O’Moore of Laois (More O’Ferrall)

On New Year’s Eve 1577, the government invited the O’Mores to a peace conference in the ancient rath of Mullaghmast near Ballitore, Co. Kildare. Shortly after the forty O’More delegates arrival, the English opened fire with their muskets and killed them all. The brutality of the Mullaghmast massacre stunned the native Irish. Rory Og, who had sagely avoided the conference, rapidly launched a major campaign against the colonists but was hunted down and executed three months later. In an attempt to quell the ongoing violence, Queen Elizabeth subsequently granted an estate at Balyna, Moyvalley, Co. Kildare, to Rory’s younger son, Calaogh (or Charles) O’More. Balyna was to be the home of the O’More chieftains and their descendants for the next 400 years.

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