Mary Stuart O'Donnell was born in Eng-land and reared in Ireland until she was twelve years old, when she returned to England to the care of her grandmother, Lady Kildare. She was the daughter of Brigid Fitzgerald and Rory O'Donnell, who fled with the Earls in 1607. In 1626, because she objected to her grandmother's choice of suitor, she dressed in men's clothes and with friends, made her way to Bristol where she boarded a vessel to Brussels. It was in Europe that she met her brother Hugh for the first time, but is said to have antago-nised him by continuing to dress and behave as a man. She was betrothed to O'Neill, but married Dudley O'Gallagher who was killed in 1635. She remarried four years later, a `poor Irish captain', and returned to Rome. Nothing further is known of her.

Born:	c.1607
Died:	c.1639