The time has now come briefly to sketch the career of the most remarkable man who had appeared in Celtic Ireland since the days of Art McMurrough—Shane O’Neill, son of Conn Bacach, often styled, by reason of his high and independent spirit, SeAgan an “Oiomaif (John the Proud).Shane O’Neill Claims the Succession to the Chieftaincy.—To trace his early life we must return to the days of Henry VIII. We have told (chap, v.) how Conn, his father, received from the English King the title of Earl of Tyrone (1542). According to the general rule of English law, the right of succession to the title and lands would belong to Shane as his eldest legitimate son, but, by a singular exception, there was inserted in his patent of nobility a condition that an illegitimate son, Matthew or Feardorcha, should be the heir. Matthew appears to have been already a grown man in 1542, while Shane was a boy of probably thirteen or fourteen.

As Shane grew up, he felt and expressed the greatest resentment at the injustice with which he had been treated and the favour shown to the illegitimate Matthew, who, he asserted, was not an O’Neill at all, but the son of a Dundalk smith named Kelly. It was not that the youth desired an English title, but he considered that the position of tanist during his father’s lifetime, and the succession after his death, should fall to him. Amongst the O’Neills primogeniture had long been the ordinary rule of succession to the chieftaincy, and there was little doubt that the clan’s choice would fall on him.

The English authorities cannot have been ignorant of the equity of Shane’s claim ; but, whether or not the insertion of Matthew’s name in the patent had been originally made at their suggestion, they inclined to follow the usual policy of supporting the weaker candidate in an Irish succession dispute. In 1550 Shane attacked his father, who had yielded up some fortresses to the English, while at the same time Conn was assailed by his other son, Matthew, generally known by his English title of the Baron of Dungannon, who made various complaints of him to the Deputy.

St. Leger summoned the old chief to Dublin, but, when he arrived there, he and his wife were, against their will, detained. Shane and Matthew now made war on each other with varying success. Crofts, the new Deputy, went on a hosting into Ulster, where Shane, the O’Neills of Clanaboy, and the Antrim Scots opposed him. ” The English gained no victory and obtained no spoils,” say the Four Masters. Next year (1552) the performance was repeated, with even more unsatisfactory results. When Conn was released, he abandoned the cause of Matthew and threw in his lot with Shane. Together they drove the English out of Ulster, and for some years after this the O’Neill family kept comparatively quiet.