History

MANUS ROE OCAHAN was most probably born around 1615. Although there is no firm evidence to substantiate this he was described as “...a young Irish officer...” during the action at Fyvie Castle in 1644. From this it is probable that he was still in his 20s and quite possibly younger than Montrose and Alistair MacDonald, both born around 1612.The son of Gilduff O’Cahan, popular belief holds that he was the foster son of Giolla Dubh MacCathan or Ranald MacDonald, the Earl of Antrim.

O’Cahan most probably gained much of his military experience fighting in Flanders during the 30 Years War, but he had returned home to Ireland by the second half of 1641. On the eve of the Irish Rebellion O’Cahan had rejoined his father in Dunluce and along with his brother, Tirlough Og O’Cahan , he would play a major part in the bloody months that followed.

Although Tirlough was appointed as one of the Captains in the Catholic Army (as was Alistair MacDonald) it appears that Manus was not given a command at first. However at the end of 1641 he was in command of the Catholic Forces besieging Agivey Castle.

After the defeat of the Protestant Forces at Portnaw in January 1642 the Catholics around the River Bann rose in open rebellion to take a terrible revenge on the Antrlm Protestants (although the Island Mage massacre proves that the Catholics did not have it all their own way). Towns such as Ballymena, Ballymoney and Cross were burnt and many Protestants butchered.

The clan of O’Cahan inhabited an area of northern Ireland lying along the southern shore of Lough Foyle to the east of Derry, extending as far as Coleraine in the east and south down the Roe valley to Dungiven. (The Roe rises in the Sperrin Mountains, in what is now the southern part of County Londonderry and flows almost due north to empty into Lough Foyle a few miles south of Magilligan Point.) This land was, and is, extremely fertile and was much sought after by the incoming British colonists of the early 17^th Century, who recorded that the only thing wrong with O’Cahan’s country was the O’Cahans themselves, who “put them oftener to their defence and fight than any enemy they had to deal withal, not suffering them to cut a bough to build a cabin without blows.” The bitter ill-feeling which existed between the native Irish and the British settlers of the Ulster Plantation erupted in the rising of 1641, in which the O’Cahans joined with the clans of the north Antrim coast in an orgy of slaughter and looting. This does not appear to have included the entire clan, for the British put Manus O’Cahan in command of Dungiven Castle, believing him to be loyal. Instead he soon joined the rebels and apparently showed himself to be “the most cruel and bloody villain of all the rest”. The rising began to collapse in the early summer of 1642 as the settlers began to hit back. A band of these settlers, mainly Scots from the Laggan area of eastern Donegal, marched up the Roe valley to the Gelvin Burn, where they encountered 3,500 O’Cahans and their allies. The O’Cahans, having sworn to fight to the last man, charged with a ferocity which Sir William Stewart, the commander of the “Lagganeers”, said was greater than any he had experienced. The charge, however, broken a volley from eighty muskets, the Lagganneers counter charged and the rebels broke and fled. This action was known as the “brack of Gelvin”. Dungiven Castle was captured soon afterwards and Manus

O’Cahan was released from prison after a short time, possibly when the city was relieved from a siege being carried out by Monroe’s Scots and Ormonde’s Royalists, by the army of Owen Roe O’Neill (strangely, the garrison at the time was Parliamentarian).

The above information is extracted from “The Siege of Derry” by Patrick Macrory, published in 1980, which draws heavily on original sources.

Colonel Manus O'Cahan's Regiment of Foote was one of three Regiments that made up the Brigade - the others being Lieutenant General Alexander MacDonnell's (later Laghtnan's), and Colonel James MacDonnell's. The Brigade was commanded by the awesome Alisdair MacColla (of Colkitto fame (a name attributed to him but actually his father's)), a giant man and a superbly charismatic figure.

O'Cahan himself(pronounced O-Kane) was Manus, son of Gilladuff O'Cahan of Dunseverick. An experienced soldier, both he and his regiment had been recruited from Owen Roe O'Neil's Northern Army of the Irish Confederation in the early months of 1644. Spalding, one of the more reliable contemporary sources, talks of the Brigade being "brought up in West Flanders, expert soldiers, with a years pay". The fighting pedigree of these Thirty Years War veterans, further toughened by nearly three years of vicious fighting in the Irish Uprising, is not in any doubt.

An analysis of the known names in the Regiment shows the close family ties that existed. Of thirty names, five other officers had the same surname as Manus. His brother-in-law, Captain MacHenry. commanded a company in Laghtnan's Regiment. Of the others not a great deal is known: Sergeant Major Ledwitch's Company were certainly all Palesman from the Devlin area of the Meath/West Meath border.