Shane O'Neill

“ Only in Ulster, where the rebellious Shane O'Neill, ‘the only strong and rich man in Ireland,’ ruled with a rod of iron, were any signs of prosperity visible. To him, therefore, as the cause of most of the misery that met his gaze, Sidney at once addressed himself. Shane was in no compliant mood. Sidney, finding diplomacy useless, turned to Elizabeth for the necessary means to coerce him. Despite some cavilling on the part of Sussex, Elizabeth, after listening to Sir Francis Knollys's impartial corroboration of Sidney's view of the situation, acquiesced in the inevitable. ”

“ That house played no further part in the Irish struggle.
The chief warrior of the north and terror of Elizabeth's generals was Shane O'Neill. The deputy Sidney devised many plots to poison or kill the man he could not conquer, and at last brought over from Scotland hired assassins who accomplished the murder (1567) . A map made in the reign of Elizabeth marked the place of the crime that relieved England of her greatest fear—"Here Shane O'Neill was slain." ”

“ The real leader was Hugh O'Neill, son of Matthew the first Baron of Dungannon, who had been killed, it will be remembered, by Shane O'Neill, by whose connivance Hugh's elder brother had also, it was believed, been made away with. Hugh had been educated in England, had been much at Court, and had found favour with Elizabeth, who had confirmed him in the title of Earl of Tyrone which had been originally granted to his grandfather.
Tyrone was the very antipodes of Shane, the last great O'Neill leader. He was much more, in fact, of an English politician and courtier than an Irish chieftain. ”

“ He trusted too implicitly in Shane O'Neill's professions of loyalty, and encouraged him to attack the Scots in Ulster; he treated the O'Connors and O'Reillys with harshness, archbishop Loftus with rudeness, and was unduly partial to Kildare. ”

“ O'Neill and O'Donnell could still hold their own. But mutual jealousies and border feuds weakened the Gael; the O'Neills were the strongest people, yet the O'Donnells on one flank and the Mac Donnells on the other often sought advantage by English alliance. Shane O'Neill, perhaps the most dangerous foe that Elizabeth had to meet in Ireland, of whom Sir Henry Sidney wrote that "this man could burn, if he liked, up to the gates of Dublin, and go away unfought", met his crushing defeat at the hand of Irish enemies, the O'Donnells, who routed him on the Swilly river near Letterkenny ”

“ A remarkable conversation took place between Arnold and Hugh O’Reilly, whom he urged to take the government of the country on himself. Hugh answered that O’Donnell was evil spoken of for assuming the government while his father lived, and that he saw not those punished who killed the Queen’s subjects. Shane O’Neill murdered his father, and procured the murder of his brother, who was five times as valuable to the Crown as any O’Reilly could be. The politicians of the Pale would maintain his half brother against him, and perhaps seek his life. ”

“ For example, in speaking of Shane O'Neill, who killed his half-brother, Matthew Kelly, Baron of Dungannon, in order to secure the succession for himself, he says—'They manage things strangely in Ireland. The old O'Neill, instead of being irritated, saw in this exploit a proof of commendable energy. ”

“ In 1560, and for several years after, the state of affairs in Ireland was so threatening that Elizabeth and her advisers were more concerned about maintaining a foothold in the country than about the abolition of the Mass. In the North Shane O'Neill had succeeded on the death of his father (1559) , and seemed determined to vindicate for himself to the fullest the rights of the O'Neill over the entire province of Ulster. The Earl of Kildare refused to abandon the Mass, and was in close correspondence both with his kinsman the Earl of Desmond, and with several of the Irish chieftains. ”

“ If Desmond and Ormonde were once at peace the Lord-Lieutenant would have leisure to settle Shane O’Neill’s account. The manors of Clonmel, Kilsheelan, and Kilfeacle had long been in dispute between the two earls, and a thousand acts of violence were the result. The lawsuit was now about to be decided in a pitched battle. Men came from the Lee [Pg 11] and the Shannon on one side and from Wexford on the other, and met near Tipperary, but separated without fighting, probably owing to the efforts of Lady Desmond. ”

“ He fought an indecisive battle with Sorley Boy MacDonnell near Coleraine in 1564, and the following year marched from Antrim through the mountains by Clogh to the neighbourhood of Ballycastle, where he routed the MacDonnells and took Sorley Boy prisoner. This victory greatly strengthened Shane O'Neill's position, and Sir Henry Sidney, who became lord deputy in 1566, declared to the earl of Leicester that Lucifer himself was not more puffed up with pride and ambition than O'Neill. ”

“ Consequently, no “forfeitures” from any O’Neill can have vested its waters in the Crown. Nor can anyone except the O’Neills be suggested as owners from whom the Crown could have derived. The Act of Elizabeth attainting Shane O’Neill in 1569 does not help the argument.
The territory of the Claneboy O’Neills was granted to Hamilton three months before he received the Patent of Lough Neagh, which was conveyed by the alchemy of the Thomas Irelande “Letter,” and not by that authorising the stripping of Sir Con O’Neill. This alone refutes the “forfeiture” theory. ”

“ His commission as viceroy of Ireland was renewed on 5 May. As a special mark of her esteem the queen constituted him lieutenant-general, instead of, as formerly, lord deputy, 'being our cousin in nearness of blood, and an earl of this our land.' His instructions touched, with other matters, the speedy plantation of Leix and Offaly, the recognition of Sorley Boy MacDonnell's claims on condition of his becoming an 'orderly subject' and being willing to hold his lands from the English crown, and the reduction, by fair means or by foul, of Shane O'Neill (ib. i. 291-6) . ”

“ Tirlogh Luineach, the actual chief, represented the family of Art Oge, who had long been excluded from the supremacy, and he was thought to hold his position more by force and policy than by right. His eldest son, Sir Arthur, seems not to have been legitimate, but was fully acknowledged as his heir male both by Tyrone and by the Government: his influence was greatest in what are now the baronies of Strabane. The third set of pretenders were Shane O’Neill’s seven sons, known as the MacShanes. Their legitimacy is not worth discussing ”

“ But before Fitzwalter could give his attention to such matters he found it necessary to make an expedition into Ulster, which was being kept in a constant state of disturbance by the Highland Scots from Kintyre and the Islands who were making settlements along the Antrim coast in the district known as the Glynnes (glens) , and by the efforts of Shane O'Neill to convert into effective sovereignty the chieftainship of his clan which he had recently wrested from his father, Conn, 1st earl of Tyrone. ”

“ Thus it strangely happened that Matthew, who was confessedly born in adultery, was heir to the feudal title, while Shane, who was certainly legitimate, claimed the reversion of the tribal sovereignty. The influence of the clergy had probably weakened or destroyed the old Irish principle that an adulterine bastard could be brought into the real father’s lawful family by acknowledgment, nor could English law have been altogether without effect; but it is strange to see one in such a position as Matthew O’Neill, or Kelly, maintained by statesmen and lawyers against Shane and his brothers. ”

“ How he proves his title to be O’Neill, having never been admitted by the sovereign?
A. In Tyrone and most Irish countries the people assemble on the death of a chief and choose ‘the most ablest and the worthiest of the headmen.’ Shane was so elected without the usual contest. His ancestors never used to be confirmed by the Crown, ‘yet none the less do I mean to be as good and true a subject as though any such confirmation were had in that behalf.’
R. The eldest is not accounted the worthiest, but the strongest. Shane forced the country to elect him. ”

“ Sir George Stanley, Marshal of the Army, the veteran negotiator Cusack, and Parker the Master of the Rolls, were sent to Clonmel to decide the most pressing matters in dispute, which consisted chiefly of spoils committed by the tenants and partisans of the two earls on each other. The White Knight especially, whose lands bordered on Tipperary, was constantly at war with his Butler neighbours. An award was given, on the whole favourable to Desmond; but the peace thus obtained was not destined to endure. [14]
Shane O’Neill holds his own. ”

“ For answer Shane attacked O'Reilly, plundered Tyrconnel, and reduced Maguire to the direst extremities. Maguire warned the lord lieutenant that unless O'Neill was effectually subdued, he would be ‘the strongest man of all Erlond.’
Sussex and Fitzwilliam, the latter of whom was despatched to England to report personally on the situation, were convinced that nothing but force would bring Shane to his senses. Meanwhile, until Elizabeth's consent could be obtained to that course, the lord lieutenant was obliged to act on the defensive. ”

“ O'NEILL, JOHN, first Viscount O'Neill in the peerage of Ireland (1740–1798) , born at Shane's Castle, co. Antrim, on 16 Jan. 1740, was the eldest son of Charles O'Neill, of Shane's Castle, by Catherine, daughter of the Right Hon. St. John Brodrick. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 14 April 1762, and was created M.A. on 15 June in the same year. In the Irish parliaments elected in 1761, 1769, and 1776, he sat for the family borough of Randalstown, co. Antrim. In 1783 and 1790 he was returned for Antrim county as well as the borough, but preferred to sit for the former. ”

“ On the other hand, a younger son Shane--called affectionately "Shane the Proud" by his clansmen--was unquestionably legitimate, and what was of much more importance, was already the idol of every fighting O'Neill from Lough Foyle to the banks of the Blackwater.
Shane is one of those Irish heroes--rather perhaps Ulster heroes, for his aspirations were hardly national--whom [pg 166] it is extremely difficult to mete out justice to with a perfectly even hand. ”

“ No millennium follows Shane’s death.
The Irish Council seem to have expected little less than a millennium now that the arch-disturber was removed. The Ulster chiefs hurried to make their submissions, and Tirlogh Luineach, who had immediately assumed the name of O’Neill, thought it wise to apologise for so doing. Tirlogh was willing to pay for his own pardon as many kine as might be awarded by Sidney and Kildare, to keep the peace for the future, and to entertain no Scots without special licence. ”

“ We have but scanty information as to how Shane spent his time in London. He was present at a Court hunting party, where he saw a brother of Guise, who was on his way home from Scotland, kill two stags with a single arrow. A diarist of the time has recorded that one day ‘John O’Neill, the wild Irishman, came riding into Cheapside, and dined at St. John’s Head, at Master Daniel’s, the goldsmith;’ and that on another day he ran at the ring beyond St. James’s in the field. No doubt Shane rode well enough in the field; but probably he did not shine in the tilt-yard ”

“ The last lines are a welcome to her in response to her avowal of love. The air is very ancient; in Scotland it is known as "Robin Adair."
"The Downfall of the Gael." Original in Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, ii. p. 102. O'Gnive, bard of the O'Neills of Clandaboy, accompanied Shane O'Neill to London in 1562, on the occasion of that chief's visit to Queen Elizabeth. The poem is a lament over the condition of Ireland and the inaction of the chiefs. Sir Samuel Ferguson's rendering will be found in Lays of the Western Gael (Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1888) , p. ”

“ The attempt, if made, failed, and, compelled to resort to more legitimate methods, Sussex inflicted considerable damage on O'Neill's territory, when to his chagrin the Earl of Kildare arrived as the envoy of the government in Dublin with authority to treat. Shane, who was master of the situation, declined to treat unless his demands, which included the evacuation of Armagh, were conceded. ”

“ Kildare had the wit to see that times were changed, and that the Crown would be too strong for any possible combination; but others were less well informed, or more sanguine. Some of the O’Mores held a meeting at Holy Cross in Tipperary, where Neill M’Lice was chosen chief of Leix. The object of this unfortunate clan was of course the retention of their lands, to which they clung with desperate resolution. Shane sent a rymer, one of those improvisatori who were always at hand to carry dangerous messages, bidding them to trust no man’s word, but to wait for orders from him. ”

“ But one of his followers who was taken offered, to save his own life, to betray a better person. His hiding-place was soon found, and he was killed, ‘not far, as I think,’ said Fitzwilliam, ‘from the spot where his father had the like friendship of his men.’ Brian O’Neill left a brother behind him, who was neglected on account of his youth, but who lived to be the most formidable of all Elizabeth’s Irish enemies. The murder could not be traced to Shane; and indeed Tirlough, as his presumptive successor, had an interest of his own in getting rid of a pretender who relied on letters patent. ”