Shane O’Neill

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Shane O'Neill bigraphy, stories - Dynasty

Shane O’Neill : biography

– 2 June 1567

Shane O’Neill ( c. 1530 – 2 June 1567), nicknamed Séan an díomais, was an Irish king of the O’Neill dynasty of Ulster in the mid 16th century. Shane O’Neill’s career was marked by his ambition to be The Ó Néill Mór – Sovereign of the dominant Ó Néill Mór family of Tyrone… and thus head overking or Rí ruirech of the entire province. This brought him into conflict with competing branches of the O’Neill family and with the English government in Ireland, who recognised a rival claim. Shane’s support was considered worth gaining by the English even during the lifetime of his father Conn O’Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone (died 1559). But rejecting overtures from Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, the lord deputy from 1556, Shane refused to help the English against the Scottish settlers on the coast of Antrim, allying himself instead with the MacDonnells, the most powerful of these immigrants.

‘Séan an díomais’ or ‘Seán Donnghaileach’

Although known throughout history as ‘Séan an díomais’, this is actually an abusive nickname developed in the writings of hostile sources such as "The Annals of Four Masters", whose authors had as patrons Shane’s enemies the O’Donnell lords of Tirconnell. The name, often translated as ‘Shane the Proud’, implies in the chosen Irish word ‘díomais’ an irrational vanity and overbearing narcissism rather than any natural "pride" in the subjects self and abilities. It was a convenient epithet for his detractors, and the myth of Shane’s devilish pride was a convenience for later English historians wishing to explain why such effort should have been expended to destroy ‘Séan an díomais’. Where any additional name to ‘Shane’ is added in the contemporary political correspondence, anglicisations of ‘Donnghaileach’ such as ‘Donnolloh’ are used. For an example, see: Brewer,J.S. and William Bullen [ed] Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved at the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, vol i, 1515-1574, Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer (Lindon, 1867), p. 268 Notably, the first Irish historian to compose a non-Gaelic full length history of Ireland, Abbé Jaques McGeoghegan, in his ‘Histoire de l’Irlande Ancienne et Moderne’, notably uses ‘John, or Shane Doulenagh O’Neil,’MacGeoghegan, Abbé Jaques, [trans. Patrick Kelly] History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern, Taken from Authentic Records, by the Abbé Mac-Geoghegan, and Dedicated to the Irish Brigade, Duffy, (Dublin 2nd edn. 1844) p. 442. where English historians to that date have consistently used ‘Shane the Proud’.

Shane O’Neill should more accurately be known by the name that would have been used by his contemporaries, ‘Seán Donnghaileach mac Cuinn Bhacaigh Ó Néill’. ‘Donnghaileach’ refers to his fosterage among the Donnellys, and may be compared to similar usage in the formulation of the name of his successor ‘Turlough Luineach mac Néill Chonnalaigh Ó Néill’, where ‘Luineach’ refers to his fosterage amongst the O’Lunney (Ó Lúinígh) family of the Glenelly Valley, in the Sperrins. Thus, ‘Seán "Donnelly", son of Conn the maimed O’Neill’, and ‘Turlough "O’Lunney", son of Neill Connallach (Turlough’s fathers own name and nickname would be ‘Neill of Cénell Conaill’) O’Neill’.

War in Ulster

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 Tánaiste or tanist (second and successor) when his cousin Shane was inaugurated as The O’Neill, and he schemed to supplant Shane in the higher dignity during Shane’s absence in London. To this end Turlough assassinated his principal rival Feardorcha’s eldest son Brian during Shane’s absence when rumours of Shane’s imprisonment began to circulate. Turlough’s pretensions did not long survive Shane’s return to Ireland, where he quickly re-established his authority, and, in spite of Sussex’s protestations, Shane renewed his warfare against the O’Donnells and the MacDonnells to force them to recognise O’Neill hegemony in Ulster.