Máire Rua O'Brien


Máire Rua O'Brien was an Irish aristocrat, and notorious figure in Irish legend for her violent and murderous actions.

Early life

Máire Rua O'Brien was born in 1615 or 1616. She was known as Máire Rua or Red Mary due to her red hair. She was the daughter of lord of East Corcabaskin or Clonderalaw, Sir Torlach Rua MacMahon and the youngest daughter of Connor O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond, Mary. Some sources have her place of birth as Bunratty, but it is likely she was born at Clonderalaw. The family tradition states her place of birth as Urlan More, but it is more likely that she was fostered there. In 1634 she married colonel Daniel Neylon who fought in the British army in the Spanish war, the marriage having been arranged. She was widowed in 1639 when he died of unknown causes, with three young sons, William, Daniel and Michael. She managed the large Neylon estate until her son William came of age.
The necklace in one of O'Brien's portraits, dating from the 1640s, is said to have come from the Spanish armada.

Life at Leamaneh Castle

Seven months after Neylon's death, she married her cousin Conor O'Brien of Leamaneh. They extended the O'Brien tower house at Leamaneh, creating Leamaneh Castle. An inscription on the castle reads: "This was built in the year of Our Lord 1648 by Conor O'Brien and Mary ní Mahon alias Brien wife to the said Conor". The couple had eight children, the eldest of whom, Sir Donough, was born in 1642. The other known children were Teige, Turlough, Murrough, Honora, and Mary, with two other daughters who are believed to have died during the plague which struck the area during the siege of Limerick. It is with Leamaneh Castle that O'Brien's violence and murders are associated, where it is alleged she would hang her servants who displeased her from the corbels of the castle. It is also said that she victimised passers-by and trespassers. The folklorist Máire MacNeill found parallels between some of the stories told about O'Brien, such as challenging suitors to ride a wide stallion, to those of traditional Irish sovereign-goddess myths.
During the Irish wars from 1641 to 1652, her husband led and financed one of the five militia companies of Clare which raided tower houses of Dutch and English settlers planted there by king Henry viii and queen Elizabeth 1, with O'Brien riding with him during some raids. It is known in the proceeding depositions about the siege of Barntick castle, O'Brien is charged with the murder of a servant. one Gregory Hickman made depositions in 1642 that: ‘Conor O’Brien, gentleman, in a most rebellious manner seized upon the deponent’s corn’; and, later, ‘Conor O’Brien, of Lemaneagh, accompanied by Mary Brien’ ‘with force of arms came to the deponent’s house and took away fourteen English swine and a parcel of household stuff; also 400 sheep.
Conor O'Brien was commissioned colonel of horse in 1650 to the army of Charles II, dying in 1651 from wounds he received fighting against Edmund Ludlow at the pass of Inchecrogan. It is told that when his body was returned to Leamaneh, O'Brien leaned out of a window and declared that "We want no dead men here" Other accounts state that her husband was still alive when he was brought to the castle, and that she nursed him on his death bed.
It is claimed that after his death, through all the devastation and sorrow. she drove to the Limerick camp of Henry Ireton dressed in blue silk and lace proclaiming that she was willing to marry any of the officers. It is suggested that she may have wanted to marry a Cromwellian officer in an effort of secure her property and land from seizure.
The legends of O'Brien describe her as marrying between 12 and 25 Cromwellian officers to prevent her and her family being hung for being Irish rebels and to secure her property and land. While one other local source from the 1800s, notes in a bit of folklore he tells, that it was secret love affairs she had with other officers after she married a cromwellian officer to save her lands and prevent the family being hung for being Irish rebels. Legends claim that after every marriage or love affair, in revenge she killed each officer in ways that looked accidental. These methods included pushing them off the top of the castle, suffocating them in bed, pushing them out the window, kicking them in the stomach while shaving, or challenging them to ride to the Cliffs of Moher on her wild blind white stallion who she had trained to fling the husbands and other victims off the cliff edge. She also would hang her English servants who displeased her from the corbels of the castle. the males by the neck and the woman by the hair and would cut of there breasts.
Very soon after her husband's death in battle, she petitioned Charles I's lord deputy in Ireland, Ulick Burke, to become the custodian of the O'Brien estate. She was able to secure the land for her children, but she could not retain Leamaneh Castle, which fell to the Cromwellian army and was turned into a garrison. In 1653, she is recorded as the wife of a former parliamentary officer, Cornet John Cooper and was living with him in Limerick for a while after their marriage before returning to Leamaneh. They are believed to have had a son, Harry, and possibly a daughter. It is Cooper that O'Brien is alleged to have killed with a kick in the stomach, but other sources show they remained married for a number of years but most likely lived apart. After the restoration, O'Brien was indicted for the murder of a local English landlord. She received a royal pardon in 1662, but was still put on trial, which continued for years. Her son, Donough, moved the O'Brien family seat to Dromoland Castle where she lived the final years of her life.

Death and subsequent legends

O'Brien is reported to have died an extraordinary death, with one legend stating that she was hanged by her hair in Toonagh Wood, and that she still haunts that wood. Another legend recounts how she was sealed into a hollow tree in the avenue of Carnelly forest. But the oldest and most likely legend states that while leading a dromoland gentry hunt in either cratloe or carnelly forest, her riding cloak was blown over her head by the wind and it startled the horse who went wild and flung her into a forked branch of a tree and hung her, and the tree is believed to still remain in the avenue of carnelly house or cratloe house which she haunts to this day When she signed a will on 7 June 1686. She requests to be buried in the abbey of Ennis, and though there is no marker, it is probable she is buried beside her husband, Conor O'Brien. Others contend that she is buried at Coad church in Kilnaboy parish with two of her daughters. There are two known portraits of O'Brien, one held by the O'Brien family, and the second in Dromoland Castle Hotel.
Lemenagh castle has became one of the most haunted castle ruins in Ireland. Her ghost has been seen wondering the halls of the ruin and not only can she be heard evily laughing but her ghostly victims can be heard screaming in agony.