THE BARONS MAGUIRE
From princes to barons. From barons to nothing.
After the Flight of the Earls, Connor Roe Maguire — who had sided with the English during the Nine Years’ War — was granted twelve thousand acres of the barony of Magherastephana, a fraction of what the Maguires had once ruled. His son Bryan was created Baron Maguire of Enniskillen in 1627.
Bryan’s son Connor, 2nd Baron, supported the Confederate Ireland rebellion of the 1640s. He was captured, tried, and executed in London in 1645. The barony was attainted — legally extinguished.
The last Maguire colonel died at Aughrim.
Colonel Cúchonnacht Maguire was sheriff of Fermanagh in 1687. When the Williamite War began, he mortgaged the greater part of his estates to raise and arm a regiment for King James II. At the Battle of Aughrim in 1691, his regiment was cut to pieces after nearly destroying the 2nd Regiment of British Horse. Cúchonnacht was killed.
An officer named Durnien cut off Maguire’s head, placed it in a bag, and rode without stopping until he reached the family burial ground on the Island of Devenish in Lough Erne, where he interred his commander’s head with the remains of his ancestors. Even in death, a Maguire was brought home to Fermanagh.
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