Donough MacCarthy, 4th Earl of Clancarty

Who was Donough MacCarthy, 4th Earl of Clancarty?

Donough [Donagh] MacCarthy, 4th Earl of Clancarty was an Irish supporter of James II, banished after the victory of William of Orange; His peerage was attained in 1691. MacCarthy lived out his life in exile in Germany on the island Rottumeroog, Netherlands and on the Elmersmastede in Hoogkerk, Netherlands. He was part of the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty.

He was the son of Callaghan MacCarthy, 3rd Earl of Clancarty. His mother was Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare; she subsequently remarried Sir William Davys, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

As the heir of his father's massive Irish estates at Cork and Kerry MacCarthy's upbringing was a matter of high policy. His mother, described as "a fierce Protestant isolated in a Catholic family" brought him to England for a Protestant education and he was placed under the tutelage of John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, but neither his mother nor the Bishop could match the influence of his uncle Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, one of the closest advisers of the Duke of York, soon to become James II.