Cola McDonnell

Representative of the Scottish Clan MacDonalds of Danniveg. The son of Alexander MacDonald (c. 1480-1538), the 5th chieftain of the Clan MacDonald of Danniveg (1499-1538), and Catherine MacDonald, daughter of Lord Ardnamurkhan .

After the death of his Alexander MacDonnell in 1539, his eldest son James McDonnell (d. 1565 ), who inherited the title of Lord Danniveg and Glens in Antrim, decided to return to Scotland, accompanied by his wife Agnes Campbell . In his absence, Cola McDonnell was appointed captain of the Ruth and Glens districts in County Antrim .

Cola McDonnell was married to Evelyn McQuillan, a representative of the McQuillan clan, which contributed to the preliminary peace between the McDonnell and McQuillan clans.

Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, unsuccessfully tried to expel the McDonnell clan from Ireland back to Scotland. Colla McDonnell built in 1547 a two-story Kinban castle with a large courtyard.

In 1551, Kinbahn Castle was besieged by the British army under the command of the Deputy Lord Governor of Ireland, Sir James Croft , who undertook an expedition against the McDonnell clan. In 1555, during a new siege by the British, Kinban Castle was destroyed by cannon fire and rebuilt after the death of Colla MacDonnell.

Cola McDonnell died in 1558 at her Kinbin Castle. Clan chief James MacDonald (1538-1565), Cola's older brother, offered the rank of Captain Ruth to the other brothers Alistair and Angus MacDonnell, but they refused. Sorley Boy McDonell accepted the offer of his older brother and was appointed captain of the Ruth area.

Married to Evelyn McQuillan, Cola McDonnell had two sons:

• Gillaspike McDonnell (died 1571)
• Randal McDonnell

• Hill, G., An Historical Account of the MacDonnells of Antrim, 1873.