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Gofraidh (Godfrey) O'Donnell

Second outstanding O'Donnell Chief of note.

1247

A great army was led by the son of Maurice Fitzgerald and the English
to Assaroe at Ballyshannon, at the desire of Godfrey O'Donnell. Rory
O'Canannan, with the Kinel-Connell, came against them, and the English
were unable to do him any injury, or to proceed further on that
occasion. AFM

1248

An army was led by Maurice Fitzgerald into Tirconnell, where he engaged
in conflicts and committed great depredations and plunders. He banished
Rory O'Canannan into Tyrone, and left the lordship of Kinel-Connell to
Godfrey, the son of Donnell O'Donnell. The Kinel-Owen and O'Canannan
mustered a body of forces and marched into Tirconnell, and gave battle
to Godfrey and the Kinel-Connell, on which expedition Rory O'Canannan
and many others were slain. AFM

1249

An army was led by O'Donnell into Lower Connaught, and he destroyed and
ravaged that tract of country reaching from the Curlieu Mountains to
the Moy, and returned safe and in triumph, carrying with him great
spoils and many hostages. AFM

1252

(Great heat and drought prevailed in this summer, so that people crossed
the beds of the principle rivers of Ireland with dry feet. The reaping
of the corn crops of Ireland was going on 20 days before the Ist of
August and the trees were scorched by the heat of the sun. New money
was ordered by the King of England to be made coined in Ireland, and
the money previously in use was discontinued) AFM

Godfrey made a predatory incursion into Tyrone, and took many cows and
prisoners, but was overtaken as he was leaving the country by Brian
O'Neill, and a fierce battle was fought between them, in which the
Kinel-Owen were defeated, and left behind many heads, with a great
number of their chieftains tie as prisoners). AFM

1256

Godfrey marched with an army into Fermanagh, by which he obtained
property and hostages. From thence he proceeded to Breifny-O'Rourke,
where they gave him his own demand. AFM

1257

A brave battle was fought by Godfrey, Lord of Tirconnell, in defence of
his country, with the Lord Justice of Ireland, Maurice Fitzgerald, and
the other English nobles of Connaught, at Creadran-Cille in Res-cede,
in the territory of Carbury, to the north of Sligo. A desperate and
furious battle was fought between them: bodies were mangled, heroes
were disabled, and the senses were stunned on both sides. The field was
vigorously maintained by the Kinel-Connell, who made such obstinate and
vigorous onsets upon the English that in the end, they routed them with
great slaughter. Godfrey himself however, was severely wounded; for he
met maurice Fitzgerald face to face in single combat, in which they
wounded each other severely. In consequence of the success of this
battle, the English and the Geraldines were driven out of Lower
Connaught. On the same day Mac Griffin, an illustrious knight, was
taken prisoner by O'Donnells people; and Sligo was afterwards burned
and totally plundered by them. O'Donnells people then returned home in
consequence of O'Donnells wounds; but were it not that his wounds had
oppressed him, he would have routed his enemies to the River Moy.
Godfrey, on his return, prostrated and demolished the castle which had
been erected by the English a short time before, at Cael-uisce, to
carry on the war against the Kinel-Connell. AFM

1258

Godfrey had now, for the space of a year, after having fought the
battle of Creadran, been lying on his death-bed in an island in
Loch-Beathach (Birch Lake, situated near the village of Church-Hill, in
the parish of Gartan, barony of Kilmacrenan, and county of Donegal).
When Brian O'Neill obtained intelligence of this, he collected his
forces together for the purpose of marching into Tirconnell, and sent
messangers to O'Donnell to demand hostages, pledges, and submission,
from the Kinel-Connell, as they had no capable chieftain since the
disabling of Godfrey. When the messengers delivered their message to
O'Donnell, they returned back with all the speed they could exert.
O'Donnell ordered the Kinel-Connell to assemble from all quarters and
come to him; and after they had assembled at the summons of their lord,
he ordered them, as he was not able to march with them, to make for him
the bier wherein his body would finally be borne, and to place him in
it, and carry him in the midst of his people. He told them to exert
their bravery, as he himself was among them, and not to suffer the
might of their enemies to prevail over them. They the, by order of
their lord, proceeded on their march against O'Neill's army; and the 2
armies met face to face, at the river called Suileach (now the River
Swilly). They attacked each other, without regard to friendship or
kindred, until the Tyronian army was discomfited and driven back,
leaving behind them many men, horses, and a great quantity of valuable
property. On the return of the Tirconnelian army from this victory, the
bier on which O'Donnell was carried was laid down in the street of
Congbhail (now Conwall, near Letterkenny), and here his soul departed,
from the venom of the scars and wounds which he had received in the
battle of Creadran. This was not death in cowardice, but death of a
hero, who had at all times triumphed over his enemies. AFM