parties to plunder Clanrickard, on both sides of the river; and these marauders totally plundered and ravaged the tract of country from Leathrath to Magh-Seanchomhladh. The remaining part of his army burned and ravaged the territory, from the town of Athenry and Rath-Goirrgin Westwards to Rinn-Mil and Meadhraige, and to the gates of Galway, and burned Teagh-Brighde, at the military gate of Galway". As a result of these and other assaults, however, O'Donnell was unable to persuade the local Irish clans to join him. However, in the next two years, O'Donnell and O'Neill were hard-pressed with the deployment of thousands more English troops in the country. O'Donnell repulsed an English expedition towards western Ulster at the Battle of Curlew Pass in 1599, but his and O'Neill's position was increasingly defensive. Even worse for O'Donnell than English offensives was the defection of his kinsman {cousin and Brother-in-law}, Niall Garve O'Donnell to the English side, in return for their backing his own claim the O'Donnell Chiefdom. Niall Garve's brothers and hundreds of Clan O'Donnell warriors also joined his efforts to seize the Chiefdom with the support of the Crown. Hugh Roe was allegedly so outraged by this, that he killed Niall Garve's infant son (and his own nephew) by beating him to death. Niall Garve's support allowed the English to land a seaborne force at Derry in the heart of Tyrconnell and capture the O'Donnell stronghold of Lifford in the Battle of Lifford. O'Donnell led an unsuccessful Siege of Donegal while the garrison there was commanded by Niall Garve. By this time, O'Neill and O'Donnell recognised that their only chance of winning the war outright was with the aid of a Spanish invasion. The Spanish finally landed at Kinsale – at virtually the opposite end of Ireland from the Northern clans in September 1601. O'Donnell led his warriors in a hard march during the winter of 1601, often covering over 40 miles a day, to join O'Neill and the Spanish General Juan del Águila at Kinsale arriving in early December 1601. En route, true to his family arms and Constantinian motto In Hoc Signo Vinces and in anticipation of the battle to come at Kinsale, he visited and venerated a supposed relic of the True Cross, the Holy rood, on the Feast of St. Andrew, on 30 November 1601 at Holy Cross Abbey, and removed a portion of it. From there he