Connor Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen

Connor Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen
Born	1616 County Fermanagh, Ireland
Died	1645 Tyburn, England
Cause of death	Execution
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Politician, soldier

Connor (or Cornelius) Maguire, 2nd Baron of Enniskillen (Irish Conchobhar Mag Uidhir; 1616–1645) was an Irish nobleman from Ulster who took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He was executed for high treason.

He was born in County Fermanagh, the son of Sir Bryan Maguire who was created a peer on account of the family loyalty to the English crown. The family was granted land in their traditional power base of Fermanagh by James I, as part of the Ulster Plantation. His mother was an O'Neill, which brought a connection to the leading family of Ulster. He is said to have been partly educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not matriculate in the university. His brother Rory Maguire married into a leading planter family, and sat for Fermanagh in the 1640 Parliament.

He succeeded to the peerage in 1634, and attended the parliament which met in Dublin on 10 March 1640. In Dublin during the session in February 1641, he was recruited by Rory O'More, who had conceived the plan of raising Catholic Ireland while the English government was busy with Scotland. Married to a lady of the Pale, Maguire was valued for his influence among her connections.

In August 1641 he first heard of the plan for seizing Dublin Castle; the chief hope of the conspirators rested on Colonel Owen Roe O'Neill, who served the king of Spain in the Low Countries. The rising was fixed for 23 October but Hugh Oge MacMahon disclosed the plot on the night of the 22nd. Roger More escaped, but Maguire was captured, with MacMahon and Colonel Reade (afterwards Sir John and gentleman of the bedchamber), who had served the king in Scotland. The two latter were racked, but Maguire admitted all the material facts without torture on 26 March 1642, and made a fuller voluntary statement some six months later.

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