Life
1621-1695, b. Screen, Co. Galway, son of John O’Kelly, lord of Skreen,
and the dg. of Sir William Hill; ed. St. Omer, he returned to serve Ormond
in a Royalist horse-troop; fought in Ireland in 1642; retired to Spain
at the end of the Civil War; joined Charles II in France; to England,
at the Restoration; inherited Aughrane in 1674; MP for Roscommon in 1689;
escaped engagement with col. Thom. Lloyd; garrison of Boffin Island, capitulated
20 Aug. 1690, and removed to Limerick; retired to Aughrane after Treaty
of Limerick; wrote Macariae Excidium, or the Destruction of
Cyprus, containing the Last Warr and Conquest of that Kingdom (1692),
an account of the Williamite War disguised as classical history substituting
mythical names for those of real places and persons, viz ‘Amasis’
for James II, ‘Theodore’ for William III, ‘Lysander’
for Sarsfield, ‘Pyrrhus’ for St. Ruth, ‘Ororis’ for
Gen. Ginkel, and ‘Attillas’ for Cromwell, while calling Catholics
‘Delphics’ and Protestants ‘Martanensians’; d. Aughrane,
1695. DIW DNB IBL OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Narrative Illustrative of the Contests in Ireland in 1641 and 1690,
ed. Thomas Crofton Croker, London, Camden Society, MDCCCXLI [1841], intro.
by Croker, pp.vi-xiv; Siege of Ballyaley Castle, in County Clare,
by Maurice Cuffe, Esq., pp.i-23; Macariae Excidium pp.28-107. [Copy
in Herbert Bell Library, Belfast] [also Hyland 219].
Macariae Excidium [&c.] , new edn. ed. by Count Plunkett and Rev. Edmund Hogan, SJ, called The Jacobite War &c. [this edn. substitutes real historical names, Tyrconnell, etc.] (Sealy, Bryers, & Walker 1894; 2nd ed. also 1894), 12o, paper.
[ top ]
Notes
W.
B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976;
this ed. 1984), Stanford characterises this and the following text as
examples of ‘parallel history’, Macariae Excidium, or the
Destruction of Cyprus, Containing the Last Warr and Conquest of that Kingdom.
Written Originally in Syriac by Philotas Philocypres. Translated into
Latin by Gratianus Ragallus [sic] P.R., and now made English by Charles
O’Kelly. Actually the English version was written first and then
translated into Latin by an Irish priest named John O’Reilly. Correspondences
are James II (Amasis), William III (Theodore), the Pope (‘Delphic
High Priest’), Louis XIV (Antiochus), England (Cilicia), France (Syria),
etc. Macaria, an ancient name of Cyprus meaning blessed probably
chosen because of Avienus’ description of Ireland as ‘The
Holy Island’ (insula sacra) while the word Excidium
links it with Gaelic writings entitled Togail (Destruction). A
rather tedious work at best - writes Stanford - it ends with a series
of lamentations on the fate of ‘the most warlick of Nations’.
The events described never happened in Cyprus, and could not have happened
under such variegated names. [147]
Belfast Public Library holds Jacobite War in Ireland 1688-1691, ed. G. N. Plunkett and E. Hogan (1894).
Belfast Linen Hall Library holds Macariae Excid[i]um, or the Destruction of Cyprus. See Croker, T. C., ed. Narratives Illustrative of the Conquests in Ireland 1688-1691; and other ed., Secret History of the War of the Revolution in Ireland 1688-1991, ed J. C. O’Callaghan (1850).
University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Jacobite Wars in Ireland 1688-1691 (Sealy Bryers 1894, 1902).
University of Ulster Library holds Macariae Excidium, or the last Warr and Conquest of that Kingdom ... written originally in Syriac by Philotas Philocypres, trans into Latin by Gratanus Ragallus, P.R., and now made into English by Col. C. Ó Kelly, a.d. 1692. (Ir. Arch. Soc., MDCCCL); notes by John O’Callaghan, Esq. NOTE, the Irish Arch. Soc. ed. bears a crest with the bust of Sir James Ware.
Macariae Excidium, a Secret History of the War of the Revolution in
Ireland by Col. Charles O’Kelly of Skryne [Skreen] or Aughrane,
now Castle Kelly, Co. Galway, ed. from 4 English copies and a Latin MS
in the RIA with notes and memoir of the Author and his descendents by
J. Cornelius O’Callaghan (Ir. Arch. Soc., 1850). The prefatory material
gives the following details, orig. to be edited by George Petrie, 1841,
but abandoned on the appearance in that year of an ed. by T. C. Croker
for the Camden Soc., London; interest revived on the discovery of a Latin
MS supposed to the original, in the RIA; which turned out to be a trans.
by Rev. John O’Reilly, made in 1745-4, pointing up comparisons with
the Jacobite Rebellion of that date; the Latin MS previously in the possession
of the RC Bishop of Clogher, who was formerly Pres. of Irish College at
Antwerp. O’Kelly wrote a second manuscript work, called The O’Kelly
Memoirs, which was lost, a frag. of which gives further details of the
period 1688-91, with many more pretended names. In his preface to the
Latin ed. Rev. John O’Reilly relates that the author, Philotas Phil-cypres
[sic] (‘lover of his country, Cyprus’) was of mixed parentage,
an Irish father and an English mother, and therefore ‘equally concerned
for both’ nations. He gives a summary history of Cyprus from the
first invasion by the Cicilians, to the periods of Attillas (Cromwell),
Pythagoras (Charles I), Amasis (James II), and Theodore (William III).
Much has to do with the conflict of the Martinensians and the Delphians
(Catholics), while Philotas is himself a Delphian. The Pope is High Priest,
or Pontiff. Other persona in the narrative are, Ororis (Ginkell), Phyrrus
(St. Ruth); Lysander (Sarsfield); while the place names are Egypt (Spain);
Cyprus (Ireland); Cecilia (England); Acra (Aughrim); Paphia (Connaught);
Paphos (Limerick), and Acra (Aughrim). Further, ‘This was the issue
of that famous engagement of Acra, so glorious to Ororis, and so fatal
to Phyrrus and the Cyprians, who lost there the flower of their army and
their nation. [‘Haec illa est memorabilis ad Acram pugna, tot fortium
virorum clade nobilitata gloriosi Orori Pyrrho fatalis cypriis-que quibus
omne robur exercitus flos omnis nobilitatis eo praelio concidit.’]
Further, ‘.. soe shamefully to lay down their arms, and soe freely
undergo that servile yoke which, by former experiments, they found insupportable.
... the fountain of my weak eyes hath been drained up already by the too
frequent remembrance of the slaughter of Acra and the sad separation at
Paphos [i.e., Limerick].’ (Q.pp.)
Charles O’Conor, writing to John Curry, ‘I have written to him
[prob. Reilly] by this post acquainting him with the good plan I have
laid form bringing the History of Macaria to light.’ (Letter
to Curry, 20 Aug. 1760; Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare,
ed., Ward and Ward, 1988, p.8); note also further plans to publish Macaria,
involving Reilly, p.90; and the averral, ‘I am doing all I can to
forward the affair of Macaria, and I do not despair of letting it agoing
to his [Cousin Reilly’s] disadvantage’ (ibid., p.98).
Macariae Excidium, A Secret History of the War of the Revolution in Ireland by Col. Charles O’Kelly of Skryne [Skreen] or Aughrane, now Castle Kelly, Co. Galway, ed. from 4 English copies and a Latin MS in the RIA with notes and memoir of the Author and his descendents by J. Cornelius O’Callaghan. (Ir. Arch. Soc., 1850); The prefatory material gives the following details, orig. to be edited by George Petrie, 1841, but abandoned on the appearance in that year of an ed. by T. C. Croker for the Camden Soc., London; interest revived on the discovery of a Latin MS supposed to the original, in the RIA; which turned out to be a trans. by Rev. John O’Reilly, made in 1745-4, pointing up comparisons with the Jacobite Rebellion of that date; the Latin MS previously in the possession of the RC Bishop of Clogher, who was formerly Pres. of Irish College at Antwerp. O’Kelly wrote a second manuscript work, called The O’Kelly Memoirs, which was lost, a frag. of which gives further details of the period 1688-91, with many more pretended names.
An account of Macariae Excidium in Sir John Gilbert’s History of Dublin (1854), Appendix, ‘Publications of Irish Archaeological Society: ‘Macariae Excidium, or the Destruction of Cyprus, containing the Last Warr and Conquest of that Kingdom (1692), edited in the Latin from a MS presented by the late Professor M’Cullagh to the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, with a translation from the MS of the seventeenth century, and notes by John O’Callaghan, Esq.; Latin trans. by Rev. John O’Reilly preserves passages not in the extant English copies.
There are allusions to Charles O’Kelly in Ireland’s Fate: The Boyne and After, by Robert Sheppard (1990), pp.56, 73, 125, 145, 157, 158, and 242.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)