The History of The Irish...Worldwide
'To God the Best and the Greatest'
Aodh Mór Ó Néill died on this date, 20th July, in 1616.
In his biography, 'The Great O'Neill', Seán Ó Faoláin portrays the exile O'Neill's last days in Rome as a period of despair and disillusionment.
This really was not how it was supposed to end. In 1598, after the Battle of the Yellow Ford, there was little reason to suppose the defeat of the Gaelic world of Ulster was inevitable. A twin policy of sword and scorched earth clinically delivered from the English power base of Dublin had decimated Gaelic society in the southern provinces throughout the 16th Century but the Gaels of Ulster, led by O'Neill and Aodh Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill, had every reason to expect their northern lands to remain apart from the 'Pale'.
At the Yellow Ford, O'Neill and O'Donnell had routed an advancing English army of 4,000 men (six regiments of foot with cavalry support).
The English force sustained heavy losses in the battle and its immediate aftermath, with the 2,000 survivors eventually being shipped from Newry to the safety of Dublin after negotiating safe passage.
From that high point, with The Great O'Neill lauded by the enemies of Elizabethan England (ie most of Europe), and with the prospect of Spanish aid, the Gaels of Ulster could reasonably countenance the re-conquest of the rest of Ireland from English rule with some confidence.
The tactical disaster of 1601 in Kinsale, Co Cork, far from their northern stronghold, changed everything, and the Flight of the Earls resulted in O'Neill and his entourage in exile in Rome.
Despite many setbacks and tribulations, O'Neill continued to lobby the Spanish Court for the military assistance to re-enter the field of battle. It wasn't to be, and the Irish nobility steadily succumbed to the fevers and malaria that afflicted them in Rome.
At least seven, but possibly eleven or more, of the O'Neill and O'Donnell party were buried in the Spanish sponsored church of St Pietro in Montorio, high on the Gianicolo hill that overlooks Rome.
At first, the deaths of the party received all the ritual and ceremony of European nobles of the first rank. The ornate marble ingraved grave-slabs inlaid on the floor, above the underground burial vaults, record the homage paid to The Great O'Neill's son, also Hugh, and to the O'Donnells, Hugh and Cathbarr (sons of Aodh Ruaidh).
By the time of Hugh O'Neill's own death, on this day in 1616, only a basic slab was required, as described by a record made in 1664. Indeed, although the ornate grave slabs of his son and the two O'Donnells are still intact, O'Neill's own marble slab has since disappeared - possibly during the upheaval of the 'Risorgimento', when Garibaldi's forces engaged French forces on the Gianicolo hill (with St Pietro suffering structural damage from the ensuing cannon-fire).
It is known that some grave-slabs were moved, broken or re-used during the opening of new burial vaults over the course of time.
Due to the records made in 1664, we do know where the original was placed, and we do know the original Latin inscription that marked the passing of The Great O'Neill: "D.O.M. HUGONIS PRINCIPIS ONELLI OSSA" (To God the Best and the Greatest. The bones of Prince Hugh O’Neill).
Using this record, a replica plaque was laid in place of the original slab by Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich in 1989.
The original slab may well have disappeared forever, smashed to pieces by an under pressure builder. However, there is also the tantalising prospect that the Great O'Neill's grave-slab is still there, but moved and placed upside down, waiting to be rediscovered.
O'Neill's exile turned the Gaelic world upside down, and, with hindsight, we might now say that was the beginning of the end for Gaelic Ireland, However, the encouraging thing about the cycle of history is that, if you wait long enough, the great wheel turns.
If the Great O'Neill were to return now, he might retrace his steps along the Callan River, along the Yellow Ford, on to his old stronghold of Dungannon, on to the O'Neill inauguration site at Tullyhoge, across the great plains of Ulster where his vast herds of cattle once roamed, and on to Rathmullan where he sailed to exile through Lough Swilly.
On this fanciful journey, Aodh Mór would surely find some solace in the irrefutable evidence that Gaelic Ireland is not dead and gone, after all.
All languages shift and modulate over a space of 400 years, but The O'Neill would recognise the Gaelic voices to be heard today all along that route, ever clearer, ever louder.
Maybe, if his marble slab is ever found and turned the right way up, we may take it as an omen that his Gaelic Ulster was never really lost, it was just waiting to be found again, when the time is right.
For an indepth study of the Irish burials at St Pietro, see the NUI Galway Project Description: "San Pietro in Montorio -Burial Place of the Exiled Irish in Rome 16...."
For an insight to Hugh O'Neill: "The Great O'Neill: A Biography of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, 1550 -1616. Seán Ó Faoláin, Dufour Edition, 1997.
Further Reading
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Comment by Gerard Cappa on July 23, 2013 at 10:53am
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Brian
Thanks for this. The question of the sword intrigues me now. I'll try and get in contact with the man who was shown a sword and post the details. I know it wasn't the Irish College in Rome, and I don't think the religious house had any strong connections with Ireland,
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Comment by Gerry Regan on July 23, 2013 at 11:24am
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Well spoken, Brian. Perhaps we in The Wild Geese might play a role in that. There is a tool that could help, that is, Groups. We might create a group to continue to explore O'Neill's legacy and to honor that in three years time. http://thenewwildgeese.com/groups
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Comment by Brian O'Doherty on July 26, 2013 at 4:42am
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To Blood for a Shadow:
No, I had never heard that. Very interesting. I wonder who arranged that? There must be some document relating to it in the church archives. Does anyone have access there, to find out? (I half suspect a certain Fr. Thomas Ryan, as he also restored gravestones in Louvain around the same time).
And Gerard..
If Rosa brought the sword to Rome- the more I think about it, the more convincing it seems- she would have left it with either the Irish Franciscans there- where Fr. Luke Wadding, at St. Isidore's College, was an active supporter of Owen Roe- or with the Panfili family (- not sure of the spelling- )who she had been friendly with, and whence came the Pope at the time. But more likely the Franciscans, I'd say. She would have wanted to keep the sword in order to help authenticate the claims to the earldom of Tyrone (and the O'Neill Chiefdom) for her grandson, the seven year old Hugh, who she had taken from Ireland, probably in order to save him (given what had happened to her husband and her only O'Neill son, Henry, and predecessors). But she later went to Spain and I believe left the grandson there with other relatives. He was later recognised as 7th Conde de Tirone by the Spanish. So, I suppose the sword went to Spain with him. Much research remains to be done on his life and family, if any. Rosa probably had O'Donnell relatives in Spain, too, via her first husband, and may have left young O'Neill with the O'Donnell family, to whom she might have been closer at that time (c. 1655). One of these could have been her own son, Con O'Donnell, left behind as an infant at the Flight of the Earls and brought up by Sir Basil Brooke at Donegal Castle, as a fine young English-Irishman, ready to inherit the Earldom of Tirconnell for the King, so to speak, and who I believe arrived in Brussels to see his mother in 1626 and subsequently went on to Spain, joining the Spanish Navy, like his cousin Hugh O'Donnell, then putative Earl of Tirconnell. The same Hugh was subsequently killed in naval battle in 1642, leaving Rosa's son, Con, as putative Earl of Tirconnell at the time she delivered the putative Earl of Tyrone, her other son, Hugh O'Neill, to Spain in 1655 for safe keeping. (Remember, much of this is hypothesis). If true, then Rosa O'Dogherty, of Inishowen, granddaughter of the last king of Ulster, Shane the Proud O'Neill, united in marriage and motherhood the two great dynasties of Ulster- indeed Ireland at the time- the O'Donnells and O'Neills. And she is hardly known in her own land. (Though she is buried in the most prestigious position under the altar of the chapel in Louvain, since demolished by an Irish government agency in order to build a business conference room on the space, in an outrageous act of vandalism of Irish heritage) (More details about Rosa and Owen Roe See here. and I will publish more there and here in the next few weeks.)
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Comment by john f headen on July 26, 2013 at 12:16pm
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the journey to rome was detailed in tim keenans diary-------just found out its in UCD archives in the O'Cleirigh Collection M.S. A 21---------his gaelic name was Taigue O' Cianain
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O'Cianain's diary of the Earls journey is well known and published in various places...You could probabloy even get a copy through Google.
All the Franciscan papers - from St. Anthony's College, Louvain and St. Isidore's Rome- were donated to the State and are centered in UCD, where the "O'Cleirigh Institute" was specially set up to examine them and carry our further research into the period, personalities and events. The work is on-going and has resulted in a number of publications and some of the work is available online.
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Here's a note from the Facebook page of Cairde Teo.
This year's Yellow Ford Festival will take place on Saturday 17 August.
There will be a guided walking tour, leaving the Old Cathedral grounds (St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral) at 11am. The walk will follow the Yellow Ford battle route taken by the English army from Armagh to An Port Mór. Walkers are advised to bring water and a packed lunch.
After the walk, the annual Corn an Átha Bhuí Camogie Challenge will take place between Naomh Bríd of Armagh and the O'Rahilly's of Collegeland at 3pm at CLG Naomh Colmcille in the Grange.
The camogie will be followed by the annual Sciath an Átha Bhuí hurling challenge which will this year feature the Cú Chulainn club from Armagh and the Lámh Dhearg club from Keady. Throw-in will be at 4pm at CLG Naomh Colmcille in the Grange.
Join us to commemorate one of the greatest victories of the native Gaels in Irish history, which happened just outside Ard Mhacha.
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this comment for Gerard Cappa.
Hi Gerard, i'm interested in the whereabouts of Hugh O'Neill's sword- if it was in fact taken back to Rome-have
you any further info since july '13 comments ?Regards,
sumerlidi@yahoo.com Shay MacSorley
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Founding Member Comment by Nollaig 2016 on October 30, 2016 at 8:17am -
Hugh Roe O'Donnell's mother was a local woman while Hugh Roe's was from Scotland.
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Hi Belinda
Could you please clarify your comment, and elaborate.
Gerry...I should have followed up on this years ago...Maybe we should set up a Group to search for the Great O'Neills sword, later presented to Owen Roe. I think we could draw up an investigators; short list of places in Belgium, Rome or Madrid, with archives of the Franciscans in Ireland as a more distant possibility. Who wants to join?
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