Shane
O'Neill's career was marked by his ambition to be The O'Neill - chief of the
O'Neills. This brought him into conflict with competing
branches of the O'Neill family and with the royal government in Ireland
which recognised a rival claim. The English
though, thought Shane's support worth gaining even during the lifetime of his
father who was Conn O’Neill and who died in 1559. The Earl of Sussex (Thomas Radclyffe)
who was made Lord Deputy in Ireland
in 1556 was authorised to make overtures to Shane but these were rejected. Shane
refused to help the English against some Scottish
who had settled on the Antrim coast, allying himself instead with the
MacDonnells, the most powerful of these immigrants.
The English since the
late 1530s had been expanding their control over Ireland. To incorporate the native Irish Lordships,
they granted English titles to Irish Lords - thus making Conn Bacach O'Neill,
Shane's father the first Earl of Tyrone. However, whereas in Gaelic custom, the
successor to a chiefship was elected from his kinsmen, the English insisted on
succession by primogeniture. This
created a conflict between Shane, who wanted to be Chief, and the Earl's elder
but illegitimate son, Matthew (or Fear Dorcha O'Neill (the Earl's eldest
son Phelim O’Neill was killed on a raid in 1542)).
Shane's mother Alice
Fitzgerald, Tyrone's first wife, was born the daughter of the 7th Earl of
Kildare, and his stepmother was the daughter of Hugh Boy O'Neill of Clanaboy. She died shortly afterwards and Shane was
fostered by the Donnelly family, who raised him until his early teenage years. Conn O'Neill's illegitimate son Matthew was
chosen to be raised at the English court which declared him heir to Conn over Shane. On his father's death Matthew became Baron of
Dungannon. He was murdered by Shane, and
the title passed to Brian, Matthew's son, who was then also murdered by Shane. In 1562, the title passed to Hugh O'Neill, Matthew's youngest
son
who had been taken to the Pale to be raised as English by Sir Henry Sidney in
1559, stayed at the English court and was protected there while Shane
established his local supremacy.
Having eliminated his
rivals, Shane was elected The O'Neill. While in English law this was an illegal
usurpation, according to Gaelic Irish custom Shane had just as good a claim to
be The O'Neill as any of his rivals.
Although Shane had allied
himself with the Scottish MacDonnell clan (who
had settled in Antrim) against the new Queen Elizabeth [1558-1603] she chose initially to come to terms with Shane, who after his father's death functioned as de
facto chief of the formidable O'Neill clan. She accordingly agreed to recognize his claims
to the chiefship, thus throwing over Brian O'Neill, son of the murdered
Matthew, Baron of Dungannon, if Shane would submit to her authority and that of
her deputy. O'Neill, however, refused to
put himself in the power of Sussex
without a guarantee for his safety; and his claims in other respects were so
exacting that Elizabeth
consented to measures being taken to subdue him and to restore Brian.
An attempt to foment the
enmity of the O'Donnells against him was frustrated when Shane's captured Calvagh O'Donnell whom he kept a close
prisoner for nearly three years. Elizabeth, whose prudence and parsimony were averse to so
formidable an undertaking as the complete subjugation of the powerful Irish
chief, desired peace with him at almost any price; especially when the
devastation of his territory by Sussex
brought him no nearer to submission. Sussex was indignant at Shane's request for his
sister's hand in marriage, and his demand for the withdrawal of the English
Armagh garrison. He received no support from the Queen, who sent the Earl of Kildare to arrange
terms with O'Neill. The latter, making
some trifling concessions, consented to present himself before Elizabeth.
Accompanied by the Irish
Earls of Ormonde and Kildare, he reached London
on 4th January 1562. The
historian William Camden describes the wonder which O'Neill's wild gallowglass
soldiers occasioned in the English capital, with their heads bare, their long
hair falling over their shoulders and clipped short in front above the eyes,
and clothed in rough yellow shirts. Elizabeth was less
concerned with the respective claims of Brian and Shane, the one resting on an
English patent and the other on Gaelic custom, than with the question of policy
involved in supporting or rejecting the demands of her proud suppliant. Characteristically, she temporized; but
finding that O'Neill was in danger of becoming a tool in the hands of Spanish intriguers,
she permitted him to return to Ireland, recognizing him as "The
O'Neill" and chief of Tyrone. Meantime Hugh O'Neill had succeeded his brother Brian as baron of Dungannon, Brian having been
murdered in April 1562 by Turlough Luieach O'Neill, his kinsman. At that time he
was even designated the 2nd Earl of Tyrone, but the grant was never delivered,
as Shane went back into rebellion.
There were at this time
three powerful contemporary members of the O'Neill family in Ireland -
Shane, Sir Turlough and Brian, 1st Baron of Dungannon. Turlough had been
elected tainiste or tanist (second and successor) when his cousin Shane
was inaugurated as The O'Neill, and he schemed to supplant him in the higher position during Shane's absence in London.
The feud did not long survive Shane's return to Ireland
where Shane quickly re-established his authority, and in spite of Sussex, renewed his warfare against the
O'Donnells and the MacDonnells to force them to recognise O'Neill supremecy in Ulster. Elizabeth at
last authorized Sussex
to take the field against Shane, but two separate expeditions failed to
accomplish anything except some depredation in O'Neill's country.
Sussex had tried in 1561 to procure
Shane's assassination with poisoned wine, and Shane now laid the whole blame
for his lawless conduct on the lord deputy's repeated alleged attempts on his
life. Force having ignominiously failed, Elizabeth consented to
treat, and hostilities ceased on terms that gave O'Neill practically all his
demands.
O'Neill now turned his
hand against the MacDonnells, claiming that he was serving the Queen of England
in harrying the Scots. He fought an
indecisive battle with them near Coleraine in 1564, and the following
year marched from Antrim through the mountains by Clough to the neighborhood of
Ballycastle, where he routed the MacDonnells at the Battle of Glentasie - and
took Sorley Boy prisoner.
This victory greatly
strengthened Shane O'Neill's position, and Sir Henry Sidney, who became lord
deputy in 1565, declared to the Earl of Leicester that the devil himself was not more puffed up with pride and ambition than O'Neill. Preparations were made in earnest for his
subjugation. O'Neill built a castle at
Fathom from which he harassed the English garrison in Newry. He ravaged the Pale, failed in an attempt on Dundalk, made a truce with the MacDonnells, and sought help from the
Earl of Desmond. The English, on the
other hand, invaded Donegal and restored O'Donnell.
Failing in an attempt to arrange terms, and also in obtaining the help
which he solicited from France,
O'Neill was utterly routed by the O'Donnells at the Battle of Farsetmore near Letterkenny; and seeking safety in
flight, he threw himself on the mercy of his enemies, the MacDonnells. Attended
by a small body of gallowglasses, and
taking his prisoner Sorley Boy with him, he presented himself among the
MacDonnells near Cushendun, on the Antrim coast. Here, June 1567 whether by premeditated treachery or in a sudden brawl, he
was slain by the MacDonnells, and was buried at Glenarm. The MacDonnells,
hoping to ingratiate themselves with the English, who wanted to expel their
clan from Ireland, sent
O'Neill's severed head to their Dublin
government.
In his private character
Shane O'Neill was perceived by the English as a brutal, uneducated savage. However, Irish history is often written by
English historians. Shane was tough, but
a brilliant politician and fighter at times. He divorced his first wife, a daughter of
James MacDonnell, and treated his second, a sister of Calvagh O'Donnell, with
cruelty in revenge for her brother's hostility. Calvagh himself, when Shane's prisoner, was
subjected to continual torture. Calvagh's
wife was his mistress, by whom he had several children, and who he married in
1565. He frustrated the English to no
end with his ability to defeat them in the field and then again at Court. His death was greeted with great pleasure in London.
Shane was succeeded as
The O'Neill by his tanist, Turlough Luineach O'Neill. He had many sons, who were known as the
"Mac Shanes" - or Gaelic for the sons of the Shane. They tried to succeed Turlough, but were
defeated in another bout of inter-O'Neill warfare in the 1580s by Hugh O’Neill,
whose father Matthew and brother Brian had been murdered by Shane.
Hugh of course would
become the Great O’Neill and wage the Nine Years War against the English.
History 
