Brian O'Rourke
Brian Oge na Samhthach O'Rourke
(Young Brian of the Axes)
Brian attended Oxford in England.
While there, he seemed a callow spendthrift.
When the English hung his noble father in 1591,
for giving aid to the Spanish survivors who had crashed into
Ireland's shore, the clan called him home. His carefree days were at an end.
He returned to despair and ruin. England's captain had burned the land
and was bragging that no Irish remained,
"but young Brian Oge O'Rourke, the son of the rebel, who is now
and again seen prowling about the charred edges of his father's country
with a few followers."
Several years later, the name Brian Oge O'Rourke struck fear in the
hearts of the English captains. He became one of Ireland's finest
captains and allied his clan with O'Neill and Red Hugh in
The Nine Years War.
The O'Rourke crest.
Motto: Buagh (We win)
The name comes from the Irish O'Ruaric, a personal name derived from the Old Norse meaning famous king.
It was first derived from a ninth-century
king of Breifne. The first to use it was his grandson, Sean Fearghal O'Rourke who
died in 964.
Variations: O'Roarke,
O Rorke, Roark, Rooke, Rourke.
The O'Rourkes were of the same stock
as the O'Connors of Connacht, and
part of the clan of
O' Brian.
They ruled Connaught for a
century and a half, when they accepted the overlordship of the O'Connors.
The O'Rourke chieftainship remains in tact.
When the Normans came to Ireland.Tiernan O'Rourke ravaged Meath in 1022
and warred into Connaught. Dermot MacMurrough was also plotting to subdue Connaught, when he met O'Rourke's wife, Dervorgilla. He was 42 and she was 44
when they ran off together, with her
dowry. They parted after two years,
and Mac Murrough was forced to
pay 100 ounces of gold in compensation
to O'Rourke.
Dervorgilla later returned to her father's
estates at Mellifont and built an exquisite
church at Clonmacnoise.
O'Rourke allied himself with O'Connor and deposed MacMurrough, who went in search of assistance from France. King Henry sent the Normans to Ireland, who came to stay.
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O'Rourke Clan
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