The allegiance offered by local chieftains yesterday proves fragile, and the Dublin army diviedes again:

The sixteenth we geave streight commandment to the Viscount Barry’s sonne, the Viscount Roche, Sir Cormac Mac Teige Mac Donough, O’Keeffe, O’Kallaghan, and Mac Auley, that they should have alle their force and keriages to the est of the contrie to interrupt the passage of the traytours, to and fro the mountayns till our retorne, which they observed not, to the gret hindrance of the service, and their own trouble as your Lordship shall hereafter perceive.

We then parted companie, my Lord of Ormonde taking his course, with his force, over the mountayn of Slievelogher, one waie into the wylde mountainous contrie of Desmond, leving most of the keriagcs in the care of Mac Donough, as well to limit the traytours and their goodes, which now fled thyther, as also to bring with him the Erle of Clancartie, and the rest of the Lds of Desmond, of whom we stode much in doubt: and my Lord Justice, on whom I waited, marched towards Kerrye, through Mac Donough’s contrie by his Castel of Kanturk, where the Lord Justice was met by Mac Donough’s wife, a perty (pretty) comelye woman, sister to the now Countesse of Desmond, by another, who spake good English and entertayned the Lord Justice the best waye she could, and camped that night at a place called Glanossyran (qn. Glaushcroon) adjoining to a faire river and grete wood.

Once again the Grey party goes west and the Ormond party south. The Countess of Desmond was a fascinating character in her own right, born a Butler but from a different branch to the Earls of Ormond, who lived to 95. Anne Chambers’ biography unfortunately doesn’t identify which sister was married to Owen McDonagh McCarthy of Duhallow.

It is interesting that White notes that “Mac Donough’s wife” spoke English well, which implies that the expedition has so far been successfully carried out using Irish, which presumably everyone except the Lord Justice spoke. She is the first woman to appear in this account, but not the last.