Donald O’Fallon, an Observantine Franciscan, was advanced to this see by Pope Innocent VIII. on the 17th of May, 1485: “he was reckoned a man of great reputation in his time for learning, and a constant course of preaching through all Ireland, which he continued for full thirty years”—(_Ware_). He died in the year 1500.
James Mac Mahon is the first bishop whose name appears in the sixteenth century. He was Commendatory Prior of the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, at Knock, in the county Louth, and died in December, 1517.
William Hogeson, which is probably a corruption of the Irish name _O’Gashin_, was appointed his successor by Pope Leo X. on 8th of August, 1520. He belonged to the order of St. Dominic, and seems to have administered the see till 1529.
Roderick or Rory O’Donnell, Dean of Raphoe, was chosen by Pope Clement VII., on 19th September, 1529, to occupy the see of Derry. This bishop was very much opposed to the religious innovations which Henry VIII. endeavoured to introduce into the Irish Church. In the _State Papers_ (vol. i. pag. 598) there is a letter dated 14th March, 1539, and addressed by Lord Cromwell to the English king, in which the following eulogy is passed on Dr. O’Donnell: “Also there be letters long from an arrant traitor, Rorick, Bishop of Derry, in your grace’s land of Ireland, his hand and great seal at it, to the Bishop of Rome, declaring the calamities of the Papists in Ireland”. It was in the preceding year that Bishop Roderick had mortally offended the agents of King Henry by his efforts to preserve from their grasp the youthful Gerald, who, though yet in his boyhood, was chief of the Geraldines, and destined, it was hoped, to become one day the rallying point of a confederacy of the Irish chieftains. In the month of May Gerald and his faithful escort passed without molestation from the south to the north of Ireland, being hospitably received in Thomond, Galway, and Sligo; and they were safely entrenched within the barriers of Tyrconnell before the government spies had even caught the intelligence of this journey. On the 28th of June the Earl of Ormonde wrote a long letter to the council of Ireland, giving information of the movements of young Gerald. From this letter we learn that it was an Irish rhymist that acted as his spy amongst the Northern chieftains, and that, according to the latest intelligence received from him, “twenty-four horsemen, well apparrelled”, had been appointed to wait upon the young Geraldine. The King of Scotland, too, solicited the Irish princes to commit Gerald to his care. However, in another letter, of 20th July, the same earl writes that this scheme was not pleasing to O’Neil and O’Donnell, but “the Bishop O’Donnell (of Derry), James Delahoyde, Master Levrous, and Robert Walshe, are gone as messengers to Scotland, to pray aid from the Scottish king; and before their going, all the gentlemen of Ulster, for the most part, promised to retain as many Scots as they should bring with them, at their own expense and charges during the time of their service in Ireland”—(_St. Pap._, iii. 52). Another information further states that as a Christmas present in December, 1538, Art Oge O’Toole had sent to Gerald “a saffron shirt trimmed with silk, and a mantle of English cloth fringed with silk, together with a sum of money”—(_Ibid._, pag. 139). And a few months later Cowley writes from Dublin to the English court, that “there never was seen in Ireland so great a host of Irishmen and Scots, both of the out isles and of the mainland of Scotland; whilst at the same time the pretended Earl of Desmond has all the strength of the west”—(_Ibid._, pag. 145). It is not necessary to pursue the subsequent events of this confederacy, as we have no express documents to attest the share taken in it by the Bishop of Derry. One further fact alone connected with our great prelate has been recorded by our annalists, and it, too, regards the closing scene of his eventful life, viz., that before his death he wished to become a member of the Franciscan order, and dying on the 8th of October, 1550, “he was buried in the monastery of Donegal in the habit of St. Francis”—(_Four Mast._, v. 1517).