During these months O’Neill had been holding his own well. He knew, however, that he could not long remain in isolation, but must make terms with one or other of the parties. Both the Royalists—for the former Confederationists may now be justly described by this name—and the Parliamentarians, knowing his value, were eager to treat with him. Eoghan, on reflection, preferred to trust anyone rather than the perfidious Ormond, and he entered into negotiations with General Monk. Cromwell, however, would have no dealings with Irish Papists, and the Parliament, at his instigation, ordered Monk to cease all communications.
A short time previous to this (August 20th, 1649), Ormond had made an attack on Dublin, which was still held for the Parliament by General Jones. The Royalistforces were badly managed, and Jones won a complete victory, capturing gret quantities of ammunition and stores. Ormond now renewed his efforts to come to terms with O’Neill, and Eoghan, because no other e source remained to him, signed a peace on conditions which included lriberty of public worship for the Catholics (October 1649), and prepared to march to support his new ally.
It was too late, however, the Irish general’s life work was done. At the time of the conclusion of the treaty he was already very ill. He rapidly became worse, and on November 6th, 1649, he died at Clough-oughter Castle (Co. Cavan).   The assertion was current in his own day and has been repeated in ours that he had been poisoned. No reliable evidence, however, exists to show that his death was other than natural. He was probably between 60 and 65 years of age ; possibly indeed older.

Most of the fighting, however, that took place in the north was not against the foreign element. O’Neills and O’Donnells fought amongst themselves, against each other, and against their neighbours. Wars of succession frequently rent both great families, eventually resulting in the family of Eoghan retaining the headship of the Cineal Eoghain in Conn Mdr and his son, Conn Bacach, and in Aodh Ruadh O’Donnell, and his son, Aodh Dubh O’Donnel, being successively chiefs of the Cineal Chonaill. Both families still maintained their claims to supremacy over all the north.

Those of the O’Neills were opposed in Ulaidh not only by Mac Guinness, but by the O’Neills of the Clann Aodha Buidhe, who fought their kinsmen as fiercely as ever did any of the clans of Ulaidh.

The O’Donnells were at the same time engaged in asserting their traditional rights in  Cairbre and ” Lower Connacht”140) against O’Connor Sligo.   

Above: A PICTURE OF THOMAS WENTWORTH The EARL OF STRAFFORD, 1641.

AFTER the fall of Strafford the Irish Government was administered by two Lord Justices, Parsons and Borlase. Both were supposed to be Puritanical in their sympathies, and soon they made themselves most unpopular. Both opposed the concessions to the Catholics, which Charles, anxious for the support of the latter, seemed now willing to grant. The whole country was in a state of dangerous unrest. Numbers of disbanded soldiers wandered about, without employment or means of support. The Connacht landowners knew not when the decrees which the late Viceroy had obtained against them might be put in force. Those of the other provinces felt that, when such remote Crown claims had been admitted, no Irish proprietor anywhere was secure of his estate.The generation which remembered the Ulster plantation was yet by no means extinct; plenty of old men and women remained to tell to their grandchildren the tales of their sufferings in those evil days ; to kindle in their minds the desire of vengeance, and the hope of wresting the fields which their ancestors had tilled from the hands of the stranger. Over in England the anti-Catholie feeling was growing. Seven priests had been executed in London, merely for saying Mass.