Making History is set in Ulster before and after the Battle of Kinsale and in Rome. The plot is centred on O’Neill’s relationships with those around him—with Peter Lombard, the archbishop of Armagh and his putative biographer; with Mabel Bagenal, his New English wife; with Red Hugh O’Donnell, his son-in-law and principal ally; and with … Read more
O’DONNELL, Nuala (c. 1575–c. 1630), refugee, was born in Tír Conaill, the daughter of Hugh O’Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, and his second wife, Fionnuala (Iníon Dubh) MacDonnell of the Isles. Nuala was a sister of Red Hugh O’Donnell and two of the participants in the 1607 Flight of the Earls: Rory O’Donnell, first earl of … Read more
Thomas Ryan’s painting may be more familiar to readers now than it was a few years ago. This year, the 400th anniversary of the departure of the earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill, and the earl of Tyrconnell, Rory O’Donnell, from Portnamurray, near Rathmullan, Co. Donegal, has witnessed a flurry of reproductions. For those in search … Read more
English folklore appears to preserve echoes of the rebellion of Hugh O’Neill in the story of the ‘Wild Man of the Woods’ and the Devon custom of ‘the Hunting of the Earl of Rone’. The first story has O’Neill in hiding in 1603—not in the forest of Glenconkeyne in Ulster but in Lancashire. It was … Read more
By the end of the sixteenth century Hugh O’Neill, second earl of Tyrone, had emerged as the greatest single threat to English rule in Ireland. He took advantage of royal favour, exploited crown assaults on vulnerable Gaelic neighbours and forged strategic political and marital alliances with the O’Donnells, O’Cahans and O’Reillys to construct a powerful … Read more