formed new septs near Ballymote, County Sligo, and in the territory of Oriel, near Farney, County Monaghan. Many references are recorded for Mac an Bháirds who were their septs' chief of the name. The Tirconnell sept provided the O'Donnells with some of Ireland's greatest bardic poets, while other Mac an Bháird poets and their works are associated with the O'Neills, the Maguries, the MacMahons, and a variety of other Irish and Anglo-Irish chieftains. Perhaps the last of the family's great bardic poets was Pádraig Óg Mac an Bháird, who composed his works towards the end of the seventeenth century. Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird, who left Ireland in 1607 with his patron, Rory O'Donnell, during the event known as "the Flight of the Earls", wrote what many consider to be the finest elegiac poem in the Irish language: A bhean fuair faill ar an bhfeart, rendered into an English-language version by Mangan that he called Lament for the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell. The last Mac an Bháird chief of the name to be recognised by the English, Aedh Mac an Bháird in Galway, died in 1592, though others continued as chief of the name until at least 1668. These Mac an Bháird chieftains retained residences in three different castles in the area during the early- and mid-seventeenth century, at Ballymacward, Carrowantanny, and in the village of Annagh. Their last castle was the one in Annagh, whose remnants were demolished some years ago. The area today is called Castle Park. Mac an Bháirds abroad Other Mac an Bháirds of note include Conchobhar Mac an Bháird (d. c. 1641), most often known by his religious name, Cornelius. A Franciscan based in Louvain, he endured great hardships as part of a Counter-Reformation mission to seventeenth century Scotland. In the eighteenth century we find Tomás Mac an Bháird, born in Dublin in 1749 and educated at the Collège des Irlandais in Paris, whose distinguished career with the Irish Brigade in the Service of France under the French King Louis XVI earned him promotion to the rank of General in the French Army. Despite his loyal service to the struggling new French Republic after the Revolution began in 1789, Irish military men were always suspected of harbouring royalist sympathies. General Ward was arrested and imprisoned on 10 October 1793 along with his valet, John Mallone of Limerick. They were tried by the revolutionary tribunal,