Donough MacCarty , 1st Earl of Clancarty Donagh [ Donough ] MacCarthy , 1st Earl of Clancarty , 2nd Viscount Muskerry ( died August 1665 ) was an Irish noble . He sat in the Irish House of Commons in the Irish Parliaments of 1634 and 1639 as member for County Cork . He married Ellen ( Eleanor ) Butler ( died April 1682 ) , who was the sister of James Butler , 1st Duke of Ormonde . The Earl served as a Munster general during the Irish Confederate Wars . He was one of the ten named in Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 as leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland . On the death of his father Charles MacCarty , 1st Viscount Muskerry in 1640 , Donagh inherited the title . In 1658 Charles II granted him the title of Earl of Clancarty . During most of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms , he was referred to as Viscount Muskerry . Background . The son of Charles and grandson of Sir Cormac MacCarthy who received English title to his lands towards the end of the 16th century Tudor conquest of Ireland , Donough MacCarthy came from the line of the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty based on the barony of Muskerry in what is now western county Cork . Unlike many Catholic Gaelic Irish families , these MacCarthys prospered in the Protestant English state of Ireland in the early 17th century . However , Donagh MacCarthy was forced into rebellion against this state by the events of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 . The rebellion had been launched by Catholic Gaelic Irish gentry from the northern province of Ulster in October 1641 . Initially , Muskerry raised an armed force of his tenants and dependants to try to maintain law and order . However , he was prompted to join the rebellion by the atrocities committeed by English President of Munster , William St Leger , against the Irish Catholic population in general . In addition , many of Muskerry ' s relatives , who had lost lands to Protestant settlers in the Plantations of Ireland had already joined the rebellion – a factor which doubtless influenced Muskerry ' s decision . In 1642 , he put his armed men at the service of the Confederate Catholic Association of Ireland , an alternative , Catholic government based in Kilkenny which had been formed by the rebels . Confederate War . Viscount Muskerry was appointed to the " Supreme Council " of the Confederation of Kilkenny , their effective government . He was part of the team that negotiated with Charles I and his representative in Ireland , James Butler , Earl of Ormonde to secure an alliance between the Irish Confederates and English Royalists in the context of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Ormonde was Donough ' s brother - in - law . Muskerry was sympathetic towards Royalism and disliked the more intranisgent Confederates as represented by Giovanni Battista Rinuccini and Owen Roe O ' Neill . As general of the Munster Confederate Army , he has even been accused by one historian ( Tadhg O Hanrachain in " The Catholic Reformation in Ireland " ) of sabotaging the campaign of the Munster army before the battle of Knocknanauss in 1647 to pressure the Confederates into accepting the deal he and his allies had negotiated with Ormonde . The Confederates did approve a treaty with Charles II and the English Royalists in 1649 , shortly after the execution of Charles I by the English Parliament and the declaration of the Commonwealth of England . However , Ireland was soon invaded by the Parliamentarian New Model Army in 1649 under Oliver Cromwell , who had the twin aims of avenging the uprising of 1641 , confiscating enough Irish Catholic owned land to pay off some of the Parliament ' s creditors and eliminating a dangerous outpost of Royalism . See Cromwellian conquest of Ireland 1649 – 53 . Muskerry fought the last three years of this campaign in his own lands in west Cork and Kerry , from where he raised troops from his tenants and guerrilla bands known as " tories " . He was one of the last Irish commanders to surrender to the English . Following his defeat by General Roger Boyle , later Earl of Orerry at the Battle of Knocknaclashy 1651 he fell back into the mountains of Kerry . In June 1652 he surrendered , relinquishing his remaining fortress Ross Castle near Killarney on 27 June . Following the disbandment of his 5 , 000 - man army , he fled Ireland and later travelled to Spain . He would later be awarded the title of Earl of Clancarty by Charles II , eventually restoring his estates with the Act of Settlement 1662 before his death in London in August 1665 . His sons Charles and Justin MacCarthy , Viscount Mountcashel served in the English forces , during the Second Anglo - Dutch War and Williamite war in Ireland respectively . Issue . Children of Donough MacCarthy , 1st Earl of Clancarty and Eleanor Butler :