Margaret Magennis, Viscountess Iveagh

Margaret Magennis, Viscountess Iveagh was an Irish aristocrat of the seventeenth century and eighteenth century. She was also known variously as Margaret Burke and Margaret Butler.

She was the daughter of the County Galway landowner William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde and his wife Lady Helen MacCarty. Amongst her siblings were Richard Burke and John Burke, both of whom succeeded their father as Earl. Another brother Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway, died fighting for the Jacobite cause at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. Her younger sister Honora Burke married the Irish soldier Patrick Sarsfield and James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, both of whom were prominent Jacobite figures. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Margaret's two husbands were both supporters of James II. Margaret's first marriage was to Byran Magennis, 5th Viscount Iveagh from a prominent Ulster family. Her second was marriage was to Colonel Thomas Butler, part of the Butler dynasty. She had eight children with him including John Butler, 15th Earl of Ormonde. She died at Kilcash, her second husband's estate, in 1744.

Bibliography

• Burke, Jim. A History Of Burke in Ireland