The Irish had naturally taken a keen interest in the struggle of their neighbours and kinsmen • He had annexed Wales to England in 1283.
In Scotland. Their own condition is well set out in a ” Remonstrance ” which was sent to the Pope about this time by Domhnall O’Neill, King of Aileach.*
After pointing out that Henry II, by false representations, had procured authority from the Pope to claim dominion over Ireland, the document goes on to show that the conditions under which this authority had been secured had been violated and that not reforms but disorder and vice were the results.

To the overlordship which we have seen the O’Neills had obtained over clans outside of Tir Eoghain was now added a supremacy over nearly all the country east of the Bann. They now adopt the title of ” King of Ulster ” to indicate their leadership over all the north. The name of the Norman earldom is utilised to support a claim to a territorial dominion outside the old Kingdom of ” Aileach.” It is significant also that the names of the territories ” Tir Eoghain ” and ” Tir Chonaill” are now used instead of the ancient names ” Cineal Eoghain ” and ” Cineal Chonaill,” which embodied the idea of kinship rather than of territory.

Above : Ancient Irish Territorial Division