husband's defection, Nuala left him and returned to live with her brother Hugh Roe, taking some of her children with her. In a furious reaction to Niall's betrayal, Hugh Roe is alleged by Dowcra to have beat Nuala's four-year-old son (and his own nephew) to death against a post.

Flight of the Earls

In 1607, Nuala O'Donnell fled Ireland with several Gaelic nobles, led by Hugh O'Neill and Rory O'Donnell, as refugees into Catholic Europe. Scholar Eleanor Hull claims Nuala was left behind in Leuven, though Casway believes she continued to Rome.

Flanders In October 1610, her two nephews were removed from the Dame Blanches Convent by Irish clergyman Hugh MacCaghwell and sheltered at St Anthony's College, Leuven. She never returned to Ireland.

Issue The topic of Nuala's children is unclear. Her daughter with Niall, Grania, had accompanied her into Italian exile. According to the Calendar of State Papers, Nuala and Niall's four-year-old son was killed by Hugh Roe around 1600.

Niall Garve O'Donnell had a son, Naghtan (fl. 1608), who was imprisoned in the Tower of London with his father. He may also be Nuala's son. James Clarence Mangan's 19th-century elegy, Lament for the Princes of Tyrone and Tyrconnell (Buried in Rome), references Nuala. It begins:

O Woman of the Piercing Wail,Who mournest o'er yon mound of clayWith sigh and groan,Would God thou wert among the Gael!Thou wouldst not then from day to dayWeep thus alone.'Twere long before, around a graveIn green Tirconnell, one could findThis loneliness;Near where Beann-Boirche's banners waveSuch grief as thine could ne'er have pinedCompanionless.

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