Patrick D'Arcy
The 17th-century historian Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh states that one of D'Arcy's ancestors, Walter Riabhach Ó Dorchaidhe (fl.
Ó Dorchaidhe was said to be a member of a lowly family descended from the Partraige Cera of Lough Carra, in what is now County Mayo.
Their position was being gradually undermined by confiscation of Irish lands and the steady build-up on the Protestant population of English and Scottish settlers ... Darcy had to cope with these difficulties in the course of his political career.
By June 1635 preparations were in earnest, and inquisitions were to be held in Boyle, Mayo, Sligo and Portumna for juries to find the King's Title to the lands concerned and thus give a legal fiction to the proceedings.
To combat this, D'Arcy, Martyn, and Sir Roger O'Shaughnessy travelled to London to present a petition on behalf of the Connacht landowners at court.
As Wentworth considered the refusal of the Galway jury had put the entire plantation scheme in jeopardy, he did much to frustrate their efforts.
During a conference held in the dining room of Dublin Castle on 9 June 1641, D'Arcy delivered his famous Argument.
Published in 1643 and reprinted in 1764, it was the first forceful and detailed statement of the rule of law in Ireland, articulating an effective constitutional position for her as England's colonial country.
He was followed by William Molyneux that "no parliament but an Irish one can properly legislate for Ireland", which is the central summation of his work.
McIlwain said of Argument that it,"constitutes the first definite statement of the central point of the American opposition more than a century later.
It refers to and suggests the extent to which the parliament's general self-governing powers are superior to all ad-hoc (and possible illegal, unlawful or illicit) arbitrary decisions by judges and royal officials in the Kingdom of Ireland.
Returning to Galway in February 1642, D'Arcy and Martyn seem to have tried at first to work out a common policy that would not lead them into outright rebellion.
D'Arcy and Martyn set up and led a Council of Eight which dealt with any and all emergency matters, including procuring arms and ammunition for defence.
Dominick Kirwin led a force which captured a British naval vessel for just that purpose in March and thus placing Galway on the path to rebellion.
Aston's anonymous and acrimonious statement on the rights of the matter drew the challenge of a duel from D'Arcy.
His tomb bears the epitaph HIC MISERA PATRIA SOLA COLUMNA JACET ("Here, wretched country, lies your sole support").
