Owny MacRory O'More

Owny MacRory O’More (Uaithne mac Ruairí Ó Mórdha; c. 1575 - August 1600) was an Irish chieftan and rebel.

The son of clan chief Rory O'More, he was brought up in County Wicklow by his maternal uncle Fiach O'Byrne. He succeeded as The O'More around 1594, and notably won 1599's Pass of the Plumes against the 2nd Earl of Essex. Considered the "last great Lord of Laois", O'More's death in 1600 marked the end of the O'Mores as one of the most important Irish clans.

Early life
Born around 1575, O'More was the son of Rory Oge O'More, Lord of Laois, and Margaret O’Byrne, daughter of Hugh McSeán O'Byrne. He had six full-siblings, which include Fiach, Remainn (fellow rebels) and Doryne, who later married Captain Richard Tyrrell. He also had at least four half-brothers.

In 1556, Queen Mary I had approved the Settlement of Laois and Offaly Act, which shired Laois and Uí Failghe (now Offaly), renaming them Queen's County and King's County respectively. This dispossessed the rest of Clan O'More and started the Plantations of Ireland.

In 1578, Rory was killed by troops led by loyalist Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron Upper Ossory. After Rory's death, his friend John Burke, son of the Earl of Clanricarde, took charge of Owny O'More.

O'More and Doryne were brought up in Glenmalure, territory of the O'Byrne clan, under the protection of their uncle Fiach McHugh O'Byrne. O'More's upbringing was turbulent and surrounded by the conflict of the Tudor conquest of Ireland - in 1582, two of his half-brothers were publicly executed at Dublin for their involvement in the Leinster conflict.

O'Byrne took him under his wing, training him in the arts of politics and warfare. He anticipated the young O'More's eventual return to Laois to claim his family's lordship. Owny O'More became Lord of Laois around 1594. He may have succeeded his father's cousin, James.

Rebellion
On 15 August 1594, Queen Elizabeth I reintroduced martial law throughout Leinster to suppress O'Byrne. In response, O'Byrne dispatched his teenaged nephew, supervised by his ally Piers Grace, to terrorise the Irish midlands. By June the next year, O'More had received his uncle's orders to stand down - however they continued their carnage in early 1596.

The English captured O'More after some difficulty, and eventually allowed him to return to Ireland. Upon returning he became "as great a rebel as his father", recovering almost all Laois. The Annals of the Four Masters records O'More's rebellious actions of 1596:"[Owny O'More] was at this time a gentleman skilled in the arts of war; and Leix was totally ravaged by him, both its crops, corn, and dwellings, so that there was nothing in the territory outside the lock of a gate or a bawn which was not in his power. He slew a gentleman of the English, who was seated at Stradbally-Leix, who possessed a large portion of the territory by authority of the Sovereign, namely, Alexander Cosby, the son of Master Frauus."

Upon 1598's Battle of the Yellow Ford and O'More's Leinster Irish irruption into Munster, Lord President of Munster Thomas Norris concentrated his forces to the neighbourhood of Mallow; but not feeling sufficiently strong to encounter O'More, he withdrew to Cork.

Pass of the Plumes
One of O'More's most significant battles, the Pass of the Plumes, took place on 17 May 1599 against Lord Deputy Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. It was named this because O'More's men captured many feathered helmets of the English soldiers.

Essex set out from Dublin on 9 May to muster his army in the Curragh. He took the castle of Athy, and was harried by O'More's men as he passed beyond the Pale. He relieved the fort of Maryborough, headed towards the pass of Cashel in Queens County. The pass was wooded and boggy, with a plashed trench at either end. At the head of Essex's advance were 40 shot and 20 swordsmen. In the face of rebel resistance, the calivermen moved to point blank range and the swordsmen jumped into the trenches on the flanks; the vanguard moved through the calivermen in a frontal assault and pressed through to open country, where they halted until the whole column had joined them. Essex was said to have flown like lightning between the vanguard, battle, and rearguard. The English admitted to the loss of three officers and several men although the Irish claimed 500 were killed.

According to Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland, "in the year 1599, Owny MacRory O'More cut off a great number of the troops of the Earl of Essex, in a defile in their progress through Leinster, at a place called from that circumstance Bearna-Cleitigh, signifying the Pass of Plumes, from the great quantity of plumes left there, which were worn in the helmets of the English knights who were slain."

Death
In mid-August 1600, O'More and his men advanced towards Maryborough. He was shot and killed by Baron Mountjoy's soldiers in a skirmish on the borders of Queen's County. Sources differ on the exact location - either near Timahoe or Vicarstown. According to writer Philip O'Sullivan Beare, O'More "incautiously advanced with one comrade beyond his own troops [and] was struck by a leaden bullet."

Legacy
Upon his death, almost all of O'More's men lost their fighting spirit - only his brother Remainn continued to fight before surrendering in 1601. According to Archbold, Owny's death meant the O'More clan was doomed. Laois was seized by the English, "for there was no heir worthy of it like Owny, to defend it against them". He was succeeded as Lord of Laois by Owny MacShane O’More.

English travel writer Fynes Moryson called O'More "a bloody and bold young man", and the Annals of the Four Masters called him an "illustrious, renowned, and celebrated gentleman".

O'More seems to have died without any sons or daughters.

His first cousin, born around the time of his death, was Rory O'Moore, a principal organiser of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.